Greetings. I'm new here.
I just wanted to say hello to the community and introduce myself. I've recently made rhe transition from pizza guy to full fledged bread enthusiast. I've had the opportunity to cook pizza in a wood fired oven for the past few years and now that I have, I'm not sure I'll ever go back to gas. While my experience has been mostly pizza, I found myself experimenting with dough, both naturally leavened and yeasted for the past year. The oven I use is perfect for pizza but not ideal for bread. So I'm taking this as a sign thst I need to work on my dough while I plan, fund and build a new higher thermal mass oven. Some day I'll make bread for a living. Until then I'll make bread to eat and share. And hopefully learn some stuff and meet some good people along the way.
Interesting...
"The oven I use is perfect for pizza but not ideal for bread."
Care to elaborate? I'm setting up an oven for both and curious why. :=)
Mini,
To put it succinctly, the oven, well actually the ovens, I use is more of just a oven core with no surrounding masonry and little insulation. So, there is very little thermal mass, While they heat up very fast they don't retain heat very well at all.
Cooking with a live fire is easy, fun and convenient as I don't have to wait a long time to start, but to maintain the temperatures i would need for bread baking, especially continued baking of multiple oven loads is difficult.
I'm under the impression that an oven with higher thermal mass would take longer to heat through but would be a better option. It might take a lot longer to heat through but the payoff of being able to bake amazing breads would be well worth it. Having spent the last three years splitting wood for continual pizza service for upwards of 12 hours a day, I can comfortably say I am capable of the labor involved. But it is difficult. And exhausting. Something to think about at least.
to the oven you already have might work. It will certainly save on your fuel consumption.
So where are you in your baking journey? What interests you at the moment? There are tons of discussions and information here. If you want to come back to something you read, use the buttons under the initial post and bookmark your read. Otherwise, you might not find it again. :) You can also ask the search box questions and locate discussions.
Floyd Mann is the owner. I think I speak for many of us when I say, we pride ourselves at being a helpful and curious bunch of bread enthusiasts with all levels of discussion and sharing. Eager to learn and discuss all things flour related.
Mini
But alas it is not feasible. The oven is mobile and the weight of added insulation might not work. Who am I kidding? It's not my oven. I only work with it. Which is why I have begun my journey into bread baking.
As far as my baking journey goes: I've explored recipes for yeasted bread. With great success. What I'm most interested now though is getting comfortable with naturally leavened breads. I'm an advocate of doing everything I can from scratch and I just began my first starter. It's in day three so...we'll see.
Once I get my starter going I'll be experimenting much more, I hope. There is a world of technique that I need to work on.
I am happy to be part of this community. And I am looking forward to being an active member. Maybe someday I'll be able offer some advice of my own!