We made our first batch and my wife baked a loaf after the two hour rise. The loaf was very good, but a little pale (I don't know who long it baked.) for my taste. A few days later, I turned the remaining dough out and made two ciabatta loaves. I wa not fussy about the temperature, but left the loaves until they were nicely browned. Result: Two spectacular loaves with big holes in the crust with shiny 'eyes.' Loaves as good as our ideal loaves from Il Fornaio. They were crusty and chewy. We have not had that success with subsequent batches / loaves. One of areas of concern is that the loaves, regardless of shape, don't seem to spring as much as we've been led to expect. We are trying to analyze what might be going wrong. The bread still has good flavor, but the crumb doesn't have the big holes, nor is the crust as thick and crunchy. Today we baked a ciabatta loaf from a new batch of dough (made yesterday). Again, great flavor, but small holes. Before the dough went into the oven, I checked the temperature of the pizza stone with my infrared thermometer. The stone temperature was 448 degrees F. Since our house is on the cool side, could it be that the one hour rest is insufficient? That, and the fact that the superb loaves were made with an older dough are the only two differences that we can discern. Second question: I received a second pizza stone for Christmas. There was an article in the LA Times Food Section on achieving a pizzeria pizza at home by lining the area to the sides and above the pizza stone with firebrick to create the "brick oven" environment. Could / would inserting the second pizza stone on the rack abouve the baking stone provide any advantage? (I'm definitely going to try adding firebrick on the sides the next time I make pizza.) We purchased both the Artisan bread books, but are trying to perfect the basic recipe before moving on. Thank you so much for your help. Ralph Hi Ralph, Let's start with the easy question. Yes, you can add a second stone above your first stone to help mimic the brick oven. Radiant heat from above will help with even baking and browning. Now, for the trickier part. Because there can be a few different reasons for the results you are seeing, we suggest you give our baker's hotline a call, so that they can ask questions and troubleshoot directly with you. Sorry we can't offer a one-stop-shopping answer right now, but do give them a call, and they will be happy to assist. ~ MaryJane

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