I found a website recently and have tried out this technique used to
transform your regular oven into a hearth brick oven. It made great artisan
loafs. I've baked a couple loafs of sourdough, rustic potato bread, and
french bread. I experienced a bigger raise from the dough and got a crisp
crust. It also makes a great pizza. Just thought I'd share it.
Simulation of a More "Complete" Masonry Oven
Kenneth Sole
Using both a high quality mercury calibration thermometer and a "contact"
thermometer of the sort used to measure the surface temperature of a wood
stove, Mr. Sole had determined that he can achieve temperatures of about
700 F in a standard home oven set to 500 F.
A ring of fire bricks are stood on end on a soapstone baking sheet. An
opening is left in the front wide enough for the peel. The oven heats until
the oven thermostat tells it that the air within is 500 F. It then shuts
off the gas, and start to cool. The air cools much more rapidly than the
mass of bricks. Assume that the oven thermostat has a "swing" of 50 F. When
the air in the oven drops to 450 F, on comes the gas to heat the oven once
again. At that moment, the bricks would be significantly hotter than the
air. The gas keeps cycling on and off in this fashion, each time increasing
the temperature of the bricks.
At the point when the bricks and air reach the temperatures defined above,
the dough goes into the oven. Mr. Sole states, "...The results astounded
me. I have used today's recipe for years, but the spring this time was
perhaps 50% greater than ever before".
The Artisan Baker has built and used this simulated masonry chamber in an
electric oven, and it works as well in this situation as in Mr. Sole's gas
oven. The photo <http://www.theartisan.net/fire_brick.jpg> depicts the
setup in an electric oven. As can be seen, the weight of the bricks on the
rack causes the rack to sag a bit toward the enter. We suggest that prior
to using this setup, a call be made to your oven manufacturer to ascertain
the estimated weight load that your rack can handle. Lighter refractory
brick may be used to obviate this problem, but they are more difficult to
obtain. Half thickness brick are available, and would probably work as well
if they are not thinner than the spacings on the rack itself. For example,
in the oven depicted here, the rack spacings are approximately 1 inch, but
the thinner bricks are about 1/16" narrower, and fall through the spacings.
This was taken from http://www.theartisan.net/MainCommFrm.htm
I also added a second baking stone on top of the bricks held up by a second
rack. This, I thought would make a more complete oven.
Good luck
Mike Dixon
