Bread oven
When you get serious about baking bread, sooner or later you begin to think of ways to make your oven into a better baking oven for bread. First you go out and get a baking stone. Then maybe a cloche or you think of ways to line your oven more. Perhaps a stone on the top shelf as well so that it can radiate heat downward as well as hold a more intense heat. Well then you begin to wonder about what else you can do. I am at that point although I have already glimpsed beyond to my own masonry oven and/or a commercial oven (there may be one in the works). So here I am at the point where I am trying to figure out how to bake my bread even closer to a hearth oven, this is what I have done today:
Here is the set up before putting on the bottom baking stone.
And here it is with the stone:
I lined the sides of the oven with three firebrick on each side,which I stood upright because two wouldn’t fit horizontally. I then added brick to the floor in two layers to lift the baking stone up off the element. I then put another baking stone on top. The baking stones are from a kiln and are crescent shaped. Not the best shape, but heck, that is what I have to work with. One of the baking stones has the edge broken off which worked out great for me because it wouldn’t have fit otherwise. I also had the firebrick laying out behind the shed not doing anything they are 1.25 inches thick.
I have made up a batch of the Coastal Loaf bread using regular sourdough starter instead of motherdough starter, I thought I would see if it was more like a baguette or french style bread. So I will try out the stone setup tomorrow.