I made a half-serious resolution to bake in the outdoor oven at least once a month, and after a few weeks with subzero temperatures, and a weekend out of town, this was my last chance for February. We had a warm up all week, but it was only about 20 degrees at 8 am when I started the fire. We have a pretty good view of the oven from the house, so I was able to load it up with fuel and keep an eye on it from inside, so it's not too bad! The only problem was the warm temps created a very muddy yard, so between me and the dog coming in and out all day my house is not a pretty sight.
For this bake, I made three batches of bread: 2 ABAA recipes: the columbia sourdough, and Ponsford's ciabatta, with a levain-risen biga. I also made a couple of loaves of my favorite multigrain sandwich bread, my own recipe adapted from Reinhart's multigran extraordinaire. I mixed the columbia the night before, and as Mountaindog suggested in another thread let it rise about an hour before refrigerating it. I pulled it first thing in the morning, and let it warm up for 3 hours or so before shaping. The ciabatta biga calls for a minute amount of yeast, so I wasn't sure how much levain to substitute. The recipe's description is that the biga may not do much for hours, but will triple in volume in 24 hours, so I decided on a couple of tablespoonfuls of levain, and it perfomed just about right. I would probably use even less in summertime, or if my starter was exuberant.
All in all it was pretty uneventful, though I'm starting to realize that I need to let the fire burn down sooner, and/or allow extra time for the oven to cool off before baking. I keep finding myself with ready-to-go loaves and a 500+ oven, which is fine for some breads but a little too hot for others. Anyway my timing was such that it was consistenly 25 degrees or so hotter than I needed for each batch. I can leave the door open to speed up the cooling, but I worry about overdoing that too. I'm still learning, obviously. Here's some pics from the day:
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid224/pae92c176bb9ee225369ca8a8ab777c4e/ea8d6492.jpg)
Multigrain loaves in the oven with chcken curry--that turned out very well (made by my SO).
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid224/pe002348376ff82ae5c8d2c062dc60643/ea8d641b.jpg)
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid212/pdea727f8cc48aa13a6c029eb2a1be5b8/ea8d6343.jpg)
Some of the ciabattas got a wee bit dark. I've had a habit of taking them out a little too early, so I left them in longer--and overdid it the other way. Everything was quite dark actually, the flash makes them look just right though... :)
Ciabatta crumb: Not bad, but a little less holey than the non-levain version I made last time. The flavor is excellent though...
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid224/p67cb77245da6aa7eeec1d2438ec506f0/ea8d64e0.jpg)
And finally, while finishing up with granola, it started snowing!! This wasn't expected to start until after midnight, but you know how that goes. I burned one batch of granola, and I blame blizzard conditions for my tardiness on checking on it! We now have 8 inches of snow with more on the way--so I'm happy at home with wayyyy too much to eat.
![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid224/pea51687abd9e56a33799c34088091c42/ea8d2057.jpg)