Instructions: An artisan bread baker doesnt just turn a dial to start baking. Kiko Denzer starts his day like this: Stoke his outdoor oven - using fir, alder or whatever wood he rounds up near his two-room cabin near Corvallis. Fire it for two to four hours. Remove the coals and ash and let the oven "soak" in the fierce heat up to an hour. During this time, the temperatures will even out and decrease from about 700 to 500 degrees or so.

Over the next 16 hours or so the oven will gradually cool, giving Denzer several different heat windows in which to bake a variety of foods.

Earth ovens are a hot item these days, thanks in part to Denzers book,

"Build Your Own Earth Oven." And they can be built for less than $100. The design is simple, consisting of clay-rich soil, straw and sand, packed into a dome-shaped hemisphere over a mold of sand. Once the skin has been formed, a doorway is cut and the sand dug out to form a hollow. The base can be anything nonflammable - fire bricks, chimney bricks. No chimney is required - smoke exits through the open door - but the oven does need to be sheltered from the rain.

The result is an earth dome suitable for bread, pizza and more. The stored heat bakes evenly from all directions. "You dont actually start baking until you rake the coals out," he says.

Denzer credits his long-time love of French bread to a visit he made to Brittany at age 12 as a paying farm guest.

"Breakfast was buttered slabs of pain de campagne dipped in bowls of hot milk, coffee or cocoa," he says. "Afternoon snack was the same buttered bread sprinkled with sugar.

"The loaves were 2 or 3 feet long and stood in a box behind the kitchen door. It was wonderful, but I could never find or make it until I learned about sourdough and started using wood-fired ovens." Denzer has been commissioned to create a variety of earth ovens in fanciful shapes, such as a frog, turkey and squirrel. He has also been interviewed for Kasper, who said she was inspired to build her own earth oven.

Denzer and his British-born wife, Hannah Field, also an artisan bread baker, last year cooked an entire vegetarian Thanksgiving meal in their earth oven, including raisin sourdough breads; potatoes and parsnips with whole garlic, leeks and fresh rosemary; squash; marinated tofu; and pumpkin pie.

When Denzer first fires up his oven, the first thing to go in is a naturally leavened sourdough bread, which bakes at about 500 degrees for 25 to 45 minutes.

Bread cooks right on the surface of the oven. The hot bricks draw out the moisture, trapping steam and making the crust crisp - the trademarks of a truly artisan loaf.

"Faster than a microwave - and a better quality of heat," he says.

Baguettes or crackers could go in after the sourdough, followed by roasts, potatoes, casseroles, pastries, cakes.

Using the declining heat, Denzer bakes off everything else, including some dense Northern European breads. "Steamed whole-grain rye bread cooks very slowly, it starts to caramelize, and you get that sweet nutty flavor," he says.

After eight to 12 hours, the oven will be at 200 degrees. He can then bake beans, granola or croutons overnight.

The next day, when the ovens still just warm, he can dehydrate herbs or peppers, make beef jerky or fruit leather. Hell use the last bit of heat to dry the next batch of wood for the oven. The burned wood can be used as charcoal for grilling meat.

"You can use your oven to cook anything, from bread to bird to pies to drying the wood for the next fire, which is really the best way to make use of the rest of the heat," he says.

Denzer makes a free-form living as an artist, workshop teacher, builder, gardener and publisher. Hes created public art installations for Da Vinci Days in Corvallis, taught with the Oregon Arts-in-Education program, and is planning a gallery show in September in Corvallis.

He demonstrated oven-building at last years Summer Loaf Festival in Portland and has been commissioned to build ovens in the U.S. and Mexico, including large, wood-fired ovens for restaurants.

"Every little cafe wants one these days," he says.

He and his wife live a simple life with a vegetable garden and a separate studio made of earth. Denzer believes in using what you have to build what you need, and redefining your needs based on what you have.

"Thats what any good artisan does. Know your materials and make the best use of them," he says.

His ovens fit this philosophy. "Clay is as common as dirt. The beauty of the earth oven is that it is low-impact. The earth is completely benign." Denzers ovens combine both art and utility. Some are sculpted into fanciful shapes, while others are purely utilitarian domes.

To order the book "Build Your Own Earth Oven" directly from Denzer, send $14.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling (in the U.S. only) to Hand Print The book is also available through bookstores and Amazon.com. Amy Martinez

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