Anna’s Wood Fired Oven Blog

I will be turning over a new leaf, I mean… a new loaf, this year.  I bought the popular book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Hertzberg and Francois because I wanted to try their method in two of my pizza ovens.

Simplifying the process of baking and cooking while keeping the taste and quality of the food has always appealed to me, so I was eager to experiment with this no-fuss bread baking.  Yes, no sponge or starter, no proofing the yeast, no kneading, and a high moisture dough that can be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks.

In other words, minimal output of time and effort.  I used their basic recipe for  artisan bread which they explain on a video (see link below) and involves:

• 5-quart food grade container with a lid (don’t use glass with airtight lid since it could explode)
• 3 cups of lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoon granulated yeast
• 1 1/2  tablespoon kosher or coarse salt
• 6 1/2 cups unsifted, all-purpose white flour (I used the 365 Whole Foods organic label), measured with the scoop and sweep method
• A bit of corn meal for the wood peel

You pour the water into the container, add the yeast and the salt, and then the flour.  Mix with a wooden spoon until moisture is absorbed evenly by the flour.  Let rise for 2 hours.  Place in fridge overnight.

When ready to bake, take dough out and dust with flour. Flour your hands so that the dough won’t stick.  Divide dough into four 1 lbs balls.   Shape each ball in your hands, by tucking edges under, no kneading involved. Dust corn meal on the wood peel and place bread loaf on peel and let rest for 40 minutes before placing in hot oven.

Dust the loaves with flour and slash a few 1/4 inch deep cross or scallop pattern using a serrated knife.  Slide directly onto the hot oven floor.

Now for the pizza oven temperature!  I experimented both in over-baking and under-baking the loaves and they came out very tasty even though the higher temperatures burned the crust to a dark brown and the lower temperatures left the crust pale.  Still, it was a good bread.  So… beginners take heart!  This is pretty fool-proof.

Fire up your wood burning oven (click here if you don’t know how).  When the fire has burnt for about one hour (less for the smaller ovens, longer for the larger models), rake out the embers from the oven and store in a fire proof container.  (Do not discard ashes until they are absolutely cold.)  Check the temperature and close the door, sealing the oven.  If you wish, you can at this time place a small metal container with water inside the oven, I like to use my small cast iron pan.

Bake your bread between 500 F and 450 F with closed door for 30 minutes.  You may check midway after 15 minutes and turn the loaves if needed, but it is best not to be opening the door more than once.  Use your round metal peel to slide your fresh baked bread out of the oven, let the loaves cool on a rack before you slice.

I highly recommend this method, it is particularly helpful if you are a beginner bread baker or if you want to offer your guests and family a very delicious home made bread that will amaze everyone.  When you make it in your pizza oven, the crust will be denser and chewier than if you make it in your regular oven, and the overall taste much better.

The book:   Artisan Bread in Five Minutes

The  video.

Enjoy and please let me know how bread baking experience turned out!

Buon appetito from us at Los Angeles Ovenworks.

 

Once you master the basics of pizza making you will most likely start the quest for the perfect flour.  It’s just the way it is.  New vistas open up beyond the realm of King Arthur’s Flour… and the chef in you heeds the call for new culinary adventures. Throughout the years of cooking in our wood fired oven we have tried a lot of really good flour, and we are so grateful that there are still mills out there making a great product.

Here are some that stand out:

Presently, we buy our favorite flour from  CentralMilling.com  in Utah, a water-powered mill nestled by the Logan River and the Rocky Mountains.  The company also carries its own seeds (nothing is genetically modified here, thank you).  They have a long list of products for every taste and baking need… their Type “OO Normal” Flour is very close to the Italian Caputo Flour and is designed to take the high temperature of a pizza oven.  Did I mention that it is organic?  It comes to us fresh and fragrant (California is not that far) but keep in mind that the minimum order is 50 lbs. and the shipping costs are … high.  Is it worth it?  Yes!  But if you can only buy small bags, know that Central Milling also produces the Whole Food’s 365 Organic Unbleached All Purpose Flour.

