griddle instead of tiles

Hi, Ramona,

I sometimes grab my cast-iron griddle to bake a boule on, it doesn't take particularly long to heat up, but I do find the bottom is inclined to be thick and burn if the oven heat is high, 450 or so, or the bake is very long. So I tend to prefer sheet pans or round pizza pans,  doubled, for my lean loaves, and rarely use a stone. What has really improved crust and ovenspring for me is to pop a stainless steel bowl over my loaves for the first twenty minutes. 

...because I *still* don't own a baking stone or quarry tiles (gotta get to Home Depot!).

I use it for "artisan" breads that are baked at 450 - 475F (it is preheated in the oven). It will only hold one or (at most) 2 small loaves. It looks like this...

It does tend to burn the bottom of the dough, so I put the risen dough on parchment paper - having parchment paper between the dough and the cast iron surface does help.

I do get better oven spring using the cast iron surface as opposed to a sheet pan but I honestly think a rectangular baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles would be best.

I know some expert bakers here use sheet pans in a cold start oven (no preheating of the oven) with success.

The tip of covering the bread during the first 15 minutes of baking is great. Its especially suited for baking freeform/artisan bread in a gas oven that vents moisture readily (like mine - darnnit); electric ovens tend to hold in moisture better.