How to Bake Rolls in the Nectre Cook Stove

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Our first baking experiment in our Nectre 550 Wood-Fired Oven was some delicious dinner rolls. We will walk you through the process for baking in the Nectre since it uses radiant heat instead of the usual convection heat. this is our first time cooking in the stove so hopefully we can make our learning process a teaching moment that will benefit  you.

Starting a Fire in Your Oven

The first step is lighting a consistent fire in your Nectre. The upper firebox is where you will stack your wood, and the lower firebox is your oven. Keep in mind that because the Nectre is an air-tight wood burning stove, lighting a fire in it is different than lighting a campfire outdoors. For instructions on how to light a fire in an EPA certified wood stove, see our How to Light a Fire Video. 

Getting The Oven to Temperature

Next, we want to get the oven up to temperature. We filled the firebox pretty full so we can get the oven heated evenly and we will allow the temperature to drop to exactly where we want. We are thinking we will try to bake the rolls somewhere between 300 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. We will watch the thermometer and adjust the valves to get the temperature where we want but make sure when you begin to build heat to engage your damper. 

*Disclaimer: Your manual states that the thermometer is just a guide and when the door reads 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the internal temperature of the oven can be 356 degrees Fahrenheit. 

After about 30 minutes our temperature was holding steady at 400 degrees. This would have been perfect if we were cooking pizza or most meat dishes, but for bread we want to drop that temperature. So we opened up the air adjustment valve of the oven and the temperature began to lower. 

Initially the temperature decreased, but after another 15 minutes it went back to 400 degrees and maintained the heat. This is great news if you are baking for Thanksgiving day. This oven will maintain the heat you need to bake multiple dishes on very little fuel. Since we still needed the heat to drop, we decided to open all of the air adjustment valves and the damper allowing the fire to burn hotter so the temperature would drop faster after burning through the existing fuel. 

Baking The Rolls

Now it’s time to put the rolls in! We watched the rolls through the entirety of the baking process and we would highly recommend doing this for at least the first couple of times you bake in the oven for a couple of reasons. First, the Nectre Wood Fired Oven ended up cooking the rolls a lot faster than they usually do in a conventional oven. Second, cooking with a wood burning stove is an art not a science. It will be at least a little bit different every time you bake. 

After about three minutes the tops of our rolls started to look pretty brown so we took them out to check on them. We found that the tops were pretty thoroughly baked but the bottoms were cooking a bit slower. To solve this problem, we set them on top of the oven so that the bottoms could catch up. 

After four minutes the bottoms were browning exactly how we liked but they just needed a little more time for the center. We moved the baking rack down and put them back in the oven for two minutes before taking them out to enjoy them!

On our second batch we started with a lower temperature in the oven so we were able to bake the rolls for 6 minutes in the oven and two minutes on top of the oven to get the bottoms golden brown.

Classic Dinner Rolls

  • 5 C Flour

  • 1 TBS Yeast

  • 1 C Warm Water

  • 1/2 C Sugar

  • 1/2 C Melted Butter

  • 1 Tsp Salt

  1. Mix together the yeast, some of the sugar (1-2 TBS), and all of the water together in a small bowl. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbly.

  2. Pour the active yeast mixture and the melted butter into a mixer or large bowl.

  3. Add the rest of the sugar, all of the salt, and some of the flour.

  4. Mix together and continue to add the flour in 1/2 C increments until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. If hand kneading you will know when the dough is done because it will be tacky, not sticky. If the dough is sticking to your

  5. Allow the dough to rise until doubled in size.

  6. Separate into smaller rolls. Grease your baking pans with butter and arrange the rolls so that they are slightly touching. Allow the dough to double in size again.

  7. Before placing in the oven, melt half a stick of butter and brush generously on the tops of the rolls.

  8. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 minutes. ( You may want to set them on the top of oven for a minute or two after the tops of the rolls are golden).

The Nectre Cook Stove/Bun Baker

The Nectre Wood Fired Oven is made in Australia. It is constructed of steel and cast iron components.The main unit is steel and the doors are cast iron. There is an outer steel casing and two inner steel boxes, one for the oven and one for the firebox. This allows the heat from the upper firebox to travel around the oven before escaping through the chimney.  

You can control this by opening and closing the damper. When the damper is closed the heat will move around the oven, and when it is open it will move through the chimney. You can tell the damper is closed by watching the flames on the inside of the firebox. If the flames look like they are traveling outside of the firebox, then the damper is closed. 

This unit will heat up to 2500 sq. ft. and it comes in a smaller version that heats up to 1000 sq. ft. Both are perfect backup options for your main source of heat and your cooktop oven.