Odds and Ends and other Good Stuff

I need to be a little more diligent about keeping up with my blog, so here it goes.  I am calling this post "Odds and Ends and other Good Stuff" because I am going to write about other stuff besides the oven. But first, the oven.  I built the archway, I started to with the red bricks but using a wooden template I cut out based on the shape of my oven opening.  I didn't like the shape of the arch so I took it apart and built another arch using a sand form/void.  This time, instead of the red bricks I used firebricks.  For mortar I used the same clay mixture (1 part clay to 2 parts sand).  The arch is holding pretty well.

Making the archway using the wooden door template.

Last Saturday I made this bread.  (above) 

And it's probably the best tasting, best looking bread I have ever made.  I got the recipe from a book by Carol Fields, The Italian Baker.

The bread is called Pane di Altamura from the Pulgia region of Italy.  It's made with Durum wheat flour, a flour mostly used for pasta. I did not make it in my outdoor oven, but I cannot wait to do so.  There are other recipes I want to try from this book.  I think I will do the ciabatta next.

I took this set up apart and instead made a sand form/void to arch the bricks.