Things to do with your WFO when you're not baking bread

I'm always looking for ways to get more out of the wood and heat in the oven when I bake bread, especially during the firing since that seems like perfectly good heat & smoke going to waste if nothing's cooking. I was making a batch of sourdough today and I took the opportunity to whip up one of my favorite creations: smoked peach & chipotle crepes with mint.

First, peel & cut up 8 or 9 medium peaches, put them in a roasting pan, add a little brown sugar, and slide the works into the oven near the fire.

After the peaches are well baked, set aside until the fire is down to coals. Bank the coals to one side, put the peaches back into the oven and add sawdust or woodchips to the coals to create smoke. Close up the oven door and smoke for about 10-15 minutes. Here's what you get:

For some reason, these peaches didn't yield much juice. I usually reduce the juice later for a sauce, but in this case, I just pureed about 1/2 of the peaches with some mint for a compote. As you'll see, it looked ugly, but tasted super.

Put about 1/2 of the peaches in the FP with some mint, 4 oz. goat's cheese and 3 or 4 chipotle peppers with a little of the adobe sauce. Mix until smooth, but not liquid.

Whip up a batch of creme anglaise infused with mint and vanilla. Add another couple of finely chopped chipotles to the mix when blending the milk & eggs.  Remove from heat when it's about as thick as buttermilk and strain. Set aside for later.

This is where I deviated from my usual recipe, since I didn't have any juice. I pureed the remaining peaches with some mint. Set aside.

By now, the oven is ready for the bread.

Whip up a batch of crepes.

Plate some of the peach/mint puree as a base.

Fill a crepe with the goat's cheese/peach/mint/chipotle mixture.

Roll the crepe, plate on top of the peach puree, drizzle some of the creme anglaise over it, add a few mint leaves as garnish & serve.

*Very* tasty. And the bread wasn't too shabby either. ;-)

ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA