I've been a long time viewer of this wonderful bread site and after much consideration I thought I'd post my own message. The bread bug has bitten me hard and I've been afflicted for the last 3 years attempting to make beautiful and tasty bread. The bread in this post is made in my backyard oven on wheels. It's a Mugnaini oven put on a trailer which my uncle and I built about a year ago (Mar 2010). Since building, I've thoroughly enjoyed the process of bread baking or pizza making as well as roasting delicious chickens, legs of lamb, and standing rib roasts. After building the oven, my significant other and I attended a hearth bread making school at Quillisascut Farm in the state of Washington. It was a wonderful experience with great people and instructor that stepped us through the art of breadmaking in an Alan Scott design wood fired oven.
I've attached a picture of the oven in backyard.
The bread made was adapted from Hamelman's Multigrain Sourdough, using sesame, flax, and sunflower seeds. I've made this bread a couple of times and baked in my kitchen oven using a pan filled with lava rocks to create. In this case, I doubled the home recipe, and baked outdoors, using a hot wet towel in a roasting pan, with hot water poured in the pan to create steam. Met an artisan baker at the huge bread conference last fall in Las Vegas who recommended this technique.
This is picture of steam rolling out of oven after about 10 minutes prior to baking.
After loading oven with bread, I had to take a peak. I know I should've waited, but it didn't seem to affect the bread.
Picture of loaves. Roasting pan with wet towel seen on right side of loaves. Dark spot on left side of photo.
I baked the loaves approximately 30 minutes. The oven floor was 500-550 degrees when I started. The last two pictures are the finished products. I share a lot of the bread I make with my Mom and Dad, neighbors, or other family members. When I finished I had two construction guys at the house and after cooling the bread for an hour or so, shared with them. I always get excited to cut into the bread to smell the aroma and taste. The work crew and I love this bread's nutty flavor and aroma.
Hope you enjoyed looking. Question? I left the wet towel in for entire 30 minutes. Can you over-steam bread? I know from many of the books about baking bread, it states to steam first 15 minutes. I didn't want to open oven again, so I left inside. Thanks for viewing.
Scot
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Wow!
That's a gorgeous oven you have, with the added bonus of portability. Nice rig! Your breads...beautiful as well. Great looking crust and scoring, really top rate all of them. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your posts Scot.
Best wishes,
Franko
That is a great looking oven on wheels...you could go into business with the beautiful loaves you are turning out....and how about those delicious sounding meals you have been preparing. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of your WFO baking...thanks for sharing!
Sylvia
I adore such great ingenuity! And the bread looks great, too!
I think Dan Wing would be impressed with your wfo and rig, and I know I am with the bread you're producing.
Beautiful! Send us some crumb pics!
Larry
Thanks for sharing your pics - I only wish I could bake in one of them bad boys! I bet that oven delievers an awesome crust!
Happy baking and enjoy!
LeeYong
Thank you all for your kind words! It's nice to hear and keeps me motivated. Sylvia, the thought of selling bread or pizza was one of the motivations to put oven on wheels but have been steering my energies into the baking aspect and not the business aspect. Not ruling it out yet. Larry, I'll send some crumb pics on the next bake.
Cheers,
Scot in Vegas
very cool. The bread looks great, too. I'd love to see the crumb as well.
Still a dream, a wfo.
Everything you shared is very, very nice Scot. I am quite jealous of your oven, I wish to own a wood fired oven one day, they are kind of expensive from what I can see on the Mugnaini oven site though.
Keep us updated on the baking!
I was the fortunate reipient of the kit for the basic oven. My soon to be in-laws purchased for their home a couple of years ago only to find out their home association did not allow. The oven was shipped to me, where it rested on the side of my house for a year before I got excited about putting it on a trailer. The gift helped propel me further into this bread baking quest!
Scot
the breads look gorgeous! I would like to know more about the hot towel method for introducing stream, if you don’t mind sharing in more details.
form your description I gather that you put a hot towel( soaked in hot water I assume) in a pan and pour more hot water in the pan, and put it int the oven about 1o minutes prior to baking?
I have been using ice cubes in a pan that was preheating in my oven, but it’s never enough steam to allow for a full spring.
thx in advance!