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.

Bread fresh out of the pizza oven

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.

Bread dough rising

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.

Loaf resting before baking

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.

Pizza oven projects are so varied, but there’s the common thread of passion and in this story that Mike shared with us you will notice a great deal of creativity as well.  Since they live in Northern California where it can rain quite a bit,  Mike constructed a wooden cover to place in front of the arch to keep moisture out of the oven.  Also, he placed a shelf under the counter to keep the long handled oven tools.

Mike and Susan's pizza oven

Mike:  ”We just finished our wood fired oven project, and are enjoying the wonderful taste of pizza and bread, and look forward to creating a whole range of other goodies.”

“We had been thinking of building an oven for quite some time.  My family is from Greece, and in our many trips we had seen a lot of wood fired ovens, including the old dilapidated one at my grandfathers house.  Last year, we finally decided to build one, and after researching several manufacturers, we settle on the Elisa 90 from LA Ovenworks.  It seems Anna and I speak the same “Mediterranean” food language, so we went with her suggestion.”

“What I thought to be a weekend project turned out taking almost a year to construct.  Our big problem was the weather…we live on the coast in northern California, and this was an extraordinary rainy year.  We followed the construction steps outlined in the book, and then went with our own design for the enclosure.  I originally wanted it to look like a little Greek church with a blue domed roof, but because of weather considerations, we settle for a more traditional look.  We super-insulated the cavity with vermiculite and some old insulation, so it holds the heat very well.”

Mike ready to bake pizza

“Susan came up with the tile design, and with help from friends, she figured out how to do it.  She loved getting to show off some of her best agates.  Again, it took a long time because of the weather. We bought all of our materials locally, and got a lot of advice from local builders, even though no one had built one of these before.  Everyone who has seen it is thrilled.”

“As with anything, there is a learning curve, and we have a lot of friends who are willing to taste our experiments.  The oven is right off our deck and we look forward to many years of good food and company.”

“I have posted a slide show of the whole process on FLICKR,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanandspu/sets/72157626745507231/

Susan is having fun!

Thank you Mike and Susan for telling your story with great photos!  It made my day.

Buon appetito from all of us at Los Angeles Ovenworks!

I remember well the first time I had wood fired pizza.  I was 7 years old and my family had recently moved to the island of Capri and been blessed with an existing pizza oven to cook in.  One of the workers who was helping with the home renovation turned out to be a skilled pizzaiolo and was promptly hired to produce amazing pie after amazing pie.  And to top it off, another worker was part of a small group that loved playing traditional neapolitan music, so our parties had a fabulous sound track as well, filled with O Sole Mio and  Funiculi Funicula‘ to a very romantic guitar and mandolin accompaniment.

The beautiful island of Capri

At the time, I had no idea how lucky I was growing up on the island amidst rugged rock and breathtaking views; the blue, crystal clear sea below covering the ancient remains of an emperor’s villa. The blue water was so inviting that come summertime I would run down the centuries-old stairs carved in the mountain, all the way from the top of Anacapri to the sea below, all 777 mythical steps and a few more miles to the Bagni di Tiberio or the baths of the emperor Tiberius. I would make my way back home by taking a boat and a bus, my skin tan and crusted with salt.

After days like that, no wonder the pizza tasted like food from the gods and that later in life I would try and try to recreate that flavor.  There’s no potable water on Capri, and rain is collected in large cisterns or water is brought in via ship, so this precious resource was used sparingly when growing vegetables, consequently tomatoes used in the pizza sauce were super sweet.  To replicate this pizza tomato sauce from my childhood memories, I grow my own San Marzano and heirloom cherry tomatoes, or alternatively I add sugar to the store bought crushed tomatoes, sometimes adding a little tomato paste as well. Note that pizza sauce you must be cooked longer and slowly to to make a thicker sauce and avoid moisture getting into the pizza dough.  (Try combining a home-made, extra-sweet tomato sauce on a pizza with small dollops of fresh burrata or of really good, soft mozzarella cheese, taking care to add the cheese after you slide the pizza out of the oven, garnish with fresh arugula.)  It makes a for a nice juxtaposition of flavors with the warm, sweet tomato and the cool, textured mozzarella.)

