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The Wood-fired oven thread

91K views 627 replies 47 participants last post by  stonecutter 
#1 · (Edited)
To help prevent future hijackings with pizza oven pictures and all manor of wood-fire cooking related topics (For which I am guilty of) I wanted to start this thread to share ideas for building ovens, recipes, favorite pizza places, etc.

I'll start with the only pictures of a pizza I made from my oven in CT...
Pizza Dish Food Cuisine Masonry oven


Dish Cuisine Pizza Food Ingredient


The oven...

Masonry oven Shed Building Fireplace House


Property Home Building House Shed
 
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#120 ·
The recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4" teaspoon active yeast

1 1/2" cup warm/hot tap water

Procedure:

Add dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine.

Add your water and Quickly mix with a wooden or metal spoon...this next part will do your head in... Dont over mix... just get it so that the dough starts to look stringy ball then stop...even if you see a little unmixed flour. You will turn it 5-10 times.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and let the dough rise for a minimum of 12 hours...you can let it go for up to 24 if you wish. This gives the dough time to rise at least double.

When its ready, turn the bowl and pour out the dough onto a floured surface...I do mine on a cutting board. Some dough will stick to the bottom of the bowl so just get what you can out.

Once your dough is on the floured surface, fold dough into itself 1 or 2 times...tops. You dont want to over handle dough like this.

Now form the dough into a ball gently then flour it. Cover it with a floured towel so it doesnt stick then let it rise for a min 2 hrs or when the dough doubles again.

When its ready, set oven for 450*. I only use a cookie sheet for baking. I take a dime sized drop of olive oil and coat the sheet. Then I turn the cutting board over and ease the dough onto the pan.

40-45 minutes to a golden brown crust and you have yourself a simple no-knead bread. It is a nice base for some creative additions like fruit and nuts, rosemary,caraway or sesame seeds etc,etc.
Enjoy!:thumbsup:
 
#123 ·
Astor, a couple of us have posts links to the FB site...they are a wealth of information on WFO construction and cooking. The dome I built was a pompei template and I made a few adjustments to suit my needs. Also. You don't have to build that style only( Tuscan) you can do a low ceiling ( neo ) or a barrel vault which will work just as well.

Hopefully, this thread will get a couple builds posted soon..like joasis' oven..wink,wink.
 
#122 ·
That does look good for no-knead. :thumbsup:

Personally, I prefer my bread to be about as dense as a black hole--no air pockets to speak of.

I'd have to hop into my wayback machine for recipes, but some years back I went through a phase of making bread that would work well for the historic "bread and water" diet. It was actually more than a belly-filler wrap back in the old days, with some good nutrition in it.

How about some of those recipes?
 
#124 · (Edited)
How about some of those recipes?
Tin. That is what we are looking for! Anything that can relate to WFO.

You could make this dough more dense by punching it down instead of the one or two folds.

One of the loaves this week was made in a bread pan and was more dense than the ones on the cookie sheet....give it a try. It costs less than a dollar to make.:thumbsup:
 
#125 ·
Here is one that will give you a denser but still flavorful crust. My normal batch makes 4 balls, around 300 grams for 16" thin crust pies.

4 cups bread flour
1 cup semolina
2-1/2 to 3 cups water
1 tsp ADY
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Drymix the flour and salt, proof the yeast and add water until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowel. Hand mix for 2-3 minutes, cover with a damp cloth and let rise for an hour.

After it rises, punch it down and fold 7 times, then make a big ball and quarter it. put in individual containers in the fridge for at least 24 hours out to 7 days.

If you want it dense, roll it out.
 
#128 ·
I made up a batch of this Friday. Put two portions in the fridge and left two portions out to rise, we had pizza Friday night, then again tonight.

My wife, (a Jersey Girl), said it was the best she has ever had!

For anyone watching these "pizza oven" posts, I recommend giving this a try. Easy to put together, tastes great. I bought a couple pizza pans and cooked mine in the GE.
Beats the hell out of delivery....and it's fun to make!
My daughter especially enjoyed making her "own."

Thanks for the recipe T!
 

