For over 3 years I've been baking artisan style breads in my (really lousy) gas oven without a baking stone but was never quite satisfied with the result. I finally purchased a good baking stone. This is my first effort with the baking stone...

Sourdough Sesame Seed Batards with Spelt Flour

The height of each of these batards is about 4 inches (compared to the 3-1/4 inch height I got without a stone) for a similar type of dough and prebaking dough weight.

The recipe (one of my own devising) uses a white flour 100% hydration sourdough starter. About 20% of the total flour weight is spelt flour (home milled from organic spelt). In an attempt to add sesame flavor to the bread without compromising rising, I use 8% sesame seed meal, which is ground from whole sesame seeds using a small electric coffee mill. Additional sesame seeds are on the outside of the dough. Dough hydration is 68%

I am pleased with this first effort using my new baking stone, although I obviously need to become familiar with this newest addition to my bread baking equipment arsenal.

Onwards and upwards - SF

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For those who are interested, this stone is a Dacor baking stone. It is 1/2 inch thick and measures 15" x 20". This was a good size for my oven, as my oven rack measures 17" x 25". I believe that smaller size baking stones from Dacor are marketed under the brand name Old Stone Oven; these smaller stones are widely available.

The stone was purchased from fantes.com for $50 USD plus shipping. The packaging was excellent and shipping was prompt.

I am including two images of this baking stone from the fantes.com site in this post to give an idea of what the baking stone looks like...

This morning I proofed and baked  Jeffery Hamelman's "Sourdough Seed Bread" from his book, "Bread." This is basically a pain au levain with toasted seseme and sunflower seeds and a soaker of flax seeds. Hamelman is clear that this bread's flavor benefits from slow fermentation. You can spike the dough with commercial yeast, but it's better not to. You can bake it the day it's mixed, but it's better to let it cold-retard. I went for all the flavor I could get, and I got it in abundance!