WFO

I continue to bake in my mud oven - in fact I haven't baked any bread at all in my "indoor" oven so far this summer.   It is a steep learning curve.   Since I last posted, I have added a thermometer and a door (essential) a peel (helpful) and have started to use parchment paper to keep things cleaner.   I continue to make my slow progress through Hamelman's Bread.   Today I tried Semolina with a levain.  (page 171)   I split it into three small loaves which are a bit more manageable.    Here they are. 

and the crumb

When I finished baking, I put tonight's dinner (chicken and vegetables) in a dutch oven into the oven and let it cook with the "leftover" heat for several hours.   And served with bread of course.

Here are only a few pictures of our earthen oven being made by Felix and Winston.  If anyone is interested in learning more about the Nica method of earthen oven building, my own personal web page will have more photos w/ detailed explanation soon.  www.casalachabola.com.  Until then, here's a small glimpse of how it's done, local-style.

oven base: small tree trunks, covered with 6 mm plastic then topped with tampped earth and sand encased by four wood planks.  General oven structure: adobe bricks w/ clay-horse manure mix as mortar. Rebar as mini cross beam for doors. Oven floor: adobe floor tiles

very top of oven closed-in by broken peices of adobe roof tile and clay-horse manure mix.

finished product: bread entrance door on right, ash exit door on left.  doors, and decorative elements to come...