Thursday, March 1, 2018

Fourneau Oven & A New Batard

Fourneau Bread Oven, and my very first batard

How long have I been writing this blog. Yeah, yeah, the hiatus. I know. BUT, how long have I been writing this blog and NO batard? Forever long, that's how long. I do have one crazy thing that I tried to call a batard posted somewhere. The name of the post might be 'bread fail', and it might be on my other blog the Tartine Bread Experiment. But today, dear reader, I give you batard, a real batard.


Rosemary-Fontina Batard

It's not so much the bread formula that matters here, rather, the shape of the thing and how I got there. Although I am including the formula below. It was a 'throw together' bread, but man did it come out smashingly, so, I'll share it with you (smile emoji).

UPDATE: Hey everyone! I have a code for you to use. If you want to purchase the oven, click here to go to Fourneau's site, and apply this code at checkout GMRFOURNEAU15 for 15% off your order. Woohoo!

OK, so, you all know how hard it is to make a batard. Your best shaping, your best intentions, and the thing puddles in the oven like nobody's business because you just can't get the steam situation worked out. And yo! I have tried it ALL, from lava rocks, to squirt bottles, to ice cubes in a hot pan, to hot wet towels. Every one of these 'methods' ended in horrible failure for me, some of them perilously so. Like, lava rocks? Seriously dangerous! You toss ice water on them and they sputter in your face and burn your eyelids, and to drive the point home, they snuff out the pilot light. Many a time have I reached my naked arm into the back of a 500 degree oven to relight it with images of the thing blowing up in my face, and always, always this ends with burned arms and knuckles and days of blisters and cold showers. Squirt bottles are just silly. Dozens of burned towels with the wadded-up-wet-towel situation, and ice cubes in a hot pan is tantamount to a chemical peel, but without the radiant skin results. And damned if I'm ruining my $300 Staub for a loaf of bread. I love you bread, but puhleeze.

I have been praying that someone, please dear cast iron gods, someone brilliant make up an oval combo cooker. In the height of a bread revolution, you would think, right? Someone? Anyone?

Crickets.

So round it is. Round. Round. ROUND loaves of bread! Again, bread, love ya, but damn I'm bored.

So one day I'm lying in bed, right, thinking of bread (of course), and in an unprovoked, angry fit I shouted 'someone has got to come up with an oval combo cooker!' I'm not kidding. It was a moment of out of the blue madness. I went online and typed in that very sentence, and what would happen? The sky opened up, that's what happened. The clouds parted, angels came tumbling out of the cosmos and handed me this beautiful cast iron gem:

Fourneau Bread Oven

OMG. Fourneau... will you marry me? I am on my knees in love.

I ordered my little oven (get yours here), got it Monday, and today, today I pulled out the most beautiful bread I have made in years. It kept the batard shape, as I hoped it would, the crust was sublime, the crumb was as wide open as the sky that this little beauty fell from, and it is as easy to work with as a simple combo cooker. Man alive. I want two. I want two so I can make twin loaves. Dear reader, this thing is the best thing that has happened to my bread life since my Komo mill.

The Fourneau crumb

I must admit, because I am so used to making les boules, my batard shaping skills are wanting. I did the best that I could, (heaven forbid I should simply open one of my 50 bread books to figure it out) but I promise I'll keep working on it so I can post prettier loaves with mirrored ends. Don't judge.

But back to my little oven.

Who is Fourneau? They are a dynamic duo who own Strand Design, a Chicago based company that crafts beautiful things using sustainably sourced and locally manufactured materials. They created Fourneau for us, the serious novices who bake bread, who know bread, and who have been longing for something like this forever. The first loaf I pulled from this contraption came out as perfectly as the batard of my dreams, and I would never have been able to make this without it. No more nights pining away for a $50K professional steam oven just so I can make a batard.

The Fourneau requires zero learning curve. It works just like the combo cooker, so you can seamlessly transition from round 😴 to batard 🤩 without having to take a quantum physics course first. You just pop it in the oven an hour before you plan to bake, load up your dough, close the little door, and the magic happens. If you don't already have one, you are going to need a genuine batard shaped banneton. No getting around it. It took me an hour to come up with something that would hold my dough properly, and I ended up sacrificing an old oblong tupperware container. Not sexy at all. And I almost took some fingers off slicing the ends of the thing open with an Xacto knife.


