First Horno Baking Day

By Hilda Joy
​Republished
 
October 20, 2010   —   “What did you bake in the horno the day it was blessed?” asked several friends who could not make it to the first-firing fiesta.  Well. . . nothing that day as the fire must burn for several hours.
 
The first horno baking day took place a dozen days after the horno was blessed and fired.  Early in the morning, I was able to get the horno fire going with just one match.  Friends started trickling in.
 
Dexter noticed that the horno had developed a long narrow crack and quickly repaired it with clay left over from the building process.  I decided then to keep a bucket of clay on hand to mud inevitable future cracks.
 
Back indoors, my kitchen was busy with vast amounts of bizcochito dough being formed.  Soon a bake-off ensued between friends Analinda and Dexter, considered by many to be Abiquiu’s premier bizcochito baker, whose generously sized recipe yields more than 18 dozen cookies!  Linda’s more modestly sized recipe produced great-tasting results as did Dexter’s. Though the ingredients of the two recipes varied, both resulted in the unmistakable bizcochito texture and taste so beloved here in northern New Mexico.  Later, unable to decide which was “better,” we declared the bake-off a draw.
 
Instead of using wool to gauge the horno’s heat, we stuck a 21st-century oven thermometer into the middle of the horno and discovered that the heat had reached more than 600 degrees F., which informed us that the horno only needs two hours of firing time, thus saving on fuel provided by precious and sweet-smelling cedar.  After letting the fire cool down a bit, we put in the cookies and sealed the horno opening and smoke hole with the heavy door and plug fashioned by friend Bonifacio.
 
Analinda made three loaves of bread following a las Golondrinas recipe she had learned while serving as a docent there with husband Napoleon.
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I was so busy running around that I forgot to punch down my bread dough, so the second rising was shorter than it should have been and the bread suffered a bit.  Friend Dawn made a delicious non-yeasted cornbread with green chile.  While two chickens were roasting indoors, life-long friend and great cook Jean, visiting from Illinois, steamed broccoli and made mashed potatoes and gravy for our early-afternoon repast.
 
When the six loaves of bread came out of the horno, they were placed on a large wooden board in the center of the dining-room table.  After the morning’s work, we were ready for food, especially for the horno bread, which we slathered with lots of buter—so totally unnecessary but so unbelievably delicious.  Before the meal ended, we decided that the next firing would find us making pizza, which we surmised would develop a great crust in a 600-degree F. horno.
 
Many do-it-yourself pizzas have been subsequently baked in this “most beautiful horno in northern New Mexico” as many people have described it.  Bakers included students on a field trip who were taught about horno building by Dexter while their foil-covered inside-out apples were roasting.  They enjoyed this dessert first while assembling their pizzas.