Hi Stan – your comment evoked a thorough answer – and a flood of memories, so I put it all into a separate post, at http://leslieland.com/2012/03/building-an-outdoor-bread-oven-part-two. Thanks SO much for asking, and making it happen!

Blessings

Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the good words! And for bringing up the question. It’s such a good one I asked Bill to write up the answer as a footnote to the post, so everyone would be sure to see it. Your experiment sounds fascinating and we hope you will write back and tell us about the results.
Leslie

Yes the bread, the thin pizzas, the pies, the roasted tomatoes are all wonderful. This process seems to use the best of both the hot smoke infusion and, particularly for the secondary baking, the long cooler ‘slow’ cooking as it once was and still can be.

I remember some twenty or thirty years ago discovering the pleasure of a Catskill bread bakery which then used a true wood fired oven. Superp crusts, tender crumb, and rich smoky flavor enough to write home about (reminded me of the bakery in the village of Fontan-Saorges on the Roya River in Alpes Maritimes where I spent a few summers) Alas that bakery in the Catskills has now gone decidedly thin and flat as they have increased production and softened their crusts for a broader market.

The breads that Leslie bakes however are as good as can be. Pester her a bit to write about how she does it. And as Steve writes in the previous comment, the dutch oven bread made in the conventional oven will also knock your socks off, better than almost any ‘Artisan’ bread I have found.

I am so lucky!

I must admit I am behind the curve in construction but plan to recomitt this spring.

To all bread lovers, you might wish to beg for the dutch oven bread, Leslie makes. It is beyond belief.

Steve Balme

The French Canadians used clay to make both the floor and walls of their bread ovens. Since we used cement we tried it that way first, just baking on the cement. It worked, but not as well as we thought it should, so we obtained some 1″ thick fire bricks and paved floor of the oven with those. They are somewhat porous so are good at holding some water when the oven is swabbed out. Being light in weight and color I thought they might be made of pumice. Info on the net however indicated that are probably made with aluminum oxide. They work very well.

On the net I also found suggestions from other oven builders who used red fire bricks. Whichever ones you choose, there seem to be many outlets that come up with a ‘fire brick’ Google search.

Let us know which way you decide to go and how it all turns out.

Thanks,
Bill

I am glad you all enjoyed the post on our ovens.
Paul, thanks for the heads-up on the Denzer book. At only $19 it looks like a great buy. And luck to both you and Nico this summer with yur plans to construct an oven.

Anne, In my bread oven files is an Autumn 1989 issue of Simple Cooking (John Thorne editor) in which a small indoor brick oven from Oven Crafters (Tomales California)was featured. In this same issue the advantages of using a Superstone LaCloche stoneware baking dome to achieve results similar to those produced by a wood-fired oven was also discussed. Simple Cooking continues on as a web site and blog http://www.outlawcook.com/ where you may be able to ask about these home friendly items.

Bill

Thanks for another great article.

Kiko Denzer http://www.intabas.com/kikodenzer.html wrote a great book on building clay ovens. I highly recommend it. I plan on using the plans (or some derivative there of) when I build my clay oven with my boys this summer.

Cheers,

Paul