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["clanSkeen" <sgian AT planetc.com>]

> tvoivozhd---I have baked good bread in a conventional electric or
> gas-fired oven.  My mother's wood-fired range was better, and an outside
> clay oven fired quite hot by wood or charcoal, and ashes withdrawn to
> make room for bread dough shoved in with a paddle, makes the absolute
> best.

In a gas oven at least (have little experience with electric), bread can be
improved by using tiles on the racks (swimming pool tiles, just regular very
hard vitreous tiles available at any home supply) helps (also good for
pizza), and using a VERY hot oven (450).  To use it this way you can use the
same slide technique of the outdoor ovens and avoid pans.  Put a pan of
water in for the first ten minutes only.  If you use a very hot oven you
cannot use sugar in the recipe because that is one of the *real* main
reasons for sugar (whatever the form) in bread -- to brown it, not to help
the yeast which are quite happy with the flour.

A wood cookstove actually works very very well once you figure out how hot
is exactly right and how to keep it just that hot.  And you can throw water
in it which works better than the pan of water technique.

Anyway, I really enjoy bread and breadmaking I guess you can tell.

Denise