Here are some favorite photos of this dreamy, mediterranean island by photographer Raffaelle Mastroianni.  Perhaps they will make you want to visit soon…

A quiet moment. Photo by Raffaele Mastroianni.

Via Krupp. Photo by Raffaele Mastroianni

Buon appetito!

A great swimming spot at the Faro. Photo by Raffaele Mastroianni.

Hope the holidays brought you around a pizza oven for some authentic Italian food!  The new year brought me new inspiration through a great recipe book, a gift from my neighbor Jules.  I am not known to follow recipe books, perhaps because I like experimenting, following instead the trail of something I tasted long ago in Italy or inspired by a great meal at a restaurant or someone’s house.   So the fact that I have now fallen in love with a recipe book comes as a total surprise to me… but there it is.

Wood fired Walnut & Black Pepper Cookies

The book is “Cooking with Italian Grandmothers”  by Jessica Theroux.  The title really captures  my experience as well, learning by watching le nonne... and I found the artwork, photos, stories weaved in between the recipes delightful.  Yearning for comfort food  and the fact that I had just purchased walnuts made me try the Walnut & Black Pepper Cookies on page 226.  Wow!  I became an instant fan with my first bite and loved the simplicity of the preparation.  And… it is a tea cookie!  My favorite kind, not too sweet, but very buttery and with the absolute right combo of walnuts and surprise element of black pepper popping in between bites.  Of course making them in a wood fired oven adds another layer of goodness and comfort. (I know I will be trying each and every recipe in this book.)

The cookies can be mixed quickly after your meal in the pizza oven is done and the temperature has gone down to 350 F.  It is fun to use the lingering heat in the oven to bake something special for dessert or for treats during the week, so I am always preparing an extra dish like this.

Walnut Black Pepper Cookies (makes 2 dozen)

1/2 cup (1 stick) soft unsalted butter

3 tablespoons cane sugar

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

A pinch of salt

3 tablespoons semi-runny honey (like wildflower or chestnut from the farmer’s market)

1 cup (4 ounces) raw walnuts, pounded or coarsely ground

1 cup flour

Extra granulated sugar, for sprinkling the cookies (optional)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the black pepper, pinch of salt, and honey; mix to incorporate.  Add the nuts and flour, and mix with the electric mixer until the dough forms moist clumps, a few minutes.

Roll large teaspoonfuls of the batter between your clean hands, to make little balls.  Place the balls on the baking sheet, and press down on them twice with the tines of a fork to make a crosshatch pattern. Sprinkle with a little bit of the granulated sugar.

Slide in the wood fired oven at 350F for about 25 minutes, or until their bottoms have turned golden-nutty brown. At these low temperatures you will have to place the door of the oven either on the outside ledge, partially covering the arch or, if the oven is cooling fast, completely seal the oven opening with the door.

This recipe is from Calabria and taken from the book Cooking with Italian Grandmothers by Jessica Theroux.

Buon appetito from Los Angeles Ovenworks!

A short blog to celebrate the fall and Halloween… I really like this idea I found in a magazine: cutting pizza dough into ghost shapes using cookie cutters and a knife.  Fun project for the kids, and fun to feature on the table during a costume pizza party.

Using your favorite pizza dough,  roll  it out with a rolling pin,  then use  a small pairing knife to cut out the shape of a ghost face, follow up with almond shape, round shape, or moon shape cookie cutter for the outline of eyes and mouth. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.   Place on a lightly floured wooden pizza peel and slide directly on the hot pizza oven floor.  Take out when browned (they will bake fast in a 650 F oven, less than a minute).  Let cool on rack.

… And don’t forget to roast those pumpkin seeds while you are at it, they are such a treat!

Happy Halloween from Los Angeles Ovenworks!

pizza dough ghosts

As Francis Mallmann puts it, “Cooking with wood fire is like going on a first date.  It is something you look forward to with great anticipation and a little anxiety.”

