Organize to Bake with a Wood Fired Pizza Oven
Make a Schedule for Baking Pizzas, Breads, and More in an Earth Oven
Sep 13, 2009
It takes time to build a fire in a clay bread oven and get the temperature hot enough for baking, so it makes sense to maximize the oven's heat by baking several things on one firing. With a little organization, baking day can be very productive and go very smoothly.
Advanced Preparation Needed for Sour Dough Breads
A day or so before baking, review the recipes to be used. Some recipes, like sourdough breads, require a couple day's advanced preparation. The starter needs to be fed 12 hours or so before using it, and often a “sponge” (a mixture of a little flour, the sourdough starter and water) needs to be made 24 hours or so before baking, and allowed to rise overnight in the refrigerator. None of these things are very time consuming or labor intensive, but they do have to happen in a timely manner.
Create a Time Line for the Kitchen Preparation
When reviewing recipes, note how long each dough needs to rise. Sourdough breads may take a total of six to eight hours for the two risings. Most yeast breads require two to four hours to rise, and most pizza dough takes an hour or so of rising time. Obviously baked goods requiring the longest rising time need to be mixed first. Set a target time for the baking, and work backwards. Most bakers find a written schedule makes baking day flow smoothly. List the times and the tasks to be done. For example:
- 8:00, take sour dough sponge out of refrigerator, add flour, knead, and set to rise.
- 12:00, punch down sour dough bread, and form loaves. Mix dinner roll dough.
- 1:30, mix pita bread dough.
- 2:00, start the fire. Form dinner rolls and set aside for second rising.
- 3:00, mix pizza dough and set to rise, form pita bread rounds.
- 4:00, roll out the pizza dough, add toppings. Begin baking pita bread.
Start the Fire in the Clay Oven
About two to two and half hours before baking, start the fire in the clay oven. Keeping the fire burning hot takes vigilance, so having someone who can tend the fire makes this part of the process go much smoother.
Set up a Work Space Outside Next to the Pizza Oven
Set up a table near the oven. It is handy to keep oven mitts, oven peel, oven thermometer, kitchen timer, cooling racks, and other tools at the ready on the table. (Unbaked breads should stay in the kitchen until time to put them into the oven because yeast breads and sourdoughs do not respond well to temperature fluctuations.)
Create a Baking Schedule
The oven starts out very hot, of course, and continually cools over a period of several hours. Line the baked goods up in the kitchen in order they'll go in the oven. For example:
- 700 degrees--pita bread
- 600 degrees--crackers
- 500 degrees--pizzas
- 450 degrees--artisan breads
- 375 degrees--soft crusted breads
- 350 degrees--vegetables or meats
With a little organization, a small clay oven can bake several weeks worth of bread, pies, muffins and other baked goods, and roasting vegetables and meats too.
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