The Community Bake Oven Handbook

By Karin Kliewer and Geeta Vaidyanathan

This handbook is intended to be a guide that will facilitate community groups in designing and building a masonry oven  that meets their needs. The Working Centre and the Queen St. Bake oven project share the story of how an inexperienced  group of volunteers was able to build  a  beautiful oven, and how a community can come together for a common project.

This handbook is available at the Queen Street Commons gift shop for $15.

You can also download a PDF version of this booklet here (16MB).


Table of Contents

Preface
How to Use This Handbook
Section I: The Oven Build
  Choosing the Oven Site
  Oven Foundation & Footing
  Block Laying
  Finish the Block Laying
  Pouring the Oven Slab
  Mock-Up Hearth Bricks
  Laying the Hearth Bricks
  Brick Walls & Start of Dome
  Oven Dome Arches
  Thermocouples
  Dome, Arches & Chimney
  Oven Walls, Ash Slot & Chicken Wire
  First Firing
  Vermiculite-Cement lnsulation
  Final Touches
  Oven Doors
  Using the Oven
  Oven Photo Gallery
Section 2: Resources
  Oven Materials
  Masonry & Carpentry Tools
  Permits to Consider
  Related Books & Websites
Section 3: Baking in the Oven
  Pre-Heat & Baking Tools
  Recipes
  Basic Wheat Bread
  Simple Sourdough Bread
  Country Olive Bread
  Three-Grain Wild Rice Sunflower Seed Bread
  Thin-Crust Pizza Dough
  Sticky Cinnamon Buns
  Wood-Fired Granola
  Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa
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