Every now and then we get motivated enough to bake things in the outdoor brick oven. The Outdoor Oven Project, as it came to be known as, was something that we undertook in 2002 after reading about one that had been built in a nearby village. With nothing more than the basic instructions and drawings included in the book "The Bread Builders" and help from an on-line group of similar minded people, I decided that having an outdoor oven to our cottage at Lac La Nonne was exactly what the place needed.
"The Bread Builders" book by Alan Scott and Dan Wing includes detailed plans for constructing an outdoor Pizza/Bread Oven
After a 3-4 hour burn the coals are scooped out with a long handled dustpan and oven cavity cleaned of any ash residue. At this point the oven is around 800 degF and perfect for cooking pizza or thin flat bread. Later in the day as the temperature drops to 600 degF bread can be baked. After that, as the temperature continues to fall, anything that can be cooked in a conventional oven can be cooked in this oven. We've cooked pizza, roasts, chickens, whole salmon, baked beans, ribs, muffins, crackers and even a whole turkey. If the oven door is kept closed, to retain the heat between loadings, cooking can take place over the next three days without re-firing. The hardest part is preparing everything to be cooked in this three to four day period.
Today we kept the list short. Four loaves of sourdough bread, followed by pork back ribs in a cast iron pot and lastly, a lemon cake.
600 degrees and 35 minutes later we have sour dough bread.
A stack of back ribs, BBQ sauce, onions and one can of beer. Enough for six.
Yvonne's glazed lemon cake with real Az lemons
