Romancing the stone

I received a pizza stone for Christmas. I had considered acquiring one in the past but couldn't justify the cost. I don't do artisan breads with any regularity or pizza either. But now I have a stone. We are going through a period of adjustment.

I've done a couple of pizzas and a couple of bread baking sessions. I've read a good deal on the best placement of the stone.  I have tried upper third and upper quarter placement. The upper third has worked best so far. I tried a pizza screen with poor results. Parchment paper has worked best so far, as long as it is removed sometime after the dough has firmed up but before baking is done.

So what has worked? I did a boule of bread with a firm crust all around. It was a basic no knead white bread. These have always seemed pretty blah to me, all texture with little flavor. The bottom was much better than results I have had with a baking sheet, more on a par with a cast iron Dutch oven. I did a pair of pizzas using the Kitchen aid pizza dough recipe and an upper third oven placement. The crust was nicely crisp, probably the best crust I had ever done. I made some Poulsbo bread from a recipe I hadn't used in years.  I used bread pans on the stone. The crust was even all around, better on the bottom than I am used to getting with a bread pan alone.

What was the stuff that didn't do so well? I mentioned the pizza screen. This may be lack of experience, but it seems to be designed for failure by catching the dough in the screen. The upper fourth of the oven had the top of the pizza overdone before the bottom, and trying to fit a pizza to the 14"x16" stone with a 12" pizza peel was a mistake. I'll make one or two smaller pizzas next time.

All of the pizzas and the boule were done at 450 degrees. The Poulsbo bread was done at 350 degrees. I plan to try the pizza in a hotter oven later.