Finally some bread out of this oven!
As you can see, after being properly fired the oven has burnt all of the soot off the walls and ceiling of the oven.
(You might notice that some bricks have fallen from the ceiling, these are the keystones (!) that I made too short) but fortunately i filled the void with concrete which is acting as the keystone. I would be lying if I said this whole thing wasn't taking a few years off my life. Soon when i have a period of time when the oven is not in operation for a while (and thus cool) I will climb in and fill the rest of the void with more high temp concrete.
I made these breads in my basement "workshop" and then carried trays of the baskets (in which they were rising) up and out to the oven. The loaves I made had the same base dough (a 75/25 whole wheat dough) one with soaked mixed grains and one with raisins and walnuts.
In they went, 9 at a time, on the large peel I made, It worked wonderfully. I haven't made tools that are long enough yet to clean out all the way to the back so I put nine in and then 6 more and then two on each side with the small peel that I showed in an earlier post.
Even by the time I got to putting the final loaves in I could see that the first were springing nicely and after about 40 minutes I pulled from the oven these really beautiful loaves.
The Multigrain
The Raisin and Walnut
I don't know if it is brick oven or if it is more the idea of the brick oven but I've never made bread I thought looked nicer than these. and it was delicious. and I suppose that is, of course, because we eat not just food but ideas; and this idea is pretty tasty.
At any rate I took this bread into town and managed to sell it all in a matter of minutes.
As you can see, after being properly fired the oven has burnt all of the soot off the walls and ceiling of the oven. 
I made these breads in my basement "workshop" and then carried trays of the baskets (in which they were rising) up and out to the oven. The loaves I made had the same base dough (a 75/25 whole wheat dough) one with soaked mixed grains and one with raisins and walnuts.
In they went, 9 at a time, on the large peel I made, It worked wonderfully. I haven't made tools that are long enough yet to clean out all the way to the back so I put nine in and then 6 more and then two on each side with the small peel that I showed in an earlier post. 
Like this pork shoulder which I slow roasted for 6 hours and then shredded and mixed some BBQ sauce made by a friend of the family from North Carolina. As such the sauce was more a highly spiced and sweetened vinegar than what most of america thinks of as a BBQ sauce (spicy ketchup). It was delicious. The color on the pork skin was pretty awesome. 
I catered this small dinner party and as part of the first course I served some flatbread that I threw in the oven while there was a fire roaring in it. It was essentially just a pizza dough stretched out into rough ovals. The hot oven puffed it up and browned it beautifully in a matter of minutes (2 or 3 I would say).
In order for the oven to work properly it needs a thick layer of insulation and in order to hold this insulation in the oven needs an exterior wall. It can be built from 4" concrete block but by building a steel stud wall with an exterior sheathing of concrete board (like drywall made of concrete) you end up with an extra 4 inches of insulation. 
In the front I made a little slot to put the temperature readout meter. I also had to build the face up square in order to meet the steel stud walls flush. I also spent this time corbelling the chimney back and in due time I will mortar on a 8" insulated flue pipe which will take the chimney through the roof of the shed that will cover the oven and the adjacent rooms. 
The next step was to fill all that space with vermiculite. Vermiculite is a mineral that, when heated, will expand into little puffy worm shaped rice krispie looking things (worms=verm-). It is used most commonly to condition soils. It loosens up heavy clay soils and retains water in sandy soils. Becuase it is so light weight it also makes a great loose fill insulation and is fireproof and so can get hot where it touches the oven cladding without burning up. At first I though 20 bags would do the trick but I ended up needing 5 more and at $18 a bag this was not so cheap. 
