Bread in a Pizza Oven

[james]

Here's a good email to share. It's from Mike in Seattle.

"The Casa 90 is a pleasure. I've been teaching how to cook pizza for some time, and as of this summer teaching bread. Anybody who says you can't cook bread in a pizza oven must not have tried it, is all I can say!"

I've made a lot of bread in Casa ovens, but it's fun to hear someone else say the same thing.
James

[james]

More bread baking

Here is another email from Jay (Casa100). We've been going back and forth talking about his oven and bread.

"Checked the temp of the floor and dome 20 minutes after removing the bread and the floor was 450 and the dome was 465. I could probably squeeze another round of bread but it feels "low" for a second batch. I will do more serious research on my next batch re: cooldown. (NOTE: I built this to make one batch and it clearly can work great for one batch so this is a curiousity more than a critiique!)"

This was after a full load of bread -- something like 13lbs of dough. Pretty darn good.

I think our pizza ovens can do a great job of baking more bread than anyone (other than Mary G Artisan Breads) would want. Cool.
James

[DrakeRemoray]

The mose I have done so far is 10 loaves at once. Who can eat that much bread? The answer, my neighbors!

Drake

[texassourdough]

Freezing Bread

While there is no substitute for a properly baked loaf fresh from the oven, I find that freezing and holding the bread for up to a month results in only minimal loss of quality. Thawing the bread for four hours or so followed by 15 minutes in a 325-350 oven (for a 1 1/2 to 2 pound loaf) refreshes the crust and really brings it back to life.

For those who are new to this concept, IF the bread is to be held more than a couple of weeks or a month at most, it should be tightly wrapped in foil and then plastic (Costco's vinyl wrap is excellent). For shorter storage I just wrap it tightly in the vinyl wrap. No problems.

And yes, my neighbors love me - for there is no way we can reasonably use anywhere near ten loaves (or more) every two weeks!

Share the best!
Jay

[CanuckJim]

Freezing

Jay,

You're right on it. The freezing and thawing suggestions are absolutely correct. Yep, my neighbours love me, too, though I try to be especially geneerous to young, single women. Works.

As of today, the Forno Bravo Wood-Fired Bread Baking section is finished.

No doubt, there will be a final bit of tweaking and editing, but it should be up and running in the very near future.

And, yes, I will be adding voice to the videos in the New Year.

Everybody, have a very special Christmas this year, full of grand pizza and great bread.

Jim

[Xabia Jim]

Yes, I try to get bread in the freezer as soon as possible and find it keeps very well. I try to double wrap.

I often will slice the bread and freeze it sliced. Then I can just knock off some slices for toasting and it's always "fresh"

Any problem bread can be beat up for stuffing or fried as french toast!!!

[jwnorris]

Problem bread

<snip>
Any problem bread can be beat up for stuffing or fried as french toast!!!

Or made into bread pudding.

J W

[CanuckJim]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Err,

Or breadcrumbs chewed up in the food processor.

Jim

[telehort]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Or seasoned up a bit for croutons!!

[edschmidt]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Im confused with the terminology of "Bread oven" and "pizza oven". My oven is a 36" internal dome oven which I designed and built myself. When I have people over they tend to call it a pizza oven since the only time they have ever seen one is in a pizza resterant (and probably because Im cooking pizza in it at the time). I correct them by calling it a wood fired brick oven and go on-and-on about the cooking potential of the oven, how I use it for bread,roasts, dehydrating, etc. and then I blather on about how the europeans and romans were not raised on pizza alone.

I do this because I dont want anyone leaving my house with the impression that I have spent a large portion of my time and substantial amounts of money into something that can only cook pizza.
When I refer to something as a pizza oven it is in referance to the amount of cladding surrounding the structure, if there is between 1-3" of cladding I would consider it a pizza oven because it would not hold enough heat to be used for much else (maybe a load of bread) Whereas if there is 4" plus of cladding I would consider it a brick oven. With the full capabilities of baking anythin that an oven is capable.(I sometimes bake cookies in it for desert just to proove the point)

So are you using my definition, or are you refering to domes as pizza ovens, and alan scott style ovens as bread ovens

Just wondering
Eddie

[CPLATTER]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Re all those extra croutons, it is worth pointing out that they work extremely well in place of bread slices to provide a base for the cheese in French Onion Soup. Even better, their smaller size makes them easier to eat than a full slice of bread covered with boiling soup.

[Tim F]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Hi all, glad I found this thread!

I'm starting to plan my own brick oven as the electric oven with pizza stones can't keep up. My biggest question at the moment is what kind of oven I should make. Pizza and bread baking are equally important to me, and I'd like to have an oven that could cook in the order of 10-20 loaves of bread fairly easily, with the idea of maybe selling a few loaves at our local country market on the weekend. Is this a realistic expectation from the Pompeii oven designs on this site? If anyone has advice or links about this I'd be very grateful!

[Dutchoven]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Hi all, glad I found this thread!

Pizza and bread baking are equally important to me, and I'd like to have an oven that could cook in the order of 10-20 loaves of bread fairly easily, with the idea of maybe selling a few loaves at our local country market on the weekend. Is this a realistic expectation from the Pompeii oven designs on this site? If anyone has advice or links about this I'd be very grateful!

Pizza and bread were equally important to us and we found this forum a year or so after we built our oven(barrel vaulted) and we bake bread for our local farmer's market. If we were to do it again I feel like we would build a pompeii. 20 pounds of bread should not be an issue as far as heat retention goes expecially if you learn the quirks of your oven. The round shape of the pompeii may make it a bit difficult for larger volumes of let's say baguettes due to the shape but round loaves should be fairly easy.

What size oven diameter were you thinking? Our round loaves usually occupy a space of about 1 square foot, that allows space on all sides for good browning. If you did the pompeii in a 40 inch diameter you should get between 8 and 9 square feet of cooking space(if my math is correct). Insulating your oven very well should allow you to bake at least two but more likely 3 or 4 loads of bread(depending on their type).
Hope this helps!
Dutch

[Tim F]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

That's a big help, thanks. I haven't settled on a size yet but I think 40" would be about right!

[Johnny the oven man]

Re: Bread in a Pizza Oven

Tim, dont forget,we offer 10% discount to aussie WFO builders so discount the price I gave you mate.