Hi Everyone:  

After lurking on this site for a week or two, I've decided it's time to get involved.    There's so much great information here!!

I've been baking for over 35 years.   Especially love the challenge of baking bread; sourdough is my favorite!    Guess you can say I'm a sourdough puriest . . . I shy away from sourdough recipes that add commercial yeast.  

I have a couple challenges with my baking . . . during the summer months we spend our time at our home in the mountains of Arizona where the air is VERY dry.   Baking at altitude (6,700 feet) certainly brings on it's own challenges too.   In the winter months we're on our sailboat on the west coast of Mexico, so my bread baking challenges are different there!

In addition to sourdough, I've gotten involved in the NKB . . . especially like the Cook's Illustrated Almost No-Knread 2.0; which works great while we're on the boat.     I've been baking in a cast-aluminum dutch oven on the boat, and a cast-iron here at home.  Today, I'm giving to try baking NKB in my Romertopf clay pot, have yet to decide if I'm going to use the whole pot or just the lid over a pizza stone.

Hi. I'm a new member. I've read previous posts on using clay pots, but thought I'd ask for the most recent advice. I've been making hearth breads using a thick pizza stone, and introducing steam via a preheated cast iron skillet and ice (Rose Levy Beranbaum's method). I keep reading that a cloche makes superior bread, and I already have a large Romertopf that was previously unused. Per instructions regarding the clay pot, I made my last batch letting the dough rise in the bottom half of the pot, then soaked the top half prior to putting it in a cold oven.