Hearth loaves, live-fire cooking, flatbreads, and overnight baked bean pots are just a few of the many potential uses of the wood-fired masonry oven made popular by Alan Scott. This workshop will explore the history and construction of masonry ovens and the baking of wood-fired bread. Over the six days of the course, we will work together to build one 27"x36" (interior dimensions) outdoor rectangular barrel-arch style oven. We will start with hearth slab construction and insulation, followed by the oven walls, hearth, arch, doorway, façade arch, and chimney. The building of the foundation and base, as well as insulation and finishing work, will be explained. 

We'll also fire the big North House oven to bake bread and pizza to learn more about these ovens through hands-on work. As time and interest allow throughout the build, we will discuss other oven styles and alternative materials, the details of baking bread and other food in the wood-fired oven, starting natural leaven from scratch, and other techniques that will help students make great artisan bread at home, with or without a brick oven. 

At the close of the course, the student-built oven project (the masonry shell of the oven weighing approximately 2 tons) will be for sale at a defined price to interested students.

Required Tools 

• Work clothes and shoes/boots
• Work gloves
• Carpenter's pencil
• Tape measure
• NHFS has safety glasses, rubber and latex gloves, earplugs, and dust masks for use at your disposal, however feel free to bring your own
• 2 round proofing baskets (banneton baskets, tightly woven plastic, bamboo, or reed baskets, colanders or bowls lined with tightly woven linen or cotton, etc) - if you don’t own these and you are reluctant to buy them (if you want to bake free form loaves, you’ll need these) please get in touch before class about borrowing some
• Large plastic food storage bags to store cooled bread. You will be making and taking 4 loaves home
• *If you are traveling from a distance and don’t have an easy way to bring the required tools, please contact the instructor to work out an alternative.