The Fugue

So we got a toaster oven. The primary motivation was that I like to make biscuits and gravy, but preheating the big oven takes way too long. Plus I wanted to bake little one-day loaves of bread some mornings, with the same problem.

But always wanting to push the limits, I also wanted to try a larger loaf in the toaster oven. This is actually half the size I usually make, but it's about the limit of the size of boule I'd make in a toaster oven. Too much bigger and the top will burn.

Here are more pictures of the process. I moved a couple of tiles from the big oven to the toaster oven to make a nice baking stone, and I preheated the toaster oven. Then I put the bread in (conveniently on parchment paper, though in the future I think I'll trim the parchment paper for better convection airflow). There is noticeable oven spring, and it was fun to have such a clear view of it. Eventually it started to brown, and when I figured it should be about done I took it out. I found that it had actually browned quite a bit more in the back than in the front—maybe some tinfoil on the door next time to aid the radiation? The crust was a bit boring, but that may have been partially due to my using a slightly drier dough than I usually do. In any case, the crumb was as good as ever and the experiment was a success. As in the large oven, I definitely recommend some sort of stone setup though.

A few more experiments will be needed to know for sure, but it's possible that the close quarters will help in the steam department. However, it's a convection oven and I'm not sure whether that would counter any steam tendencies. As I said, this loaf was a bit drier than usual, so more tests are in order. Incidentally, I had a loaf in the dutch oven come out with the same boring crust the other day, and I think the hydration was about the same as with this loaf.

As for biscuits, it works great. I turn it down slightly from the called-for temperature but otherwise there's nothing to it.

I already blogged about finishing my brick oven, but I was perhaps a bit premature in that I hadn't actually had a real success actually cooking in it. But I was so confident that not only did I blog it, but I invited some friends over yesterday for a pizza party. We weren't disappointed.

About 1630 I lit the fire in the oven. I had about 4 2–3 inch pieces laying down in the back, and smaller pieces in front of that, and kindling in front of that, and a newspaper tied in a knot in front of that. It quickly caught on, without much tending at all. The transition from small to 2–3 inch pieces needed a bit of help—I needed more medium small pieces or I needed to arrange things differently. But a few well-placed pieces of kindling kept things going until the bigger pieces were blazing away. The fire was just about to die down to embers at 1730, a whole half hour before my guests were to arrive. The top of the oven was just barely starting to get white, so I'm not sure if it was hot enough at that moment to cook pizza or not. For timing reasons in any case I threw a bit more wood on. In the future I'll get even closer in timing and amount of wood guessing, but falling a little short is a whole lot better feeling than falling a lot long as I have in the past.

They arrived, I showed them the oven and we talked about it for awhile, and then the fire was down to just about the right spot for cooking pizza (and the white spot was now about half of the ceiling), so we began making the pies and I began moving the coals to the side and making sure we'd still have some flame.

My dough was too wet, probably because it's been really humid and I didn't adjust for that. It was hard to manage (sticky) but manage we did. We got the first pizza in the oven and held our collective breath. It didn't turn out to be a 3-minute pizza—more like 6 minutes—but it was a roaring success. The edges were browned and slightly charred, the toppings were brown and crispy (mmmmm! crispy pepperoni), the dough was cooked through.

The bottom, although cooked through, was not browned or charred as one would hope. I think this might be because the dough was too wet, but it might also be because the floor isn't getting hard enough. I think the latter is the case because of the bread experience (coming up). I think the heat is being drawn down into the concrete foundation (aka my patio) and ground, and I would have to fire it for a quite long time to saturate that, especially since less heat goes into the floor than the ceiling anyway. So the next step will be to get some cinder blocks and perhaps pour another slab (if I must), and get some insulation (in the form of air) underneath that floor.

We did 4 excellent pizzas (about 12 inches each) without any problem. I did of course have to keep adding small pieces of wood to the coals to keep a little flame going. Finally after the pizza was done I spread the embers out over the floor and let that soak for a few minutes (not very many). Then we scooped the coals and ashes out and put the bread in and closed the door. Half an hour later we pulled out some delicious sourdough bread. It too did not have the expected hot-hearth effects, but it was cooked through and the top was crispy and brown. The oven thermometer accompanying the bread read 425°F when we took it out. A hotter hearth would have been nice, again, but still a success. Honestly, I get better bread out of my dutch oven in the house oven, but I think it's a matter of getting the floor hotter and practice.

I estimate the cost for firing the oven was about $1, maybe less (at summer firewood prices). The pizza was fantastic (better than I can pull off in our oven with baking tiles), the bread was just fine, and the house didn't get hotter. Success!

I've written up the things I've learned about firing a small brick oven, like the Anasazi. I've also reorganized my brick oven pages slightly. http://hans.fugal.net/brick

Well, I did it. You probably already knew that because I've been in the process for some time and I've told just about everyone on the planet. I've written up the things I learned while building my oven, so you can see just what all it takes.

Does it work? Yes, indeed it does. I can make pizza and follow up with a batch of bread. But it's a bit more tricky than the ordinary large brick oven. In a large brick oven, you have lots of room and lots of oxygen for a roarin' fire. You don't need a lot of fire-tending skill to successfully fire a big oven. But this oven requires quite a bit more skill. I'm going to write up exactly what I've learned about firing a small oven Real Soon Now™, but in the meantime I'll just tell you the secret: small pieces, lots of oxygen, and start at least ⅓ of the way back in the oven.

If you just can't wait, may I recommend visiting the excellent woodheat.org site which has excellent information on building fires, especially the Concise Guide to High-Performance Woodburning and Top Down Fever.