Bread-Bakers v006.n076.3

Hello fellow bakers:

As I've learned more and more about bread, I've found that I'm 
becoming more and more interested in reducing the baking process to its 
most rudimentary forms.  Four years ago I was thoroughly incapable of 
baking bread from scratch -- I ended up with grain-based equivalents of 
concrete blocks.  Then I got a bread machine, which served as "training 
wheels" (as baker and cookbook author Dan Leader would describe it).  I've 
graduated to using a KitchenAid mixer for making dough, and using a 
grain mill to grind my own flour, and am presently quite content with 
them.  However, I'm interested in more than my electric oven can do for my 
breads.

Does anyone on this list have experience with, or knowledge of, baking 
bread in brick ovens?  I don't mean the commerical variety.  I'm seeking 
information on building and using homestyle and homesize brick or stone 
ovens.  Is this something a person can build and keep out in the yard?  
How is it constructed?  How is it used?  Where can I find technical plans 
and information?  I destroy baking stones pretty easily and don't want to 
invest in more of them.  I think that clay flower-pot saucers may be okay, 
but their use is limited.  (My house isn't air-conditioned, and baking 
indoors during the summer is out of the question.)  I would appreciate any 
and all information that people can suggest.  Thank you.


Angie Klidzejs                      Internet:  a-klid@maroon.tc.umn.edu
Accountant
Department of Horticultural Science
University of Minnesota
305 Alderman Hall
1970 Folwell Avenue                            Telephone:  (612) 624-3795
Saint Paul, MN 55108   U.S.A.                  Fax:  (612) 624-4941