Baking bread in a wood oven

Bread is the staff of life and while you can bake bread in just about any oven there is nothing like baking bread in a wood oven to give you great flavor and an incredible crust.

The Basics of Bread Baking

In order to make a loaf of bread you need four ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt. From this base you can make any kind of bread you want. For unleavened bread you would not use a leavener like yeast. There are some basic steps to bread baking whether you are making the bread in a standard oven or if you are baking bread in a wood oven you will need to:

Scaling the Ingredients - Measuring the ingredients out, called scaling because bakers use scales to measure out their ingredients to give a more accurate measurement.  Professional recipes are usually given in weight and more often than not in metric.

Mixing the ingredients – The ingredients must be mixed according to the method being used either Straight dough, Sponge or starter method.

Fermentation – when the baker lets the leavener ferment and the dough rise

Punching – Not literally hitting the dough, you use your hand to press down on the dough to let out the gasses that have formed.

Scaling – This is when the baker scales out the bread, dividing it into loaves.

Rounding – Shaping of the loaf.

Benching – Letting the dough sit on the work surface rising for a little bit.

Makeup & Panning – braiding, shaping or placing the dough into the pan in which it will cook.

Proofing – letting the bread rise one last time, usually done in a steam environment

Baking – the actual baking part.

Cooling – letting the bread cool properly before you eat it or…

Storing  - storing the bread properly to prevent mold or staling.

Baking your Bread

Once you have your bread ready to cook it is time to get it in an oven and get it baking. If you have one handy you will find that baking bread in a wood oven will give you some of the best bread you have ever experienced.

A wood oven will usually be made of stone or brick. Any material can be used to make the oven as long as it can withstand high temperatures and hold on to heat, something called a good heat sink.

It is heated by burning wood in the oven itself hence the name. It is best to use very dry wood. At first you will notice a lot of smoke, this is natural and will usually happen when there is too much fuel (wood) in the oven. The walls will turn black with the smoke and this is expected as well.  As the wood turns to embers the intense heat will burn the smoke off of the walls of the oven and the walls will turn white hot with the heat. Ideally the oven should get hot enough to ignite the gases that collect in the oven. Once the oven has reached temperature it is time to remove the embers from the oven. After the embers are removed the floor of the oven is mopped to remove the ashes. Traditionally the embers are placed into a bucket and the bakers will roast sausages for their lunch over the embers.

The signature crust, a deep and flavorful crust, is one of the primary reasons for baking bread in a wood oven and it comes from the steam that is released from the dough as it cooks. When you seal the oven door the steam will get trapped in the oven giving you a fantastic crust.

Baking bread in a wood oven

Wood ovens are called “falling ovens” because the temperature starts very high and then falls as the bread cooks. If you were lucky enough to have access to one of these ovens the breads you could make would be dazzling. And if you are so inclined they make great pizzas as well. Whatever kind of bread you are making you will find that there is no substitute for baking bread in a wood oven.