I have included links Fourneau's beautifully and simply designed website. I honestly cannot praise this device high enough. I got their 2.0 version, which comes with a plateau baking tray, silicone baking mat, and cast iron handle to keep your bottoms from going dark. But you really need to also get the wooden peel. Because it's bomb/super sexy. If you can, you should grab one before summer (honestly, you will want two, so if it's in your budget...), and please, please write me and tell me you've gotten it, and how your bread comes out. I have a feeling round 😖 combo cookers far and wide are going to be taking forced sabbaticals.

Here's the formula for my very first real batard. Hooray! My little Fourneau!

ROSEMARY-FONTINA BATARD

MAKE YOUR LEVAIN
For the levain, you will need

75g freshly milled whole wheat flour*
75g h2o
12g 100% hydration, 100% rye starter

Mix together your levain ingredients and ferment in a large enough bowl to hold tomorrow's dough. Mine fermented for 8 hours.

DOUGH DAY
For the dough, you will need

All of the levain
367g h2o
426g Giusto's Artisan flour*
74g freshly milled whole wheat flour**
10g kosher salt, I used Diamond
120g fontina cheese (use the real stuff), cubed
5g whole, fresh rosemary leaves

*You can use Bob's Red Mill Artisan, King Arthur All Purpose, or whatever bread flour you usually use. But Giusto's is the best. Just sayin'.

**I use Great River Milling Co.'s hard red spring wheat berries, but you can totally use whatever whole wheat flour you have on hand. It just won't be as good. Kidding.


When your levain is properly fermented, add the h2o and flours to the bowl holding it, and mix everything together until you reach a shaggy mass. 

Autolyse for 1 hour 30 minutes. After the autolyse, squish the salt and rosemary into the dough until it's fully incorporated work the dough into a smooth mass. Now it's time for the 3 hour 30 minute bulk fermentation. Here you will perform a series of turns every half-hour for the first hour and a half taking care not to deflate the dough. The last of these turns, you will fold in the cheese (photographed below). Leave it be for the final 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a workspace dusted with some freshly milled brown rice flour. Shape into a loose batard. Let it rest on the bench for 10 minutes, then shape into a tight batard

Pop into a batard shaped banneton or some reasonable facsimile thereof, seam side up.  Chuck it in the fridge and ferment. Mine went for 21 hours 30 minutes.

BAKE DAY

Preheat the oven to 500 with a Fourneau oven and baking stone inside.

Invert the banneton over a peel -- either the plateau baking tray with silicone baking mat, or the wood peel that you've purchased, which fits perfectly into the mouth of the Fourneau oven -- seam side down.

Slash the dough down its center. Slide it into Fourneau oven. Close the little iron door, and steam for 15 minutes at this temp. Then turn the oven down to 475 and steam for another 15 minutes.

After the steam, remove the little door from the Fourneau oven and bake out till a thermometer inserted into the center of the batard reads 210 degrees. You will have to toggle the heat between 425 and 450 degrees, depending on how much of your cheese oozed out. The cheese will burn quickly, so, you will have to err on the side of lower temp if you have major ooze.

Cool on a wire rack for at least two hours before slicing.

To the staff of life!

DOUGH DAY
 Squish the salt and rosemary into the dough.

Sprinkle a third of the cheese over the dough, fold a flap of dough over that, prinkle with another third, fold another flap of dough over that, repeat with the last third, and encase the last of the cheese in a flap of dough so that it's all concealed within the dough.

(Feel free to contact me and chastise me about my unresearched batard shaping skills)

 When the dough has finished its bulk, scrape the dough onto a clean counter.

  Fold one third of it over the center third.

 Fold the final third over the center of the dough.

 Then fold the bottom half of the dough up past the center of the dough.

 And fold the small flap of dough down over that to make a neat package. Rest for 10 minutes.

After the bench, I rolled the dough into an even tighter batard by bringing the long sides over one another. 

Pop into a well-floured banneton.

BAKE DAY
Shape and slash the dough.

THE HEADSHOTS
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43 comments:

  1. Dang, girl!!!! You got skills. No but really, this was fascinating to read. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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    1. OMG, Alexandra. You totally cracked me up! lol. YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE THIS! But I was going to do my next post of your three-seed crackers! I have your page open as we speak! A post, of course, with all the proper arrows pointing your way.

      Cheers sis!

      xo

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  2. Is there flour missing?

    367g h2o
    73g hand-bolted whole wheat flour*

    Looks great!