Another great product is made in Naples:  Antimo Caputo Chef’s Flour,  the famous type “OO” flour from Italy. Particularly if you don’t want to store a 50 lbs bag, since you can find this product on Amazon.com or via some local stores in a convenient 2.2 lbs bag, (shipping cost will average $7.25).  This flour is a favorite among pizzaioli both in Italy and in the US because it is specifically created for high temperatures such as you get in a pizza oven.  Don’t try it in your regular gas oven, it won’t brown properly.  The low gluten content makes it ideal for a Neapolitan pizza and the pizza pies stretch nicely without breaking.  Note for those who like buying large quantities:  The  ”OO” Pizzeria Flour in 55 lbs (blue) bag is the same flour that is in the Antimo Caputo “OO” Chef’s Flour 2.2 lbs (red) bag.  Molinocaputo.it

We also like the Hudson Cream Flour, from a mill in Kansas — one of the last independent flour mills in the US — that has produced “short patent” flour  for over 100 years.  During the milling process their wheat is ground more times and sifted with finer-meshed sieves than usual.  We love the sweet fragrance of this “creamy” flour,  and I use it when baking bread and desserts.  Check them out at Hudsoncream.com, they do sell locally in many states.  They will send you 1-5 lbs for  a shipping cost of $7.75,  6-10 lbs for a shipping cost of $11.55, so you get an idea.

We prefer flour that is organic, unbleached, and when making pizza, with a low gluten content for that nice stretch.  Would love to hear about what flour you like and why.  How does it perform in your wood fired oven?

Happy cooking and buon appetito from Los Angeles Ovenworks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have become addicted to the crowd-pleasing status of being a pizzaiolo (pizza maker)… Yes, and you want new recipes that will amaze your friends even more… I understand.  I am there with you.  It’s easy when you have a wood fired oven.

You will appreciate serving the pizzarollis at your parties because you can conveniently use some of the pizza dough you already prepared.  And lots of garlic and olive oil and…  Well, try them out and see for yourself and let me know if you are able to stop after just one or if you are like the rest of us and eat as many as you can get your hands on while they are still piping hot.

First, “steal” some pizza dough from the stack ready to be shaped into pizza pies. Click here for the pizza dough recipe. Flatten out the dough a little on a lightly flour surface, cut small strips of dough and roll between your palms into 4″-5″ long pieces.

Then make a small “knot” (see drawing).

Place the pizzarollis on a metal baking sheet and slide in oven.  They can take the higher to medium temperatures of the oven.  Since I usually serve them as an appetizer along with the pizza I bake them at a hot 600 degrees F.  At this temperature they bake quickly so keep an eye on them and remove when they have browned.

In a bowl mix good-quality olive il, two or more crushed garlic cloves (to taste),  fresh or dry oregano leaves ( or alternatively thyme or rosemary), salt to taste,and a small amount of grated parmesan cheese.

Once the pizzarollis are done baking, toss them in the bowl with the olive oil mix while they are still hot. Serve alone or with other appetizers such as thin slices of prosciutto. But have a few first, since they tend to disappear very fast!

Buon appetito and Happy Memorial Day weekend from us all here at Los Angeles Ovenworks!

We’ve had such a spell of wonderful weather here in Los Angeles… the cool ocean breeze tempering the warm sun, plants blooming everywhere… enough to make one forget that earthquakes and traffic ever existed! Our peach tree yielded an abundant and welcomed harvest, and I kept making peach cobblers as fast as family and friends could eat them. Fruit desserts come out really nice in the wood fired oven and I love using up the lower temperatures, when the oven is starting to cool down (350 F).

I think that the charm of cooking in a wood burning oven is that life slows down, just like it does when you are on a vacation. I leisurely start the fire, right in the middle of the oven floor. Humming contentedly while I enjoy the beauty of the fire and its crackling sound, I gather all my ingredients and start preparing my dishes. In the meantime, the oven is absorbing a great deal of heat into its walls and floor, and this heat will be released slowly over a period of about 6 hours.

