Saturday Focaccia Lunch

What a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I had to get some yard chores done and I'm thinking "what better way than to fire up the oven to help keep my mind off the yardwork".

I made some dough up late morning and by 3 pm the focaccia were done.

Sunday Dinner

Finally went back to try my hand at making some dough and pizza. Now that tomatoes are coming in a bit and my basil is bustin out, what more of a reason do I need then to make some fresh pesto and native tomato pizza. Here a some pics of last nights creations.

For more pics visit my photobucket album at
 http://s778.photobucket.com/albums/yy67/Valleyman_bucket/Wood%20Fired%20Oven/

Memorial Day Weekend Pizza

Well on this beautiful Memorial Day weekend we had our 1st backyard party which included grill food near the pool and pizza down further in the back. Thanks to all my help especially my brother in law Mo who managed the two grills which enabled me to focus on  pizza making. The night before the party I made 5 batches of dough which yielded 8 pizzas, 1 rosemary garlic focaccia, 1 baguette style bread, and some breadsticks. Yep, a carbo loaded food fest!

I was so busy trying to keep everything coordinated I didn't get much in the way of pictures. All in all it was a good time and a some more experience for me.

Baked my first Loaves of Bread!

Well yesterday I set out to make a door for the oven with the hopes of trying my luck at some bread baking. Below is the oven loaded with loaves and closed off with the door soaked in water .

So I quickly learned how much skill is needed to make  and bake bread. The once risen dough was cut  and shaped into four loaves and were placed onto cookie sheets dusted with cornmeal (not enough I found out). When I went to move the loaves onto the peel they were stuck to the cookie sheets. I nudged them free and the nice fluffy loaves sank and never came back up.

Here are the loaves of bread. A little flatter than I'd hoped but  tasted really good dipped in some olive oil with a touch of salt.

Modifying the oven floor

The  image below shows an early attempt of making pizza in the oven in 2009.  I spent a lot of time constructing the fire arch for syrup season last year. In the late autumn I decided to try the oven for cooking  pizza. So using our existing pizza stone I placed it on top of the fire grates to form the floor of the oven.

While it served it's purpose well it didn't survive the harsh temperature changes of being outside. So I went  into this season planning to put in a floor consisting of fire brick. To make a level surface, I placed a  piece of sheet metal cut to fit the floor. Next I used sand to level the bricks. This worked pretty well but after 5 hours of fire in the hole the bricks became slightly uneven.

I attribute that to the metal heating up and buckling up slightly. My next fix will to get some refractory insulation board and place that on top of the sheet metal then place the brick on top of that. I may still need to put a 1/2" of sand to stabilize the bricks.

From the outside, the  whole unit was warm to the touch so I'm also going to put a layer of the insulating board on top and on the backside of the rear wall. Without major revisions to modify the side walls, they will remain as is.

More Tweaks to my Oven

Put some finishing touches on the facade to make the oven look a little better. Jamie (my daughter) and I made some dough in the morning and later in the day I tried my luck on  a Garlic, Rosemary, and Tomato Focaccia.

Turned out like a pizza but was delicious. Later in the evening I made a tradditional sauce and mozz pie, a spinach and riccotta pie, and after the oven heat dropped some, I finished with a spinach bread. I need a lot of practice but for a novice I'm pleased.

The Grand Conversion

Well syrup making is over and what better way to utilize my fire arch and continue to be outside you ask?  Well I'm modifying the arch into a Wood Fired Brick Oven. I'm in the early stages and keeping in mind that the structure will return to it's original purpose of boiling down sap to produce syrup, I'm constructing / modifying it in a modular fashion. Below are before modification and after.