Dark days week 19, finale

I had promised to use the mud oven for a dark days meal, so this was my last chance to do it.  We had friends here for the weekend, so decided on simple local pizzas


















We started up the fire around 10:30 AM, and it usually takes about 5 hours for heating, which includes letting the fire burn down to coals for the last 45 minutes or so.  Then we clean out the ashes, and put the door on for another 45 minutes or so to "soak", which distributes the heat more evenly inside. 
The thermometer was pretty much buried at the 600 degree mark at this stage, so the pizzas took about 3 to 5 minutes to cook.  As you open the door for loading the temp starts to drop, and by the time dinner was over it was just about right for bread, around 425 degrees.  I did a batch of ciabatta and some sourdough loaves, then managed a pan of brownies and some granola at the end, when the temps were around 325.

We had an array of local topping for the 'zas, and had folks make their own:























Homegrown toppings:  basil pesto, and garlic scape pesto; sundried tomatoes, tomato sauce.
Market toppings:  frozen peppers; onions, Farmer John's provonella and parmesan cheese, Pecatonica valley farm bacon.
Nonlocal:  mushrooms, and the yeast, flour and olive oil for the crust.


















I did manage to find some wheat flour at the market that morning, so the breads included some of that in the mix.  Brownies are not pictured and were decidedly nonlocal, but we did have them with homemade ice cream with backyard eggs and local milk and organic cream  :)