At Nuk Tessli, we bake the best bread in the world!  There are 2 main reasons for this, one is that we always use some fresh-ground flour, the other is the stone oven.

Here is Rachel grinding the flour.

Sam, who has worked at bakeries as part of his chef training, kneaded it.

Then we light the fire in the stone oven outside the door.  (I have an indoor one, but it is way too hot for the summer.)

We need to fill the oven with wood three times.

It takes 3 or 4 hours to heat the oven properly – which is just about the same time as the bread takes to prove.  Then we rake out the ashes.

The next task is to mop it out to pick up the remaining ashes.  The baking stone is usually too hot right away and we must wait 5 minutes or so before we throw the bread in.  We test the temperature by throwing in a handful of flour.  If it blackens right away, that is too hot.  The flour should brown within about a second but not burn.

Time to throw the bread in.

About 40 minutes later – Taaddah!!!!!

Because it takes so long to heat the stone oven, I spend the whole day baking.  On that day we made 2 wholewheat loaves (each one is twice the size of a store-bought loaf), 2 rye loaves, one herb bread, 2 large cakes, and some baked potatoes for supper.  In two days time, Nuk Tessli’s first paying guests arrive and tomorrow I will be doing a much bigger baking.

For more details in using a stone oven and baking the Best Bread in the World, see the book page of my other website, www.nuktessli.ca/books