Brod & Taylor Ultralight Baking Shell for Sourdough Bread (Batard) – No Preheating Needed for Crispy Crust and Even Baking

I have tried them all …the Challenger pan, Lodge combo cookers, dutch ovens , but I stopped using dutch ovens due to the weight being awkward for my back and the limit of one loaf at a time. If I am heating up my oven for a couple of hours, I want to bake more than 1 at a time. I like to freeze some and give some away….So, I have been doing open bakes on a baking steel for a while with lava rocks, steaming towels and ice cubes. Now with these covers, it is even easier . This is by far the better way! I bought 2 to use side by side on a large baking steel, baking 2 loaves at a time ( check your baking steel size). I am extremely pleased with the convenience, ease of use and performance of the covers. The only possible downside is storage but they are very lightweight.

Lately I started having issues baking sourdough breads. I used to use the iron cast bread ovens, however, the bottom of the breads were always overbaked. If I used the pizza stone and only the lid of the bread oven, my bread always had a flat top due to the height limit. This one has worked perfectly and provided enough oven spring. Also, it is super light weighted.

Game changer when it comes to my sourdough. I love my cast iron. Truly, I do. BUT, it is so heavy, and as I get older I am finding it much harder to lug my cast iron dutch oven in and out of the oven. It makes me sad, to be honest, BUT, I am finding the Brod and Taylor Baking Shell a delight to use. Paired with my Pampered Chef baking stone, it does a perfect job with loaf rise and crust crustiness! The boule is BIG, and I feel like I'm not just limited to the boule shape...I've successfully made batards, as well.I recommend this product, absolutely.

This is smaller than I expected, but it works well and is easy to use.

I have only tried it on one loaf of bread so far, but it performed as advertised. So lightweight, beautiful finish, it’s size is as shown on website. Allows me to again bake, as there was no way I could lift the heavy baking crockery.

Very nice quality. Helps me produce great bread!

I bought the batard and discovered my 840g batards were rising into the ceiling of the shell. In 2 pictures you can see the darker patches on top if my batards. You can also see how the top is flattened in the crumb shots of two of them.Now, could I have made a 650g batard and gotten away with it? Sure, but I don’t want to. I want to make my recipes.I bought the Boule shell and baked a horribly overproofed 840g dough. The thing was absolutely massive. As you can see in the pictures, the top did not rise into the ceiling of the shell and from the crumb photo there is no longer a flat spot.While they are both advertised as 5.5” tall, the Batard shell comes to a point in the middle and is overall shorter than 5.5”. The Boule shell is a gentle curve where more of its height is 5.5”.No need to buy the Batard shell or both shells, buy the Boule shell and be done with it. It works great and much easier than a heavy Challenger pan or dealing with an upside down hotel pan (shoutout Modernist Bread).

I absolutely love this dome for sourdough baking. I love that It’s so lightweight and I don’t have to wrestle anymore with my cast iron bread paraphernalia. The thing that really stands out to me is the oven rise that I am getting using this dome. I have used it with a pizza stone, which broke I think because of the steam underneath it and I have used it with a steel plate. Both gave amazing results. I am so happy that I have this. I think that one could do a boule in it as well, but I haven’t tried that yet. The thing that was holding me back from buying it was the stated dimensions however it is plenty big to do a bartard in!