Due to my setup I cannot have both steam or a hot surface. Either I use the drip tray as a steam tray but the dough rests on the rack with foil as a base or I can preheat the drip tray and then transfer the dough onto that. But I can't do both. The second way sacrifices the steam.
Which way is better?
I don't know, but I think steam. There have been numerous posters that have tried cold DO to hot DO and found no difference. There are even recipes where the dough is loaded in a cold oven, That suggests if you can only have one, steam is the one.
I didn't think of that. Steam it is. Thanks Barry.
Get your stone up to 500F with lava rocks in a metal pan on the bottom rack of the oven, When the bread gores in, toss 2 C of boiling water onto the stone and shut the door. Turn the oven down to 450 F for steaming.
Hot surface + cover. Not sure if your setup will permit this option but, if it does, you get the best of both worlds. It could look like a DO, or a stone with a bowl/cloche/other to cover the loaf for the first 15 minutes. Heat from the surface to drive oven-spring and the cover to hold the steam from the bread itself.
Paul