Adobe/outdoor brick wood fired oven?

[Tracy Rimmer]

Has anyone here built one? I'm thinking of dong a sideline in artisan breads in a wood-fired oven at the new property, now that I have the room for one, and am looking for some decent plans for building one. If you've built one, or use one, I'd be grateful for your input on things to avoid/things to include -- and any sources of info you might have.

Tracy

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

What kind of temperatures are you looking to achieve??

[Tracy Rimmer]

400 or so degrees, although having it double as a pizza oven might be nice -- in which case, I suppose I'm looking at 700+

But the bread is the thing -- I'd like it to fit a dozen or more loaves at a time.

[peacebaker]

I have a mud oven built from the book "build your own earth oven" by kiko denzer. It's technically cobb, which is not quite adobe (different mix of materials). I can fit about 6 loaves at a time, but it stays hot long enough for multiple batches.

If I were doing this on a regular/commercial basis, I'd probably go more along the lines of a masonry oven (see the Alan Scott book "the bread builders", which has plans for a small brick oven -- but a lot larger than mine).

Baking for folks other than yourself includes a lot more than the oven, so you might want to look into your local rules and regulations for baking out of your home. That might help you narrow down your choices.

Good luck! I am having fun with mine, it's a good way to get started with a small investment of space and materials. I

Here's a link to the thread when I first built it last year:
earth oven link

Oh and the book "Artisan Breads across America" by maggie glezer has some examples of backyard bakers who became commercial bakers. It's a good book to get from the library

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

Sorry - I read artisan BEADS not artisan BREADS. My mistake. Do a search - a number of us were recently discussing this same subject. You might search on HORNO.

[cowboy joe]

Interesting topic...great pics Peacebaker! I had some time during my luch break so I did some surfing. Here are some of the better sites I found:

http://www.geocities.com/mosesrocket/

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Whole...arth-Oven.aspx

http://katipo.co.nz/gallery/oven

[Beeman]

I'm in the research planning stage myself and I've had posts on here about this topic. I have the book by Kiko Denzer which is what Peacebaker built his oven from. it is about the best for oven info. I also have Adobe Oven for Old World Breads by Charel Scheele which shows a good oven much like the Sunset Oven. It also has great recipes for breads. I also bought The Bread Builders which deals mostly with masonary ovens. I'm leaning towards building an oven like Peacebakers.

[Callieslamb]

There are a group of people in TN that have workshops on how to build a cobb oven. They are called the Barefoot builders. http://www.barefootbuilder.com/ Wish you were closer to take advantage of them. There are videos online on how to do it - search under EARTH OVENS. There are some great ones out there.

But I think I would agree - to do it commercially, you might as well make a brick oven. It will last longer and you will be able to keep a more consistent temperature. We have plans to build on this year - the cobb kind but with the brick oven base. Then, if we use it enough and it works well enough, we will do the brick oven next year. I am very excited about it.