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    1. Lord! Jenpet! lol. actually, I noticed that in the wee hours in the morning and changed it. That happens with my posts. I have to post, then let it sit, then I have to revisit it first thing in the morning to correct typos. THANK YOU for the discovery! xo

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    2. Thank you for sharing it! I will try today!

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  3. "Yeah, yeah, the hiatus, I know." The hiatus has resulted in a load of inspiration from you! Your enthusiasm is infectious ... that batard looks like food of the gods, as does the Allium loaf in the previous post. The Fourneau is a terrific discovery, as the batard is just a more sensible shape for slicing consistently-sized pieces of bread. OK, add one Fourneau to my wish list!

    One question ... what about pulling the steamed loaf out of the Fourneau and finishing it in the direct heat of the oven? Would it result in a different crust or colour? The crust in your pictures looks pretty spectacular as it is, and hard to improve on. But would the batard benefit from being outside the Fourneau's dark little cave?

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    1. Junkopartner, at this rate, I'm gonna have you go broke! lol. We have how many things on that list now?? And upgrades WITHIN the list, if you'll recall!

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    2. Also, Junkopartner... hm. Not sure about finishing it in the direct heat of the oven. I mean, sure, why not, but the crust was pretty perfect, so, there was no pressing feeling that I should take it from its little cave to finish the bake. The only advantage to that, I think, would be to pull it out so you can load up another and bake two loaves, if you only want to buy one of the ovens. It also never dawned on me to pull the boule out of the combo cooker. I never have an issue with black bottoms because of how I direct readers to nestle the pan in the mouth of the pot. Placing a loaf directly on the stone WILL blacken the bottom. So keep that in mind. And parchment does nothing to prevent this. x

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    3. (I have tossed boules back into the oven for a little more color after pulling them out and feeling they should go a little longer, and the result was always a black bottom when I baked them even briefly directly on the stone...)

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    4. I always end up with the bottom being too dark. What is your tip about nestling the pan?

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    5. Hey Stephanie. I never have an issue with black bottoms because of how I direct readers to nestle the pan in the mouth of the pot after the steam. You just place the shallow end of the pot over the fat end, which creates a buffer between the bread bottom and the hot stone. You can't do this if you have a stander Le Creuset pot, unless it's an actual combo cooker with a shallow and a fat end. I hope this helps!

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  4. Sure, 2 lodge dutch ovens, a Le creuset cast iron pot (what my first loaves cooked in), a clay cloche... what harm could one more cast iron bread cooking device cause?

    It’s not like my wife might divorce me for having too many heavy pots hanging around is it?

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    1. au contraire! she is probably thrilled to have someone who bakes so avidly! 😍

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    2. So, when you load the Fourneau do you use the peel? Keen the bits seperate, and then seal it in?

      Had a bit of an incident where not enough rice flour on the peel caused the loaf to not go smoothly into the oven (partly because it was too big)

      Also the recipe for cider bread sounds interesting.

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    3. Hey argh128, i used the wood peel from Fourneau and a sheet of parchment for easy sliding off the peel. I did get a dark bottom. I ALWAYS use parchment when sliding. Never just rice flour. Doesn't slide enough for me :)

      I have the silicone baking sheets/metal plateau baking tray which prevents black bottoms, and will be doing a post this week using it to show everyone the bottom.

      I made sure to use a banneton that was narrow enough so that the fermented dough would not be too wide to fit into the oven.

      Did you get an oven??

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    4. I did, it’s a little smaller then I expected.

      The parchment paper cut to the right side would work really well.

      No burnt bottom on mine, just a burnt end where the door mashed the dough because it didn’t get in the oven far enough.

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    5. Hey argh128. Yeah. I knew that making the dough/parchment would be key. Really tighten that batard and get a banneton that's smaller in width/length than the oven. Once you have something that fits and works, you're golden. Mine was a hair long too. Not too bad. But I did have room on the sides, so, next time I will make the batard a little shorter and a little fatter. That should do it! Check back for the post this week. I'm going to research some shaping so that we can use the same method for our new ovens and never have to deal with smashed noses again!

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    6. (when I find a banneton whose size works with our ovens, I will post it as soon as possible. I'm on it this week. xo)

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    7. I have two rectangular proofing baskets. The one I used was the long and narrow one. It’s almost exactly as long as the peel. Parchment paper would have been perfect.
      I don’t do anything special on the shaping.

      Form a normal boul, let it bench rest & relax. Then flip it over, pull the bottom towards me, and fold in the sides, then roll like a cigar.

