With the current economic downturn, most families are seeking ideas, strategies, methods, and recipes to cut back on cash outlays and energy consumption among other expenses. Cooking at home is usually the first place people look to start reducing their expenses, and then learning to bake bread is often high on the priority list. In this column I will depart from my usual efforts to share recipes and baking tips.
Providentially, I think, my friend and her family were actually preparing for the difficult economic times we find ourselves in today before it became “popular”. Monica, a bread baking expert and a nearby neighbor, along with her family and some interested friends started building an old-fashioned outdoor brick oven about two years ago.
The whole plan to build the outdoor cooking and baking facility was hatched during the spring when they were informed their irrigation water supply for the summer was being drastically cut, forcing the organic family farm to eliminate many of the vegetables they normally grow for the nearby Aspen market.
Ironically, as it turns out, the completion of this bee-hive shaped project coincided with the demise of Monica's indoor conventional electric oven. Monica readily admits that had the brick oven project not been underway, most likely the old, outdated oven would have been repaired or replaced.
In the last year or so, Monica has learned to make one day a week an all day baking/cooking marathon in the outdoor brick oven. She usually gets the fire going good and hot about eight hours before she plans to bake. That is how long it takes to heat up the bricks to become an effective oven.
Hence, to get the maximum benefit out of her oven, the breads need to be ready for baking about eight hours from when the fire was started. Usually the fire is started the evening before baking gets started.
The brick oven, unlike most household ovens, holds up to twenty loaves at a time. So Monica places the larger loaves towards the back and the smaller loaves are arranged towards the front. Hence, the smaller loaves, which bake more quickly, can be removed when done, allowing the larger loaves extra baking time.
Her close friends now, have started to schedule their baking around Monica's baking day to take advantage of the superior baking characteristics of the old-fashioned brick oven. Some days, pizzas and bagels are part of the mix. Usually sour doughs, rye's and conventional whole grains are baked.
Baking doesn't end her busy day because, as the oven cools over time, into the oven go deliciously seasoned ethnic dishes including soups,stews, and North African bean dishes that benefit from slower cooking as the oven temperature drops gradually.
If Monica plans well, at the end of the baking/cooking day she has bread for her family and a few loyal customers, as well as fabulous meals for a week all completed. She not only enjoys the satisfaction of the baking and cooking done for the week, but now that word has gotten around Monica enjoys the companionship of a few friends and neighbors who started to join in the community baking/cooking effort.
Although I haven't been able to bake any bread in Monica's oven yet, I have been invited to join in the fun. I hope to be able to tell “the rest of the story” in words and pictures at my blog, www.marilynmoll.com, in the next few weeks.
As our economy recedes, I am optimistic that anyone willing to rethink their lifestyle will learn to become more reliant on family, friends, and neighbors while building the kingdom of God. I hope that any one familiar with other frugal living type community efforts will share the story with me by writing to me at marilyn@urbanhomemaker.com.
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A Beginner's Guide to Baking Bread The below chapter has been excerpted from A Beginner's Guide to Baking Bread ebook by Marilyn Moll. Click Here to purchase this ebook for $9.95....
