Electrically Heating Your Oven

[albacore]

Before any pizza purists (including me) start throwing a wobbler, I'm not suggesting cooking pizza this way, just bread.

I've come to the conclusion that my domestic oven does not cook bread very well, and you can't get many loaves in at once. What I really want is one of these. But they don't come cheap and need plenty of space.
Then I thought, what about using the pizza oven? I wouldn't really want to fire it with wood every time I made bread, but what if you could heat that oven cavity electrically?
My first thought was just to bung a fan heater in, but of course the heater would have to be heat-proof! I think you would need an external heater with a fan and flexible pipes to connect to the oven - maybe via the door?
I'll probably never get round to trying it, but I think it's an interesting avenue to explore, especially for anyone baking loaves on a small commercial scale.

Lance

[awalker]

It could work. Not cheap to heat though.
I have pizza one day then next day it's in with bread or roast. Use the left over heat a bit more. Good luck

[downunderdave]

My wife and I were holidaying in Sicily early last year and I was keeping an eye out.for a suitable restaurant with a wood fired oven. In Taormina I selected a restaurant that had a large wood fired pizza oven sign out the front and was not too put off by one of the pizzas on their menu. It was Pizza Americana: hot dog and chips! Once we had ordered (not pizza Americana) I got up from the table to get a closer look at their oven and thought something was not quite right as I approached. There was no fire flicker and when I peered into the oven saw a large round electric element sitting to one side of centre. Our pizza was cooked for 2.5 mins, so it must have been pretty hot. When I challenged the waiter "no forno legne" he said it was "bad for the pizza" as my Italian was worse than his English I chose not to argue the point. The pizza was not bad but I was disappointed. Maybe wood was dearer than electricity there or convenience won out, but it didn't win me.

[chas]

Nov 24, 2016 21:22:48 GMT albacore said:

Before any pizza purists (including me) start throwing a wobbler, I'm not suggesting cooking pizza this way, just bread.

I've come to the conclusion that my domestic oven does not cook bread very well, and you can't get many loaves in at once. What I really want is one of these. But they don't come cheap and need plenty of space.
Then I thought, what about using the pizza oven? I wouldn't really want to fire it with wood every time I made bread, but what if you could heat that oven cavity electrically?
My first thought was just to bung a fan heater in, but of course the heater would have to be heat-proof! I think you would need an external heater with a fan and flexible pipes to connect to the oven - maybe via the door?
I'll probably never get round to trying it, but I think it's an interesting avenue to explore, especially for anyone baking loaves on a small commercial scale.

Lance

Instad of electricity, what about calor gas? It's used in caravan ovens, so must be 'food safe'. I have a calor ring of the sort used for melting pitch for flooring - that sort of thing would slide in ok.

Chas

[downunderdave]

Be careful, those burners are not designed to be operated in an enclosed space like an oven.
There are two problems, firstly they don't have a flame failure device and they do tend to go out sometimes which can lead you to have a hot oven full of unburnt gas so take care it is purged before relighting. The other problem is that being in an enclosed space means that it will tend to cook the flexible hose and create gas leaks it attaches to the burner. You need to modify it by adding a length of copper pipe between the burner and the flexible hose.