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The Orchard Barn project generates abundant wood shavings
Bread baked in my Henry Ranger
Chopping small pieces of firewood with an axe
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Baking with the
Elements 9th February 2019
It's a windy Saturday morning and I'm out of
bread.
Living
deep in rural mid Suffolk I can't justify a special trip to the shops,
besides I've been baking for decades and enjoy the slow process of
combining flour, yeast, time and heat. Today I have those ingredients,
but I also have the element of air. Now. Why should that impact on my
baking, I hear you ask! Well, my main source of heat for cooking and
baking is Henry Ranger.
Henry
is a sweet little wood-burner complete with flat hob
and side oven. He was made by blacksmith Mr Windy Smithy of Devon. I
first
installed Henry in 2011 and since then we have developed a stable
relationship
based on tasty small pieces of dry firewood and instinct. The oven has
no
temperature gauge, nor has the hob. I gauge how well food is cooking by
listening to it, and the amount of heat in the firebox.
So, back to this morning and my lack
of bread. I have the
morning ahead of me, but the wind is gusty. I can feel it pushing
against the
front of my house. Living as I do on the side of a hill impacts on
Henry’s
performance.
When the wind is in a ‘certain’
direction Henry is inclined to
smoke. Unpredictable gusts are the worse. Today is one of those wild
and windy days
that’s likely to blow chaos in, and sure enough once I have the fire
burning
brightly the damper sticks and I can’t easily divert the heat from the
hob to
the oven.
Time, I think to utilise flexibility and
make flat breads on the hot hob ...... I enjoy the challenges of
working with the elements. Oven bread will be baked on a less windy day!
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