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  5. Hi France, I love this post with the Rosemary and F. cheese, it looks very delicious indeed and sounds wonderful, I am going give this a try,can't wait to let you know how it taste.

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  6. One word of advice on this loaf, don’t add more cheese then indicated; also note in the images their is advice on how to fold the cheese into the dough.

    It is pretty tasty, especially if your patient and let it cool down so the rosemary comes through.

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  7. just found your blog from a repost on fournau’s fb. can’t wait to dig in more and read more posts.

    why didn’t you get the fourneau 2.0?

    the total weight of your formula seems way higher that their recomended size. even without the cheese. did you make two?

    i just got back from a week at pizza expo and have a new fourneau 2.0 and an assortment of pulp proofing baskets from http://www.brotformen24.de/?lang=en that arrived while i was gone. can’t wait to start baking. brotformen24 has a 3 or 4 sizes of pulp baskets that on paper seem a perfect match for the fourneau. if you haven’t used the pulp bannetons, try them. they handle high hydration with ease and the smooth ones leave a nice linen like imprint.

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    1. sorry, read more thoroughly and see you got the 2.0 but weren’t using the trays. still curious if you used the full 1100g for one or two 550’s? beautiful bread btw, gonna start it tomorrow.

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    2. Hey Daniel. My loaves are generally just under 1000 (955 or so??). I've not had an issue fitting in the Fourneau oven thus far. With wet dough, just be sure to pull out of the oven after the steam to do your bake out to avoid burned sides. Thank you for your message about the brotform. I've been super busy but will check them out this week. Frankly, I just dove right into baking my bread with the oven. I didn't make any measurement adjustments. I don't think the loaves need to be smaller. I would just take into consideration the hydration factor. Maybe I'll halvsie the dough with the next bake and make two baby batards and throw them up on instagram. :) xo

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  8. (the dough admittedly JUST fits into the oven, so, making them a wee bit smaller might make things easier. i'm in school right now and super busy, but i will, at your prompting, work on some smaller doughs. working with 800, 750 and 700g to see what comes of it. i don't think they need to be 550. considering mine at around 950 fit pretty well, 550 might be playing it a little too safe, though i DO love the idea of small batards in general. more to give away! it'll just take some levain recalculation to do some smaller loaves. i have a big post coming up, but can work on some recalculated loaves for the next post. just simple breads, the post focused on resizing.... and i just clicked on that site for the bannetons. THANK YOU. just want i was looking for! i will be getting a few myself. I also use the trays beneath the parchment paper. I didnt' the first go round, but i do now. still dark bottoms, but i figured out a work around for that if others are having the same problem).

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    1. what was your workaround for the burnt bottoms? next time im gonna knock the temp down 25-50F (1st bake was 475F i thnk). i had the fourneau on the top thelf and a pizza stone on the bottom. will play around with double pizza stone on bottom and/or 1 on bottom shelf for finishing and 1 under fourneau for heat dispersion. i think i had luck leaving the bread on the plateau tray instead of putting directly on stone, but i don't fully recall what i did loaf to loaf. regardless, i'm gonna oder two more plateaus for a total of four, so i can get a good cycle going and be able to bust our 6 or 8+ loaves with ease.

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    2. big dilema... should i get the maple or walnut peel?

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    3. WALNUT! i have the maple one (the less expensive one, not birdseye) and its lovely, but i would LOVE to get the walnut one. :)

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    4. I do this: plateau over banneton/paper over this, invert, slide in 500 degree preheat. steam for 15 at 500, turn down to 450, steam for another 15. pull out of fourneau, place on plateau, but still the bottom was darker than i wanted. SO, i took the shallow half of my combo cooker and slid it in the oven, then placed the loaf onto this for the takeout. TAN TAN TAN bottom. worked, so, i am either going to keep doing that OR experiment with using an iron griddle that i dont use for anything else (slide it in after the steam so that it stays cool, OR experiment using my second plateau, COLD, and do the bake out on that. i think because my plateau was already hot, it didnt help in keeping the bottom from burning.

      so there are two workarounds: black bottoms which i am willing do a big post for so we all have something tried and true. i can do this in the next week, just plain breads with the focus on that. the other workaround is dark obliques which you get around by pulling the bread out of the fourneau if the dough is touching the sides of it and baking it outside of our little oven. once it has steamed, the shape is set so it won't spread. this is no different than the workaround that i discovered/require during my bakes, meaning, stacking the shallow end of the combo into the mouth of the fat end to do the bake out. haven't had a burned bottom for years. if we had wood ovens, we would be shifting these loaves around with paddles to control the bake, so, no reason why we wouldn't be required to do SOME work during the bake, right? it's constant heat, an oven, but it does pose its issues from those mentioned here to hot spots etc. oh, a wood oven soon! xo

