Superstone® Stoneware La Cloche® Bread Baker with Aqumarine Glazed Exterior and Unglazed Interior Bakes an Artisan Bread with Crusty Crust and a Light Crumb

I had been trying to master 100% whole wheat sourdough for a couple of years, but I hadn’t been able to find the perfect solution until I tried this La Cloche bread stoneware. I tried different temperatures, different timings, different hydrations, different cast irons, etc but none improved the quality of the bread. I thought that my cheap oven (conventional, not a convection oven) was probably culprit. I bought this stoneware thinking that it would probably another ‘try’ that would not help, but I couldn’t be more wrong. I now baked 100% sourdough in this stoneware about 10 times, and every time I got a perfect sprung, chewy inside and crispy outside sourdough bread! I love this stoneware, which is a fraction of cost of my other expensive case iron Dutch ovens.

Using the unglazed round cloche, I first made the plain white recipe listed on the back minus 1 cup of flour, and rinsing the plate and lid with water to create a bit of steam at the first part of baking, and ended up with a great crusty french or italian-style bread product, removing the lid for the last 15 minutes of baking. The second time didn't go so well.Today, I tried one of my own recipes, which rose out to the pan edge. Not realizing this might be a problem the bread rose further and welded the cloche lid onto the bottom so I could not easily get the top off!! I was close to breaking this trying to get it open. I have some suggestions:1. Make sure the recipe is small enough to not let the dough rise into the sides of the cloche and pan. Make sure it has a 2" space.2. If you aren't sure if it will run into the sides, consider, in addition to the corn dust on the bottom of the pan, maybe try a narrow ring of wax paper on the sides, so if it touches the sides, you will still be able to get the lid off?3. The manufacturer should consider, to keep the benefit of the brick oven/steam option, actually glazing only the very top of the bottom pan edge and the bottom of the cloche edge. That way, if the dough reaches the sides, it won't weld the cloche onto bottom pan with bread.I also don't recommend recipes that have egg and butter, like the Salle Lunn--Brioche type breads as the cakier texture doesn't benefit as much from the brick-oven-like atmosphere. This is good for small pizza, medium sized bread rounds. I have yet to try other types of breads, like rye.

The media could not be loaded.  I have had this bread cloche for almost 4 years now. I have never attempted to clean it because it is porous, but the heat kills whatever is on it.I have made many many successful sourdough loaves in this. They are able to get quite large bc the size of this cloche is great! Just oil the bottom and your bread won’t stick.No complaints, this does exactly what it’s supposed to!

Very disappointed that it split after such a short time. And it’s expensive

If you read instructions inside the little paper ‘recipes’ pamphlet inside your box, you will see you need to wash (no soap) , let dry overnight, and LIGHTLY OIL jus t the bottom inside of the stoneware. You only have to do this the first time you use it. After that, just brush out the left behind flour (for bread). I haven’t use this for anything else. I bought it specifically for bread, because it will bake bread like the clay oven. It works beautifully if you follow the directions. Mine is producing nicely sprung bread, with a crispy crust. I love this product, and prefer it to the weight of a heavy cast-iron Dutch oven.

The crack goes right through to the back. I don't know when this happened. I've used this about 5 times in under a year. I've been careful cleaning it with oil and storing it on it's own shelf in my pantry. I spent a lot of money on something that should last for YEARS, This product is cheap and not made well at all. I only used a 450 to 475 degree oven. I am very dissapointed and will fight to get my money back!!

Exactly what I was looking for. Works well and do not have any issues

My mother inlaw wanted this pan for making bread. She is quite happy with it