The pan needs to not be larger than the stone. Lots of options for pans. Round, oval roasting pans, ceramic couche top for $50, aluminum roasting pan, Glass 4 liter bowl (Pyrex). They probably don't do much if anything with covered baking at sfbi since they use commercial deck ovens. Shiao-Ping might comment here. Good luck, sounds like fun.

Eric

I'm not trying to be a smart-aleck here, but I've never heard of steel or ceramic couche.

Couche is a cloth that's pleated to hold long, raw loaves of bread as they proof.  The cloth rests on a plywood board as the loaves proof.  Covering the board-and-cloth combination with something to prevent air circulation is a good idea -- is this what you mean?

Or are you talking about perforated baguette pans?  These are designed purely for use in a convection oven, with no use of stone at all.  Rack ovens (which are a commercial-sized convection oven) and typical convection ovens use forced hot air to transfer heat to your loaves.  If you don't have a baking stone, then convection with perforated pans is your next best bet, but these pans offer no baking advantage in a conventional oven fitted with a baking stone.

Baguettes need to be placed directly upon a stone to maximize the conduction of intense heat to the loaves and get the best oven spring.  If you proof the baguettes in a scalloped pan and then place the pan on the stone, there will be only radiant heat transfer (just as if there were no stone) instead of conductive transfer, and that will minimize the heat transfer effect.

I'd strongly recommend that you wait until you take the class at SFBI before buying anything.  The instructor should be able to give you first hand advice about what you need to do a good job at home.

--Dan DiMuzio