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Post by lemonsouffle on Jan 30, 2013 16:07:44 GMT
An update on the insulation.
I baked in the oven on Monday. On Tuesday morning the internal temp of the bricks was 100c on the walls and 85c on the floor. This morning the temp was still 45c on the walls. It seems that 4" of blanket is providing good insulation.
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leeb
valid member
Posts: 74
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Post by leeb on Jan 31, 2013 0:37:13 GMT
Thanks LS I've got a new starter on the go now. However I baked a regular white cobb today in the WFO. I've never baked bread in there before. However I let the oven cool down too much and didn't get as much spring as I'd have liked, but the taste was incredible. I can't believe the bread tastes so different to being baked in a normal oven. Now I know why bread from Artisan bakers tastes so good, it's mostly down to the ovens. How did you create the steam ? did you mop it or just spray some water in ?
LeeB
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Post by lemonsouffle on Feb 1, 2013 11:06:38 GMT
Hi Leeb even an ordinary bread dough tastes incredible from the WFO, the smell of the crust reminded of bread from the bakery near my Gran's when I was a child, a real Proustian moment . I mopped my floor with a wrung out towel to clean away the ash and to cool the floor slightly then put the bread in the oven and shut the door. According to something I read (possibly in The Bread Builders) the steam comes from the water that is driven out of the bread dough as it bakes, for this reason it is better to bake with as full an oven as possible as that will give you more steam. If you want to create more steam another technique I have read of is to wrap a wet towel around the inside of the oven door. I was in a rush on Monday as I had to finish baking before 3pm in order to get away for the school run and cooked with the floor a bit too hot so we had a black crust on the bottom but the oven spring was good. Perhaps that is a trade off that you have to live with. I'm looking forward to another bake on Sunday. How long does your oven stay hot for after you rake out the fire? Hope your sourdough starter goes well. LS
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leeb
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Posts: 74
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Post by leeb on Feb 1, 2013 12:25:07 GMT
Hi LS I didn't bother with the mop as I heard you can crack your floor bricks if your not careful. I probably didn't get a lot of steam as I only did one loaf. After cooking pizza's the temperature dropped to around 250 then I decided to make some bread so about 3 hours later I was ready but the oven was about 180 which cooked it ok but not too much spring. I normally leave my ashes in the oven to cool which helps keep the temperature up for longer. This was the first time I've swept out, and even though it was quite chilly outside I still had 100 degrees in there the next day(ashes in, in the summer months 150). Which we used to cook a stew for 5 hours. Sourdough seems to be coming along nicely
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Post by tonyb on Feb 3, 2013 14:48:07 GMT
LS, I've also found that judging the temp for putting the bread in isn't as easy as it sounds, and very much art than science (though it helps to understand the physics/chemistry:) ). Its also important to let the wfo equalise temp which in my experience takes longer than you think.
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Post by cannyfradock on Feb 3, 2013 18:56:06 GMT
LS It's nice to give advice but I am learning so much from your posts (and the other chaps) that I'm taking a back seat and learning from this thread. Terry p.s.....just to mention that a few of us from the forum go once a year to a bakers bash and join up with members of the old Dan Lepard forum. Here's some pics www.flickr.com/photos/b5pics/ ...I always post the event (once we have scrounged a venue) on the forum....don't know if this interests you?
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Post by lemonsouffle on Feb 5, 2013 11:08:18 GMT
Hi All, thanks for the comments, it's great to be able to exchange ideas with other WFO bakers. Tonyb - I absolutely agree that judging the oven is more art than science. We are recording time and temp with each firing to help us plan oven firings in future. At first I was worried about leaving too long after raking out the embers and the oven cooling down, but my fears are unfounded. We now have a probe thermometer in the oven door so can get a measure of the air temperature in the oven but I still need to understand how baking in the WFO compares with my electric oven at any given temperature. I foresee lots of very tasty experiments coming up over the next few weeks. In an ideal world I will be able to plan a big bake every couple of weeks to make bread and cakes to stock up the freezer. Here is the probe in the door with the door in the "Firing" position held in place with spare bricks Leeb - if you don't mop the floor how do you clean away all the ash before you bake? I use a brass bristle pizza oven brush but after I've swept out the floor still seems to be quite dusty and the mopping with a damp rag picks up the last of the ash. This weekend we held a Birthday Video and Pizza Party on sunday afternoon and all went well. The oven took about 2 hours to heat up and 10 pizzas were successfully cooked taking about 2-3 mins each. Mr LS is now a dab hand with the pizza peel. And a cooked pizza I think next time I will roll out the bases a bit thinner, I was worried about the base being too thin and not sliding off the peel but they were ok. A big difference compared to cooking in an electric oven is the way the base expands on cooking. We will also keep a larger fire in the oven with bigger flames while cooking the pizza and then I think they will cook faster. After the pizzas I cooked some bread and then the oven was still so warm I mixed up a batch of raspberry muffins. Again the bread and the muffins rose so well compared to the doemstic oven. Here are some more pictures And the whole bake The oven was still at 180C at 10:30pm so I could have made lots more ;D
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Post by turkey on Feb 5, 2013 13:11:29 GMT
glad to see the oven is getting used even in this weather. I keep trying to kick start myself into going out and firing mine up as I think mine needs plenty of fresh drying fires after this winter but always something else pops up. Now if I could could bake bread like that I know I would be out there, thoes are some very tasty looking loaves
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Post by lemonsouffle on Jun 24, 2013 12:18:15 GMT
Hi Everyone, we haven't posted for a while because I've been too busy baking Decided it was time for an update because we have now completed the finishing touches on the oven, for now at least. I don't want to tempt fate by saying it is actually finished. Here is what we have done: First we painted the dome cream and the chimney black Then we bought some slate tiles to finish off the top of the slab and learnt how to do tiling When the tiling was complete Finally we rendered the base and made a little brick arch to finish off the entrance to the wood store Then painted the base with masonry paint And another view And a close up So thank you to everyone for words of advice and encouragement over the last year. LS
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nixie
WFO Team Player
Posts: 144
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Post by nixie on Jun 24, 2013 13:38:08 GMT
LS, that's a great looking oven you have there.
Could you tell me where the 500deg oven door thermometer came from please, I can only seem to find 350 deg ones! Thanks.
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Post by lemonsouffle on Jun 24, 2013 16:50:46 GMT
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Post by cannyfradock on Jun 24, 2013 19:19:40 GMT
Hey Lemonsouffle
......there's some serious ovens starting to grace our forum lately....welcome aboard!!
Terry
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Post by rivergirl on Jun 25, 2013 7:16:01 GMT
Seriously cool!! I have started collecting the stuff to do a small Build here in blighty if it looks half as cool as that I will be pleased !!
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Post by rcorbie on Oct 25, 2013 8:53:07 GMT
This North London Build is excellent!
I have almost completed my build in South London and have only come across this forum yesterday. Having seen this build, I can see mine is very similar - the chimney in particular - and feel a bit more confident in my contruction as I have had to wing it quite a bit!
R
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