Post by esther on Oct 26, 2010 10:05:16 GMT -5
Has anyone ever used a beehive bake oven before? I'm a newbie at it and I am teaching myself how to use one through trial and error. If anyone has any advice about using a beehive bake oven, or can point me to online information about using them, I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, please share any receipts if you have them.
Here are pics of my first attempt at using a beehive bake oven.
The oven, once I shoveled the hot ashes/embers out of it:
The bread, once it was done:
Some notes to self, for the next time:
After I let the dough rise, punched it down, formed the loaves and let them rise again, I think I need to flour the surface that I let the loaves rise on better. They stuck to the surface and when I pulled them up, they stuck and the loaves fell. It still made a good bread, but it was dense because of this.
I need to make a smaller fire in the oven. It will be much more manageable when it comes time to shovel the ashes out and swab the insides of the oven. We also had trouble regulating the temperature of the oven because it was way too hot. The oven took too long to cool down enough to be able to cook in it. Also, the bread was cooking too much on the outside and not enough on the inside. I also need to make smaller loaves next time, they seem to cook more evenly.
All in all, the loaves turned out well, but they could have been better. But it certainly was an excellent first try. Baking with these methods certainly gives you a feel for how hard people worked and for the skill involved. This was an all day task for us!
Here are pics of my first attempt at using a beehive bake oven.
The oven, once I shoveled the hot ashes/embers out of it:
The bread, once it was done:
Some notes to self, for the next time:
After I let the dough rise, punched it down, formed the loaves and let them rise again, I think I need to flour the surface that I let the loaves rise on better. They stuck to the surface and when I pulled them up, they stuck and the loaves fell. It still made a good bread, but it was dense because of this.
I need to make a smaller fire in the oven. It will be much more manageable when it comes time to shovel the ashes out and swab the insides of the oven. We also had trouble regulating the temperature of the oven because it was way too hot. The oven took too long to cool down enough to be able to cook in it. Also, the bread was cooking too much on the outside and not enough on the inside. I also need to make smaller loaves next time, they seem to cook more evenly.
All in all, the loaves turned out well, but they could have been better. But it certainly was an excellent first try. Baking with these methods certainly gives you a feel for how hard people worked and for the skill involved. This was an all day task for us!