Perfect spot for a wood fired party

If you are like me, you will have a little bit of anxiety before entertaining, mostly to make sure everything runs smoothly upon the arrival of your guests and a the same time you don’t want to spend all your time next to the oven (well, maybe you do…), but you want to sit down and enjoy your friends.  Well, that’s the beauty of cooking in your wood fired oven:  your typical dish schedule – appetizer, main dish, side dish, dessert – works perfectly well with the high – medium – low heating cycle of your oven.  And the fact that simple recipes work best in the oven anyway, allows you to pick recipes that can be prepared ahead of time and that require minimum handling in the outdoor kitchen.

Although a wood fired oven doesn’t have a dial on it where you can adjust the temperature on and off, you will enjoy a very nice constant radiating heat as you cook, which is ideal for any dish, especially meat.  And once the wood fired oven is heated thoroughly it will stay hot until the next day.

It is important to keep a good stash of dry hardwood to make starting the fire really easy and enhance the taste of the food you cook.  Use Peter’s method of firing up the oven, so that you have a uniformly hot oven with a minimum amount of wood for a maximum amount of cooking time.

Appetizers are a wonderful way of greeting your friends and they keep everyone happy while other things are baking in the oven.  They are a great fit for the initially hot oven as it is easy to find recipes that can be baked at 650-600 degrees F, floor temperature.  Best way of measuring temperature inside the oven is by using a hand-held infrared thermometer and point it at the oven floor. (We include this thermometer in each oven kit, and it is also available in our online store.)

My favorite appetizers are oven made pizzarollis, and flat breads because they pair well with cheeses, or prosciutto and figs, and such fun starters.  Alternatively, if I am harvesting cherry tomatoes in the garden, I grill them quickly or place them in a cast iron skillet whole, with a bit of olive oil, close to the entrance of the oven, until they are burnished on the outside and release all their sweetness on the inside.  Then I smash them slightly with a fork and mix them with olive oil, a little bit of crushed fresh garlic, basil, salt, and spoon this goodness over a grilled slice of Italian bread, for a quick bruschetta, served along with local cheese.  To grill the bread slices, you can place them on directly on the hot oven floor or on a hot grill, and use tongs or a fork to turn.

Seizing up the appetizer

As the oven cools a little, it’s time for the main dishes. Leaving the door open will bring the temperature in the oven down to 550-500 degrees F (floor temperature) and this is ideal for  a chicken, or a lamb, or a small roast that you’ve prepared ahead of time in a metal pan.  Place a small piece of wood on top of the bed of coals that you moved to the left or right side of the oven, and slide the pan in, opposite side from the coals.  The meat will sear very nicely  as the dome of the oven reflects heat all around it, and will acquire a crispy outside flavored with the smoke of the fire. You can cover the meat loosely with foil either at the beginning or the end of the cooking cycle to brown the meat. (When using a recipe written for a regular oven, just add about a hundred degrees and reduce the cooking time to about a third.)

Fish I usually place on a oven proof dish and keep it closer to the door, since it doesn’t require high temperature.  Or  wait until the oven is at about 450 degrees F if you want to bake a tender fish filet.  It’s fun to grill a lobster, halved, on a grill placed close to the opening and with the coals raked under it.

Along with the main dish, you can fit a few pans with side dishes, such as potatoes, mushrooms, artichokes which all acquire a great smoky taste in the wood burning oven.  Or slide in an eggplant parmesan that your assembled the day before.

And lastly... dessert

Once you’ve taken out the main dish and the side dishes, the oven is ready for cooking a dessert.  Something simple with lots of butter and sugar… since these caramelize  deliciously in the pizza oven!  Your guests will beg you to invite them again.

Buon appetito from Los Angeles Ovenworks!

It’s funny how you can repeat a process for years and then suddenly your are hit with the “Aha!” moment.  Our insight into firing up our pizza oven came when Peter decided to improve his box fire construction by placing three extra pieces of wood along the perimeter.  Let me explain…

Use hardwood to fire your pizza oven

You’ve made your pizza dough or prepared your chicken and eagerly walk over to the oven to fire it up.  You have your good stash of very dry, split hardwood set aside and you pick out about 7 choice pieces, about 2.5 to 3″ wide and 15 to 20″ long.