When the fire has died down to coal and embers, after about one hour, I sweep the embers with a long-handled ash stick to the right (or left) side of the oven, and then I wait 10 minutes before I use a natural bristle brush to sweep the remaining bit of ashes from the floor. The oven is now ready and usually registering about 750F. At this point I have a choice: I can either bake some pizza or focaccia or wait for the oven to cool down further.

Pizza is traditionally cooked by adding a small piece of wood onto the pile of embers. This way, the extra heat generated by the small flame will travel in a circular way from the side of the oven to the dome and down again onto the oven floor. Pizza will bake in 3 minutes, and it will absorb a little bit of heat from the floor, but by keeping that small flame you will replenish the heat balance immediately between pizzas and you could continue to bake forever until you drop or until your one hundred guests just cannot eat one more slice! Check out the pizza recipes and make your own dough from scratch.

For most dishes like roast meat, chicken, turkey, etc. I wait until the temperature is about 500F. If it is Thanksgiving and there’s a lot a lot of cooking happening, then I let the oven heat up a bit longer in the beginning by adding a little more wood and extending the firing up time to one hour and a half. This way I know there will be a lot of retained heat in the walls and floors.

I bake bread at 500F and in this case, I will scoop out all the embers and coals and will close the opening tight with the metal door for the 30 minutes or so it takes to bake. Mmm… you should always wait one hour before you break your freshly baked bread and eat it… but I overlook that rule so many times. The aroma wafts into my nostrils and overpowers my mind, what can I say. Baking bread in a neighborhood is like making popcorn in an office, everyone will know, and your friends will suddenly knock at your door, all smiles.

I bake pasta dishes, like lasagna, at 450F. Vegetable dishes come out fabulous too, with a nice smokey flavor. Fish and lobster can be grilled over the coals inside the oven or placed on a bakeware dish along with their condiments.

And lastly, at 350F the time comes for the desserts… as I mentioned, I have been doing a lot of peach cobblers and I am thinking of doing my famous cherry galette soon. The sugar in the fruit browns and bubbles to perfection in the wood-fired oven!

Well, actually there is still something I will put in the oven: a pot of beans to slowly, very slowly cook over 3 hours as the ovens gradually cools down from about 300F. See the recipe, click here.

Buon appetito!

The Italian in me has the same attitude come good or bad times: let’s sit down to a well-prepared meal! It’s no wonder then that one of my resolutions is to cook up a storm of new recipes in my wood-fired oven. I will be saying “Buon appetito!” a lot.

Here’s a preview of what is coming up in the months ahead.

I am very excited about the pizza and bread recipes described by Charles Van Over in his classic book The Best Bread Ever. He breaks all the rules of bread baking and the result is incredible! He doesn’t proof the yeast, uses cold water instead of warm, and…get this… doesn’t knead the dough but uses the food processor. Genius.

I met Charles and his wife Priscilla last fall in Connecticut. They are both very accomplished chefs and are installing one of our Italian wood-burning ovens. I can’t wait to turn the spot light of my website to showcase their creative talent for your benefit.

When baking bread and pizza I have found that the taste is greatly enhanced by a wood fired oven. If you are considering installling a modular oven, the best ones are made of refractory clay.

What’s refractory clay you wonder? It’s high quality clay heated to very high temperatures and cooled after it forms into small balls with a hard crust and a porous center. It is in the tiny air bubbles within the center that the heat is trapped and slowly released. The exceptional thermal properties of clay can simply not be replicated within other materials, such as cement alumina.

This becomes apparent when you bake bread, because you will need to scoop out all the embers from the oven and use only the indirect heat accumulated within the walls and the hearth of the oven. If your modular oven is not well designed and isn’t made of refractory clay, you will find this process much harder.

In addition to featuring recipes by Charles Van Over, I will be sharing my own experimentations in the pizza oven. Lots of new recipes coming up, so stay tuned!

I wish you a very Happy New Year and may it be filled with “buon appetito!”