It remains chilly, and we are still using the woodstove for supplementary heating these days. So today I decided to give my little camp stove oven another try. A few months ago I roasted vegetables in it, and that went fairy well, but today I wanted to see if it would bake bread. I still had one frozen portion of my no-knead bread left from a few weeks ago, and after thawing and double-rising it, I formed the little buns you see in the first picture.
I was able to get the woodstove oven up to about 375 F, but 325 was where the temperature would mostly hover once I had the buns in there. The normal oven temperature for baking these buns is 425 F, so I wasn't sure just how it would work out. But after a half
hour, things seemed to be coming along reasonably well, and it smelled heavenly in the basement, where the woostove is.I gave the buns another 15 minutes, which was probably 5-7 minutes too long.
The tops were a lovely golden brown, but the bottoms were quite dark. Nonetheless, the inside of the buns was moist and delicious, and along with a sprout salad, made a delicious lunch!(I figured out later that I could adjust the rack height in the little oven, and if I were to use non-dark bakeware, I could probably reduce the bottom browning problem significantly - that will be my next test!)
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14 comments:
That must be a good feeling to know that you can bake without power. Good for you.
It is a good feeling, for sure. I would really like a sun oven too. I am saving for one :)
Yum! Those look amazing. Now I'm dreaming of a woodstove and woodstove oven (and a sun oven).
Theresa - did you check out the website that Chile Chews got the Sun Oven coupon from, I believe it is eartheasy? They have the lowest prices I have seen in a while, and with her coupon it's even better deal. Do you know anyone in your area that uses a Sun Oven?
Pile of used bricks...backyard bread oven/smoker. Just some imagery for you.
Looks good btw. Gotta love fresh bread.
That's a pretty kickass futuristic looking woodstove. I will have to take a picture of the woodstove in our old house (which I may fix up and move back into).
Upon second glance, the futuristic comment was about the oven part...
GG - I'm amazed how well this little oven works, now that I've had a little more practice. I'm also pleasantly surprised at how many things you can cook at lower temps than the recipe calls for. After these buns, I made some herb biscuits and those also turned out great, even though the recipe called for a temp of 400F. Who knew I would feel so full of 'can do' empowerment by just doing something other than following the recipe verbatim!
Hausfrau - I did check out that coupon at Chile's site. I'm trying to find a Canadian distributor to at least compare prices with, before I decide who to order from. I don't know anyone who uses a sun oven here, but in summer time we do get lots of sun, and we have very long days (18 hrs of daylight mid-summer). We even get lots of sun in the Winter, but the days are very short and the angle of the sun very low.
Do you think the sun oven may not work this far north, even in summer? I actually hadn't considered that, in my excitement. I would like to try it though, and then if it's just not worth it, I could sell it to one of the fine folks in the more southern blogosphere.....
Theresa
I looked and never found a Canadian distributor, maybe you'll have more luck. I wish there was one shipping was pretty steep.
I've noticed there would be a good niche for someone in Canada for GOOD Preparedness store.
It's damn near impossible to find stuff like sun ovens, berkely water filters, mylar bags(selection and quality), oxyegen absorbers, the list goes on and on.
I think your sun oven will be fine this far north, Theresa, likely even in winter tho it may need to sit inside something partially insulating in the wintertime. The difficulty in winter might be in being limited to 11am - 1 or 2 pm usage.
I know I am confidant about a geodesic year round greenhouse design even this far north.
Oh, you might like this too.
http://peaknix.com/2009/02/02/radical-photons/
Soapbox - I do have a 'source' of used bricks that may come in handy one day....hmmm.... Thanks for that link - I will check it out :)
GAB - I was afraid of that. I don't want to pay a huge amount for shipping. A preparedness store up here would be great. As it stands I tend to make the rounds at MEC, Camper's Village, and Earth's General Store, but oh, to have all that stuff (and more) in one place!
Here's the link to the Eartheasy Solar Oven page if you are still looking for it:
http://www.eartheasy.com/shop/solar_ovens.htm
Thanks Ben - I received my solar oven from EarthEasy a few weeks ago and I'm really liking it!
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