Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker), part 2: Into the Oven!

Be sure to read: Part 1 of Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker)

In part one, we looked at preparing the dough for the rising and baking. Now our oven is ready for the all the dough we prepared.

I love this picture – it could be the inside of Any Forno, Italy. The baskets of dough are waiting to be put into the oven, and a very important element is present – Padre Pio (upper-right of the photo). Padre Pio is arguably more popular than the Pope in Italy, and he is everywhere – in the Tabacchi, in Restaurants, little grocery stores, and of course in our Forno. Since we were only kilometers from his final resting place and church in San Giovanni Rotondo, it made even more sense he would preside over the daily events.

So with Padre Pio’s presence noted, we could start to fill up the completely empty bread oven.

He snaps the sides of the cloth to release it from the dough, turns it out onto the pala del fornaio (baker’s paddle/shovel) below:

He then shapes the loaf slightly so it’s uniform, takes the razor out from between his teeth and slices it where appropriate. Each loaf shape has its particular cuts that need to be made for its form or regarding tradition (like the Mont Sant’Angelo loaf we saw yesterday).

Then the loaf gets put into the oven.

They were moving so fast I found it very difficult to get good shots of the loaves before they went into the oven. From snapping the cloth to putting it in the oven, less than 10 seconds would pass, and nothing would ever be completely unmoving.

I was given another hands-on opportunity to make a mess of things by putting a few loaves into the oven. This was the most difficult part of what I tried that day. The paddle itself has a long 6-7 foot handle since the oven is so deep, and it’s hard to get precision in snapping your wrist to release the loaf from the pala.

The pala is held at a slightly elevated angle as the baker guides the loaf to its resting place, then the baker snaps/jerks the paddle slightly to release the loaf. When you watch someone with experience do it, you can’t believe how hard it really is when you try it.

After our loaves were done, it was time to take them out of the oven.

So what did we get for our efforts? Lots and lots of beautiful, crusty bread.

These loaves are shaped in the “Ciambella” ring/doughnut form.

Here is the pagnotta, the Pugliese round-loaf which dwarfs over the regular, 1lb. size loaf in front of it.

My last look at the loaves. I know they’ll be putting me to the test the next time I see them!

Be sure to read: Part 1 of Inside a Pugliese Forno (Breadmaker)