I can see that this is a great vessel for baking bread. This is the first use of this baker here. I live in high altitude – so it does have some changes in my oven results. I have been baking forever, and I have used a different baker for years from a different manufacturer – I was used to it and always had great results. This time I decide to try a change and got this baker and here is what I have discovered: I always used 450 deg. but this time I used a cold start. I crusted it too long at the end, and consequently made the bottom crust way too hard. But the loaf was delicious. Next time I am going to place the oven shelf on a higher level, and bake at 475. Also I got a bamboo bag with great expectations and it did not retain a first slice of the loaf as expected, so I put the loaf with the first slice back into a plastic bag overnight, put the plastic bag into the turtle bag and left it there overnight, and the loaf revived itself and has become a great sandwich loaf when sliced in subsequent portions. The bottom crust also became a perfect chewy texture.

I bought this before looking at the reviews, clearly, since I am the first to review it! I liked the flexibility of loaf shapes, the ease of scoring on the base, and that it is so much lighter than cast iron. I was concerned about the gap on each side, that is too large to close up under heat. But I have baked in it twice, einkorn alongside my Breadtopia batard baker and pain de campagne alongside my cast iron reversible pot. Both times the hearth baker produced an equally good loaf, perhaps with a slightly thinner crust. The lighter vessel is really nice, so I will be using it often.