There’s no question you know how great your pizza oven is for baking pizza. But, have you tried it for baking bread? If not, this should be your next cooking experiment.
Bread baked in a pizza oven is delicious because it has that perfectly crispy crust you get with a pizza from your oven, yet the inside is soft.
There are a few tricks to getting baked bread to come out perfectly in a pizza oven. Outdoor ovens get very hot and can have a temperature that’s too high for bread baking. So, it’s important that you monitor the oven temperature very closely to ensure it is the right one for your recipe. Many people recommend firing up the oven to make pizza, then letting it cool down to the proper temperature before adding the bread. Remember that wood fired ovens stay hot for hours even after the fire is out.
Another trick to baking bread in a pizza oven is ensuring that the crust is brown and crusty, without being burned before the inside of the bread is done. This is a matter of placing the loaf on the right surface as well as ensuring the oven temperature is correct. Some people recommend starting your bread on a stone pizza deck and then transferring it to an oven screen for the last one fourth of the cooking time. Others suggest placing a sheet of aluminum foil between the stone pizza deck and the loaf of bread. Experiment with different methods to find which works best for you.
Finally, choose the right bread recipe. Traditional homemade white or wheat loaf bread is a great type of bread recipe for a pizza oven because it is designed to have a hard crust. The only thing you’ll miss about baking bread in a pizza oven outdoors is the smell of baking bread in your home!