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#133 ·
So basically with the kits you see, you stick a flue on top and glue thinstone to the exterior. Instant WFO. I told him "sure it will cook" but anyone that does any research on a WFO before they buy it are going to walk away.
I turned him onto a couple sites so he could read up on the topic and maybe offer a better product.
 
#134 ·
Yeah, my rep tried to get me to carry them. Too proud of them and they need to alter their design for the vent. They DO offer one version with a proper vent, so there is no excuse for that one. Insulation is up to the installer, and I didn't get a chance to see if it is included in the instructions.
 
#138 ·
I have been waiting for this for a while, once I get it mounted I can finish the pergola.

My buddy had a huge cedar, Juniperus ashei, in his driveway. Aside from the pollen, it was in the way of where he wanted to expand his driveway. He cut it down in 2008 and stored it at his brother's for the intervening years. We had been looking for a sawyer to cut it for us but none were willing or cheap enough, so we decided to do it ourselves today freehand with a chainsaw. The first piece (on the ground to the right in the last pic) is for the seat and back of a bench, the last pics of the big log will be the side pieces. The first pic is one half for my bar in the outdoor kitchen the second for a low seat in the same.

We sawed them, planed them, and sanded them. Hard work, but it sure did smell good doing it. A liberal application of Sikkens sealer to bring out the color and they are done.





 
#141 ·
I am in the process of starting my next Wood Fired Oven (wfo)..finally. This is going to be very,very different than all the other ones I have done before because the dome is going to be made of clay earth.

The idea came from me wanting to use my stock pile of miscellaneous stone and reclaimed brick. The base is going to be the real challenge here...it will be a load bearing ribbed cross vault made of brick and stone. The goals I have are to do this as cheap as possible, use what I have laying around and do stuff I have never done before...like building the ribbed cross vault and using clay earth for my oven. Oh yeah and try to make the whole mess look good.:thumbsup:

I will post some progress shots here once I have something started. Right now I'm just cleaning brick and doing layout.....cutting some stone is next.The foot print - 4.5' x 4.5'. The planned oven diameter (interior) is 30". I am documenting the whole process on my blog if anyone is interested in all the minutia.:laughing:
 
#145 ·
Things are coming very slowly, but surely. The first course after the hearth level is completed, and for the past week or so I've been working on gathering springer stones, cutting them to size and shaping them. Last night I shaped and laid one springer stone. 5 more to go for the oven vault. Then I'll need to create two more for the front arch. It's very slow going. But I'm baking sourdough bread every weekend so it's bearable. I'll post pics once I get all the springer stones on.
 
#146 ·
I finally got something done on the base,the Gothic arch vault . This was a couple of firsts for me...I have never built a Gothic arch vault and never built one with brick. Here are a few shots of it before and after I pointed the joints. All the brick are antique reclaims from Charleston,SC. I carved the granite keystones from scrap left over from a project in MA.



Arch Architecture Grass Recreation Plant


Arch Environmental art Rock Architecture Brick


Wall Stone wall Brick Rock Brickwork


Wall Brick Rock Wood Tree


Brick Arch Rock Grass Architecture
 
#147 ·
After pointing up the joints...

Arch Architecture Grass Tree Park


Arch Wall Stone wall Architecture Rock


Rock Tree Trunk Grass Stone wall


I plan on making double doors out of reclaimed oak for the opening and I'll use the space underneath for oven tools and kindling wood.


The rebar is just a reference to where I am starting the drystone surround, which will stop at the height of the hearth floor. I'm starting on that tomorrow.
 
#151 · (Edited)
T, when I read that first response I almost laughed coffee through my nose! You must have thought I was a noob!:laughing:

Yeah, it's a little hard to visualize at first. The rebar staked out represents the outside of the drystone surround. I'll build that up above the keystone and stop at the finished height of the floor. It will create the sink for the insulation under the floor.

I don't know if you guys caught this but the plan is to build this dome out of clay earth. The oven opening and floor will be firebrick though and I plan on carving a solid granite door foor the outside arch opening. But I'll fire the oven and test it before I finish it in case it's a colossal failure!
 
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