For the Love of Gluten: Try Fourneau’s Sturdy Bread Oven

By Megan Freshley Published February 10, 2017

Trying to find the perfect gift for your favorite bread devotee? Nothing says “love” like carbs. The Fourneau oven rises to the occasion.

Made in the U.S. by Strand Design, this minimal cast-iron bread oven gets the job done with impressive ease. Just knead up your favorite dough and place this mini-bread oven right inside your own oven for bread that’ll have your friends lining up out the door all winter long.

Fourneau bread oven — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Fourneau bread oven comes with a solid maple bread peel along with a handy downloadable recipe book for beginners, just in case you aren’t already a bread virtuoso. From whole wheat with figs and walnuts to cracker crust pizza dough, you’ll be coming up with your own experiments in no time. The recipe book also covers flour types and a list of essential tools, as well as care instructions to keep the oven in ship-shape.

Recommended Videos

Need even more inspo? The Fourneau bread blog keeps the ideas coming, the guide for adding wood-fired flavor with mesquite chips being a particularly drool-worthy suggestion as the cold of winter closes in.

The whole project is a labor of love from Strand’s Ted and Sharon Burdett, who made hundreds of sketches, cardboard models, and 3D-printed prototypes to figure out how to recreate the magic of professional bakers’ tools within a residential kitchen. One issue was sealing in moisture at super-high heat — a problem they solved with the addition of the removable hatch.

Fourneau bread oven and peel in home oven — Image used with permission by copyright holder

After their Kickstarter brought in the needed dough, the Burdetts decided to set up production in beautiful Fort Wayne, Indiana, home to several old-school iron foundries. Chicagoans themselves, they didn’t have to go far to get the solid Midwestern workmanship that makes the Fourneau oven so dependable. Even the peels (the wooden board used to slide the dough into the oven) are made in Wisconsin.

So whether you’re curious about embarking into breadmaking as your new hobby, or you know a friend who’d light up at the idea of having one, head over to the Fourneau oven site to check it out.

Related Reading: Trekking: the 2016 Holiday Gift Guide

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Megan Freshley is a freelance copywriter and poet living in Portland, OR. She's studied at Antioch College and the Esalen…

Food & Drink

I’m impressed—Starbucks nails Mother’s Day with easy, thoughtful gifts

There's no excuse for forgetting a thoughtful gift

Starbucks Mother's Day

Life can get busy, yet, whether you're a father or a child, there's no excuse for not coming through with a thoughtful Mother's Day gift. With Mother's Day just around the corner, Starbucks has announced an impressive assortment of drinkware, Starbucks Cards, and eGifts to honor every special mother or mother figure in your life.

Now, this certainly isn't the first year Starbucks has launched beautiful coffee and tea drinkware in their stores for the spring season. But this year's drinkware collection, especially with its vivid spring floral print, caught my eye. The cold cups and tumblers within the new Mother's Day drinkware collection are happy, bright, and cheerful -- great for the mom who needs a little extra happiness in her day.
Drinkware collection

Food & Drink

Banana bread cold brew is here— but are we ready for it?

Dessert for breakfast

Wandering Bear Banana Bread Cold Brew

As a coffee writer and java junkie, I like to think I'm pretty in touch with recent coffee trends. Yet, the concept of banana bread cold brew initially perplexed me. I first saw this announcement on an Instagram Ad (yes, the algorithm seems to have effectively targeted the right audience) by Wandering Bear Coffee. If you had asked me to think of 15 different flavor pairings that would work well with cold brew coffee, there's a 100% chance Banana would not have made the list. Yet, the more I thought about it, the banana bread cold brew flavor pairing didn't seem so far-fetched. After all, the concept of dessert for breakfast is already widely accepted.

Wandeirng Bear Coffee describes the newest Banana Bread Cold Brew as "Coffee-forward, balanced, with a note of warm banana and a hint of chocolate." Though I was skeptical at first, the more I think about it, the more excited I am to try this flavor.

Food & Drink

Elevate your steak night with these expert wine pairing tips

Choosing the right wine for every cut of beef

Verde Farms Steak

From a special dinner to hosted gatherings, knowing the right wine to pair when serving red meat isn't something many people know off the top — unless you're Jason Kennedy, meat expert at Verde Farms. For almost two decades, Verde Farms has been on a mission to bring consumers the best-tasting beef possible since the founders once sipped a glass of bold malbec with grass-fed beef on South America's vast, open pastures.
Kennedy spent several years in the Adelaide Hills, a beautiful wine region near the Barossa Valley — one of the world’s premier producers of shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. Living close to such a region, Kennedy experienced incredible wines and learned to pair them with equally exceptional food. This experience showed his appreciation for the synergy between high-quality beef and bold, red wines. Here are his tips and tricks for an expert meat and wine pairing.
Wine pairings with grass-fed beef cuts

Verde Farms is the only better-for-you beef brand to offer USDA Organic, 100% grass-fed, humanely raised, and verified regenerative beef across its entire portfolio. Per Kennedy, serving organic, grass-fed beef is a much different experience than serving a grain-fed steak, as it has a much cleaner taste in flavor and mouthfeel. "There’s an earthier, more mineral-forward flavor to it, which really comes through in the right preparation. For the big three cuts — tenderloin (filet mignon), ribeye, and strip — I typically lean into two sauces: either a classic peppercorn or a rich red wine jus."