BREAD baking

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yes, the cooler wettish dough may have pushed the stone over the edge.
Susan, did you sprinkle the stone liberally with corn meal to prevent the dough from sticking to it too much?

Actually, many people complain about their pizza stones cracking at 450F or so. Many pizza stones are too thin. The Artisan bread book recommends getting the baking stone from Williams & Sonoma (also guaranteed not to crack or they'll replace it). I got it and indeed it was substantially thicker than the old pizza stone I had. Oddly, the pizza stone offered for sale in my local W&S mall store was a thin one. The thick one I ordered online, it was the only one W&S offered online.

The other technique you could use which avoids stones and streaming altogether is using a cast iron Dutch Oven pot. I have switched to it because the crust is always golden and shiny and crispy...perfect! Here are some pictures of my pot and the parchment baking paper I use to lower the loaf into the hot pot to start baking:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/0...utch-oven.html
and here is how my loaves turn out when baked in the iron pots:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/0...na-loaves.html
the loaves bake in the pre-heated covered pots first for 20 minutes at 500F, then I remove the lid (careful, it HOT) and bake another 20 minutes at 450F.