Now try Peter’s method: Place three logs in each corner of the pizza oven, close to the walls, (see photo A.) Then build a box fire in the middle of the oven floor  by alternating two logs diagonally one way and  two logs the other way on top, repeat (see photo B.).  Put a piece non-toxic fire starter under the wood and light the fire .

A good thing to do when the fire is starting up, is to lean the metal door outside on the arch (see photo C.), this way the initial smoke is channeled up the vent.  It will soon be very hot in your oven and the smoke will naturally flow upward into the chimney.  Part of Peter’s method at this point is to sit back and relax,  listening to the fire… his way of celebrating the upcoming feast, sort of the quiet before the storm of cooking. The pizza dough that he prepared the day before and kept in the fridge overnight, is now next to the oven,  rising and ready to shape into pies.

Photo A. Place logs around the sides of the oven.

You will notice that the wood in the middle ignites first and then the heat in the oven will ignite the split wood pieces around the perimeter and this will create a wonderful radiant heat all around the floor and the walls.  Your wood fired oven will absorb this heat created by the fire burning out in the next hour and then the oven will slowly release this accumulated heat for many hours of cooking cycle, gradually cooling off.

When the fire will have burnt down you can move the coals and ashes with your ash stick either to the right side or the left side of the oven.  (If you are planning to bake pizza, then place a small wood piece onto the coals to keep a small flame throughout the pizza making process.) Check the temperature with your handheld laser thermometer provided in your Los Angeles Ovenworks’ kit.  Start your cooking feast!

You can have a lot of fun experimenting with different woods:

Alder: Imparts a light flavor that works well with fish and poultry.
Apple and pear: Nice and subtle flavor, use with pork and game.
Apricot, Plum, Peach, Nectarine: Flavor is milder and sweeter than hickory.

Photo B. Box fire.

Hickory: The most famous smoking hardwoods, imparts a strong, hearty flavor to meats, used mostly for pork shoulders and ribs.
Maple: Mellow smoke fragrance traditionally used for poultry, pork and seafood.
Mesquite: Produces a very hot flame perfect for grilling steaks.
Pecan: Sweet and mild with a flavor similar to hickory, but not as strong.
Oak: Favorite wood of Europe, strong but not overpowering. Used for beef or lamb.

Photo C. Place oven door on outside of arch

Walnut: Heavy smoke flavor, great to bring out the natural goodness in mushrooms, potatoes and vegetables. Mix with lighter woods like almond, pear or apple to dilute the smoke flavor if needed.

Buon appetito from Los Angeles Ovenworks!

Jules and the Renaissance Mamas

Have been too busy to post a blog lately… and that’s because I have been in the garden getting the weeds out and the seedlings in.  Tomatoes are such an important staple when it comes to pizza,  and we kept seeds from last year’s favorite, growing tomatoes indoors in the sunroom while preparing the soil with plenty of organic nourishment to welcome their growth outdoors.

Peter demonstrated pizza

I am making more space for edible plants in my front yard as well, nestling some artichokes between the hollihocks.  Soon the tomatoes will join them and there will still be space to add the zucchini later on.  I find the whole process very rewarding, from sprouting the first seed to canning my tomato harvest, the sauce being fabulous on wood fired pizza among its other million uses.

Basil, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme are easily grown in containers that you can keep close to use in your cooking.  It is super important to have good ingredients when cooking, and when not home grown, the best way to buy good produce is through your local farm or farmer’s market.  And the farmer’s market is exactly where you will find  my neighbor and friend Jules Blaine Davis.  Jules started  Renaissance Mamas to inspire women in the kitchen and to help them make healthy and sustainable choices.  Her cooking is intuitive and has a lot of flair, always bringing to the table her latest finds and surprises!

The Renaissance Mamas gathered  around the pizza oven for a demonstration of how easy it is to make your own pizza dough and various garnishes.  We tried out the potato, gruyere, and truffle garnish (see my January 2010 blog entry) and we also made some baby artichoke and sage pizza.  The weather was sunny and beautiful, it turned out to be a relaxing and fun class!

Pizza tasting!

