Wood Fired ovens for baking bread

Sooner or later, most home bakers either experience someone else's home made wood fired bread, or just get the bug to experiment. Or, they might simply visit an actual woodfired bakery, and are either inspired or awed or both.

Driving a woodfired oven is something akin to flying, only you are kind of 'surfing' heat. Baking with a wood oven, which has substantial thermal mass, is often referred to as baking on a 'falling' oven. That's because the oven is fired till the insulation or core is very hot - often above 500 degrees celsius - and the oven is then used to bake throughout the temperature's long 'fall'. Typically, the baker would begin with pizza and flat breads like focaccia; then baguettes and rolls - things with a small mass, which cook quickly and fill the oven with steam. Then up to viennas, batards, and the tinned loaves. Finally, fruit breads, cakes and biscuits, which need lower temperatures. The remaining heat was then used to prepare vegetables and other general tasks.

In effect, the baker's art when using one of these is all about what to bake when.

Your domestic oven will either be gas, electric, or possibly even wood fired (the latter if you are baking obsessed, or if you live in a cold climate and have a fuel stove). And of course, lately I see lots of 'patio based' manufactured wood fired ovens. These look like good fun. But that's for another article! For now, I'd like to help you set up your oven for baking bread at home.

Sourdough Breadmaking Classes and Workshops

If you like the site, and would like to have me come to your venue or kitchen to conduct sourdough breadmaking workshops with your group, have a look at the options and ideas for breadmaking workshops and demonstration classes while you're here.

Basic Stuff You Need to Make Sourdough Bread

To make sourdough bread, you don't need fancy appliances - just a few practical bits and pieces, most of which you can buy from any supermarket. There are some special and very handy bits you'll only find in a kitchen specialist store, or possibly something workable in a hardware store, but these are still inexpensive. Sourdough breadmaking can be very cost effective, and while over time you may want to improve your kit, to get started you'll need only the basic things.

You will soon be able to buy some of these basic utensils right here - I have sourced good quality stuff and will be offering them for sale through this site. You won't need to go running around for specialist things. I will also offer them at competitive prices. If you would like to get a bit of a taste for what I'll be offering for you, go to the contact page and make yourself known! Stay tuned!