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Noticed a bakery in Portland using a wood fired oven for everything
I was in Portland last weekend visiting my sister and stopped into this little bakery called Tabor Bread. They had a wood fired oven right in the front window and it was the only oven they used for all their bread and pastries. The baker told me it runs at about 650 degrees and they feed it oak logs every few hours. I watched him slide in a tray of croissants which seemed weird because I always thought pastry needed lower heat. But they came out golden and flaky looking, not burnt at all. He said the even heat from the brick holds steady once it's up to temp. Has anyone else tried baking pastry in a high heat oven like that? I'm tempted to try it at home but my regular oven only goes to 500.
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kelly_craig8h ago
No, a regular oven can't match the even heat of a brick oven at 650.
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finley_price242d ago
Oh man, I mean maybe it's just me but is everyone being way too serious about this? Like yeah a wood fired oven is cool and all but I feel like you could just bake your croissants at 500 and they'd be fine, you know? Idk, all this stuff about preheating steel for an hour and not opening the door sounds like a lot of work for something that's basically just breakfast. I mean, I get that people are passionate about their baking but sometimes I think people overthink it.
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williamb292d ago
Have you tried using a pizza stone or steel at home? That's the closest you'll get to the brick oven effect. I've done a ton of experimenting with pastry in my normal oven (maxes out at 500 same as yours) and a baking steel makes a huge difference. It holds heat way better than the flimsy sheet pans, so the croissants get that initial blast of heat from the bottom. You gotta preheat the steel for a full hour though, no shortcuts or it won't work right. Also a pro tip I learned the hard way - don't open the oven door too much during baking or you'll drop the temp and lose all that stored heat.
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