We cook by the oven often, so don’t be shy, call us if you are in town and come over to see how easy it is to make gourmet food in one of our wood fired ovens!

Buon appetito.

A wonderful crust with fennel, mozzarella and fontina

We started the year stumbling upon a great pizza…  Peter wanted to try a new dough recipe and invited his buddy Chris over for a taste.  As it often happens, Chris brought a garnish to experiment with and we had one of our own (which actually was the extra stuffing that was left over from the ravioli Peter had made earlier).  Try them both and decide which one you like best.

The Dough

Is an easy variation of our Neapolitan Pizza Dough and it makes for a crispier pie that holds up nicely  to heavier garnishes.  The variation is this:  Add 1 cup of flour to the recipe, so 5 1/2 cups of flour instead of just 4 1/2 cups.

Fennel, Mozzarella, and Fontina Garnish

We used the dish Chris brought and made this white pizza… loved it!

3 heads of fennel, quartered

1 clove of garlic, sliced thin

1 cup of vermouth or white wine

1/4 stick of butter

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Put fennel, garlic, vermouth, and butter in a metal pan and place in the oven.  Once the butter is melted, take the pan out to baste the fennel, then back in the oven to bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until fennel is tender.  Let the dish cool.

Prepare the pizza pie and garnish with some of the baked fennel, sprinkling cut mozzarella and fontina cheeses on top.  Slide pizza in the wood fired oven, bake for one and one half minute, rotate, and finish baking.

Slide pizza out of the oven and before serving, add some finely chopped parsley, grated parmesan cheese and optional, a little olive oil.

Potato,  Gruyere, and Truffle Butter Garnish

Boil 3 medium potatoes in salted water.

Discard the water and pass the boiled potatoes through a ricer while still hot or mash them well. Add 1 tablespoon of truffle butter and 1/3 cup shredded gruyere cheese to the mashed potatoes and stir until melted.

Prepare the pizza pie and garnish with mozzarella cheese cut into cubes and then add a little bit of this potato mixture.  Slide pizza in the wood fired oven that has been pre-heated to 650F  bake for about one and a half minute, rotate pizza and finish baking.  This is another “white” pizza (without tomato sauce) that we really, really loved.  Great as an appetizer.

Buon appetito!

A heartfelt thank you to all our friends and customers who share our passion for wood fired cooking and have helped make this year a success!

Assisting a customer in finding the right pizza oven for their needs and then getting amazing feedback of how much fun they are having is something I never get tired of… Michael C. from Texas sent a great description of a party around his oven. In his own words…

Anna,

Had another party this past weekend. It was unreal. Although it was 40 degrees, folks still wanted to be outside. We had tons of food, still people were raving about the pizza. I had custom orders; we sent some folks home with to-go boxes. I ended up making 18 pies during a 5-hour period along with some wonderful bruschetta topped with home-made pesto and sundried tomatoes. The constant comments were “this is so cool; it’s the neatest thing anyone has done around here… Everyone has an outdoor kitchen with a grill and fireplace… but you have this cool pizza oven.”

Yesterday we had some friends over and Robin (her mom is Italian) got into the act and was so happy rolling the dough, topping the pizza, and cooking it. We sent her home with the pizza for her daughter. And, by the way, my 13-year old daughter is the one who rolls out the dough in my household… We have a system down. She rolls, configures, sprinkles some corn meal and flour on the peel, and places the pizza pie on the peel. I par-bake four pies, set them aside on flour and corn meal, and when we have 4 done, we garnish them and place them back in the oven. And then we do it over again. My daughter loves it!

I like Michael’s par-baking technique for saving time when feeding a large gathering of guests. I look forward to more experiments in gourmet, home baked food in the coming year.

As the old year is making way for a fresh new beginning, we gratefully share our blessings with those in needs via non profit organizations that help children and families around the world.

These are our favorites, because they focus on providing assistance in a very personal and direct way. Children Incorporated, assisting children of all races and creeds. Heifer.org giving livestock and training, it helps families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. Sriramfoundation.org welcoming abandoned children into a stable, loving family environment.

Wishing you all a happy new year around the oven!