Baking stone problems?
Greetings,
I'm new to this forum, and hoping I may find help here for a problem that is vexing me. I've been learning the art of bread-making (with varying degrees of success) from Peter Reinhart's books, and I'm experiencing an odd (to me) problem with my hearth breads. If I set the baking stone in the oven on the lowest level, the bottom of the bread burns before it's finished baking. If I move the rack up one level, the top of the bread cooks too quickly, and either I get a fully-cooked loaf with a burned top or a loaf that looks great on top but is half-baked on the bottom.
I've checked the oven temperature, and it was seven degrees high; I compensated for this with no noticeable improvement. I have noticed, though, that bread tends to bake quickly in this oven. If a time range is given, the bread will almost always be finished by the minimum baking time, if not slightly sooner.
What should I do to save my bread? Should I lower the oven temperature? I tried that once, but the bread wound up with practically no crust.