Either way is fine, but if you use the stone, you probably should preheat the oven longer, cause it takes longer for the stone to heat up than the rest of the oven. I used to use a stone, don't anymore for that reason.
I have tried with a without a baking stone underneath and found that it takes longer for the oven to heat up with it, however I find that with the stone (and a rather heavy iron griddle underneath the baking stone) I get a very consistently good crispy/crunchy crust. I suspect that the added thermal mass helps push more heat into the dough quicker, which is what we want, and due to my lack of experience and practice my oven door is probably open longer than I'd like it to be while I learn to master placing a rather gooey dough into an searingly hot pot without burning myself.
I also learned that placing the dutch oven directly on the stone is a good way to break it so I now have the stone (and the iron griddle) on the rack below the dutch oven. I don't mind the longer warmup time because once its up to temperature the oven does not turn on again and this allows me time to fiddle about the kitchen preparing the next day's treats.
the stone seems to make most sense, I just remembered I ordered a 9" stone to fit inside the dutch oven over a week ago, funny you mention gooey dough, that's my present problem as well
Either way is fine, but if you use the stone, you probably should preheat the oven longer, cause it takes longer for the stone to heat up than the rest of the oven. I used to use a stone, don't anymore for that reason.
I like the dutch oven in the middle. I have a cast iron pizza tray residing on the bottom of the oven.
I have tried with a without a baking stone underneath and found that it takes longer for the oven to heat up with it, however I find that with the stone (and a rather heavy iron griddle underneath the baking stone) I get a very consistently good crispy/crunchy crust. I suspect that the added thermal mass helps push more heat into the dough quicker, which is what we want, and due to my lack of experience and practice my oven door is probably open longer than I'd like it to be while I learn to master placing a rather gooey dough into an searingly hot pot without burning myself.
I also learned that placing the dutch oven directly on the stone is a good way to break it so I now have the stone (and the iron griddle) on the rack below the dutch oven. I don't mind the longer warmup time because once its up to temperature the oven does not turn on again and this allows me time to fiddle about the kitchen preparing the next day's treats.
the stone seems to make most sense, I just remembered I ordered a 9" stone to fit inside the dutch oven over a week ago, funny you mention gooey dough, that's my present problem as well