Whole Wheat Bread Half Solar Baked

Today's weather was pretty much the exact opposite of yesterday. There wasn't a cloud in sight when I got up. It seemed like the perfect day for solar baking. The sun was still out in force and the Sun Oven was at 350ºF  when I put the loaves in at 11:15 a.m. I don't know where they came from, but half an hour later there were clouds everywhere. The Sun Oven temperature was plummeting. I felt I had no other choice then to move the bread to the indoor oven where I baked it for an additional 30 minutes.

Shortly after the bread was out of the electric oven, and half eaten, the sun came back out for the rest of the afternoon. I'm not sure what would have happened had I not moved it indoors. It would have been in the Sun Oven with no sun for almost an hour. I suppose if I had really wanted to put solar cooking to the test I would have left it out there. I guess I wasn't in the mood for risk taking today.

Tomorrow's forecast is similar to today's and I will be out all day. I'll be putting a bean and wheat berry soup in the Sun Oven before I leave. We'll see what happens with intermittent sunshine.

Solar Oven Partybrot

I have no idea why I decided to make this today apart from the fact that I thought it would be fun. Since I had to make two batches of dough, one white and one whole wheat, it wasn't ready to go into the sun oven when I had to leave for my 1:00 dentist appointment. By the time it was ready for the solar oven, at 2:50, the dreaded afternoon wispy cloud of the west had appeared. This cloud seems to show up every afternoon this time of year. It looks a little like a genie coming out of his bottle and blocks the sun just enough to make you think twice about attempting solar cooking. I really didn't want to turn on the indoor oven so I went ahead and put the partybrot in the sun oven anyway.

Now it was time to think about lunch. I'd been so busy with the dough and the dentist that I hadn't eaten yet. We went out for some sushi. We had intermittent sunshine for the rest of the afternoon but for the most part it was sunny enough to cast a shadow. When we got home the sun oven temperature was at 250º. By 4:50 the sun was completely blocked so I took the bread out of the oven. If the temperature had been higher it might have had a crispier crust but it was still very good.

It's Martin's boys night out and it looks like I'll be having my own private partybrot for dinner.