I cooked a large batch of bread in our wood fired oven. Eleven loaves. Filled up most the oven. My goal was to get enough wet dough packed in there to generate enough steam to get a good oven spring on the bread. The sexy eruption that happens on the top of a loaf.
It didn’t happen. The bread was still great tasting and had plenty of airiness to it. Just no eruptions. It took a week to cure the moisture out of the oven castings when I first built it and I am paranoid about reintroducing too much back in. Between Bola Pizza at the Farmers Market and my own cooking, I’m firing the oven at least a couple times a week. I probably shouldn’t be that worried about it.
Dough rising in my improvised, Dollar Store setup. Plastic Bowls: $1 each. Blue Tea Towel: $1. It was my first visit to the Dollar Store. Interesting thing to note: not one thing in the place had a price tag on it. Strange.
Improvised dough slashing tool: First, go get some Chinese food and take a second set of chopsticks home. Next, start shaving like an old-timer, with a double edged safety razor (blades are 10 cents, take that Gillette!). Finally, merge the Far East and old-timeyness into your baking habit.
Eleven loaves?!? You are going to have to start selling sandwiches at the market, as well.
That bread looks great! Looking forward to some pizza tonight. Apropos for Fat Tuesday.