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    5. took a couple of reads to fully understand the workarounds, especially since i'm evolving from pizza stone to fourneau, never having used the d.o./combo cooker. your double stacked combo lid solution sounds like its creating some insulation, so wonder if a double-stack of sheetpans or an airbake insulated cookie sheet might be a solution for the bake out.

      do you think a full 30 is needed for the steaming? in my bake, i felt like it had done it's thing in 15 and then moved them to the lower pizza stone. if your iron griddle works, might be good excuse for me to buy a 3/8" baking steel.

      i would ideally like to find one temperature and leave it, to make production more straightforward.

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    6. let me do some experimentation this weekend and i'll share with you either here, or if its worthy of a post, ill do a quick post. ill work on all forms of maneuvers to save our bottoms, and also a shorter steam/consistent oven temp. stay tuned...

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    7. got the walnut peel, and while it’s pretty, they used some wood fill to fill a blemish at the thin end of the peel, which also happens to be where two pieces of wood join. as a result, where these two pieces join, the glue joint didn’t bond and there’s a tiny uneven gap. though it’s imperceptible at first glance, i’m worried (and pretty confident) that when used for it’s intded use (regular exposure to heat), it will sooner or later split and warp. so fairly disappointed that a 75$ tool seemed carelessly made. prob not gonna go to the trouble of returning it as it will seem very petty, but also prob wouldn’t order it again. will prob attempt to injection some glue in the wee gap with a syringe and use the board as a cheese board or something. since i now have 4 plateau for loading the fourneau, the walnut peel is just for the bling factor anyway.

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    8. i think i’ve gotten a good system down.
      -425-450 (based on dial, not checked,but it’s usually pretty close)
      -900gram and smaller 650 gram rosemary,polenta & sharp white cheddar
      -pizza stone under fourneau
      -2nd pizza stone on bottom shelf with airbake insulated cookie sheet ontop of stone
      -loaf 1st loaf for 20 min in fourneau
      -then transfer plateau to stone and load another loaf into fourneau for 20
      -1st loaf stayed on plateau on the airbake on the stone for the full 20 while loaf 2 steams in fourneao
      -keep this cycle going
      -i have 4 plateau, so this rotation works, but if only have one or two plateau,prob put dough on parchment so you can keep rotation going, but i highly recommend 3 (4 is unnecessary with my current flow)
      -loaves have all come out mahogany colored with no burn, equalized cooking times and no temp changing. very pleased.

      can’t wait to hear what experimenting you’ve done.

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    9. what's your hydration??

      omg. i just did a HUGE test for a mill in the bay area, so, forneau is not in commission. done with the experiment for them, but they are sending me more flour to work with. will be doing a post soon about that. also finals in school. back on the baking tip this week though. stoking the starter with multiple feeds after a week of 1 feed per day. so, she's happy, and should be revved up by tuesday to get some dough going. i'll try your method. i think for the forneau, 500 preheat IS too high. i have two stones and two plateaus, so, a good start. have to get on the paper bannetons though...

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    10. (what did you end up getting with the new peel?)

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    11. hydration 75% + a point or two from the 20% starter. plus i soaked the polenta with a couple cups of boiling water to pre hydrate thenpolenta,so don’t know how to count that. this was a learning batch,but quite happy with results. will document better next time.

      i have the walnut peel.

      curious as to all these experiments and what all you do.

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  9. holy #$%!, this forneau cast iron oven insert and pulp bannetons have seriously upped my sourdough bread game. best money spent in this hobby so far.
    now I need a bigger oven so i can get a second. still playing around with sizes, but those were 625g and 850g in two different size pulp bannetons. i think with the right size banneton with thoughtful shaping and placement, the dough weight could inch toward 1000g without exceeding it's capacity. so far my favorite of the pulp banneton sample i ordered is 26x15x7 cm (10.23” x 5.9” x2.75”). the pulp bannetons handle high hydration with ease, not even the slightest sticking. and they pulled out enough moisture on the skin that it made scoring the easiest it's been to date. no snagging.

    i have a small gas oven so with the venting gas ovens have, made trying to create a steam environment was a futile effort. electric would probably be okay tho. for sixe reasons multiple dutch ovens wasn't an option (or even desired at this point). regretfully tried a breadtopia cloche because i was turned off by the fourneau size. and finally just bit the bullet and bought the fourneau with NWSourdough's discount code.

    One thing to note is in fourneau's marketing they throw around "500g". for the longest time i was stuck on the notion that they meant it could hande 500g of dough which made the thing completely unappealing. but redding more deeply, they are saying recipes with 500g of flour, so +/-900g of dough. and they say more if is whole grain or in this case with added cheese.

    the throughput with one fourneau and 2 extra trays is impressive... load one into the fourneau, wait 15 min then move to the stone... load a second into the fourneau and repeat cycle. way easier than dealing with multiple combo cookers. three loaves and not a single burn!! i'm sold. yes, a slightly larger, or less tapered in the back, or double wide would be nice, but in the meantime this is awesome and 100% impressed.

    fourneau says something like that is in the works, but manufacturing with cast iron has it's challenges and every current design choice good or bad has a reason. as a result, scaling it up, while sounding nice, is diffult to pull off and still keep the function the same and the costs reasonable. seriously, if you have any hesitation, don't. don't wait, this thing is awesome.

    these are maybe my 10th bake and the difference made made by these two bits of gear have raised my skills exponentially.
    still have some time, temp, placement, and shaping tinkering to do to prevent burnt bottoms and better shape, but this purchase has me grinning with accomplishment. highly reccomend.

    thanks to Teresa L Greenway, Fourneau, GirlMeetsRye and Lieschen Moller, and PerfectSourdough FB group for answering all my questions, everyones teachings, etc.

    www.fourneauoven.com

    http://girlmeetsrye.blogspot.com/2018/03/fourneau-oven-new-batard.html

    https://thebakingnetwork.com/the-new-fourneau-bread-oven-insert/

    https://www.instagram.com/cookingwithbutter/

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    1. ah, that makes sense. i was like 500?? hm. teeny! also want to do a pictorial on shaping, which i suck at because ive been too busy to do research to get it right. this weekend though, all that is going to change. i need to be a shaping queen so that my batards don't look so lopsided! although, there is a lovely appeal about that too!

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    2. i certainly have a lot to learn top-to-bottom in the processes. since i don't have the attention span to read though a full recipe or instructions on shaping i pick up little bits here and there. i've read enough bits and pieces and watched a sfbi video in shaping high hydration doughs and i think enough knowledge stuck and enough good juju my way and the new fourneau and the new fiber bannetons, and my finished bread made a quantum leap foward this week. closest made to date that looks professioally made. too bad we can't post pictures on here. anyway, hope i can replicate and/or improve. this weekend.

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    3. thats so crazy. i have only ever read like 5 bread recipes in my life because of my SUB ZERO attention span. i was just writing about this. hey, heads up, look out for a very cool email from someone about that peel. making s&*$t right my friend. you gotta be happy! xo

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  10. I have read yours and Daniel Bothman's discussion on everything Fourneau Oven. I'll post my photos on instagram (sushiqxo). Used your Fontina-Rosemary recipe as inspiration. Didn't have any batard bannetons, so I used my 5-3/16th x 9-3/16th bread loaf pans for support, came out better than expected. I had to play with the temperature changes because I baked 3 loaves in a row. They're cooling off now. Thanks for ALL the information, your time and talents. I am SO addicted. Love my fourneau!!!

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    1. that's awesome! yeah, took a few bakes to get the time and temps dialed. what works in my oven is a setup with 2 pizza stones, 1 on each shelf with the fourneau on the bottom shelf and the 2nd stone on the top shelf. oven at about 425F and convection on. i load loaf i#1 n fourneau for 20 min. at 20, move #1 from fourneau to stone on top shelf and load #2 into the fourneau for 20min. then when the timer rings again 1st loaf is perfectly done and #2 moves to top shelf and load #3 into fourneau. repeat. repeat. repeat. no fussing with temp adjustments and no mismatched times, just trial and error found a sweet spot in synchronicity. with 3 plateau (1 for each loaf in oven and one cooling, getting ready for next turn), it just goes like clockwork. just wish i had a bigger oven so i could fit 2, or fourneau comes out with a doublewide that'll fit my tiny oven.

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Hey. So, I answer all of my comments, but it may take me a few days to get to it. Go ahead and leave a comment or ask a question and I will respond the best I can!