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You are correct it is clay ceramic they call it stone ware. This one came from the pampered chef collection. I am finding it cooks bread better for me than open oven but being so new to baking I really have no idea what is best. I just know I dont need an egg wash for color. This is my take on the wonderful rustic recipe minus just rye flour I cannot find it around here I may have to order via internet,and this was with my own sourdough starter. More pictures of crumb to come when it has cooled.

My stone dutch baking rustic bread. Photos of bread to come

Well after My Wife's fathers death we had another death in the family, tough times people. 

After that I went on the road for a bit to try and deal with my stuff. I won't bore you with all the details of my walkabout, but suffice to say it helped.

Ahh well I learned a valuable lesson. Dough accidentally left out over night becomes useless. Got to playing with little ones and totally forgot it :-[ But on the bright side promised my daughter we will do next one together :-) :-) never knew dough could become a ballon :-)!

Now I made this one today, I started the preparations last Night so that I could bake it at lunchtime today.

This one did not rise as much as the * Rustic loaf * I made yesterday for 2 reasons.

A. I had less 50% hydration Starter * I did not plan well ahead , doh * 

B. The banneton was to big so it did spread more to the sides than it did go up. pffft

Lesson learned, next time I will bake Batards on a Baking Stone.

The Crumb is not very open, but I do like it when I have a bread with a lot of whole wheat and rye flour in it:)

Loaf, Like WOW!!! Changed to grams and it is not to sticky nor is it hard to work after a few minutes I do not have a bread mixer so it is all by hand.:-). Only on 2nd slap and fold...??? Doing rustic bread minus Rye flour can not get in my area used  unbleached as substitute,had the caraway seeds and thank you for giving rustic bread recipe. By my calculations at 10:30 tonight I can put in fridge till in morning

I've been craving a whole wheat loaf lately. After consulting Tartine Bread (aka book #2), I chose to make Chad's whole wheat complet which is 70% whole wheat flour. I increased the final dough's hydration from 80% to 85%. I used a not-so-young levain because I like it sour. Just for kicks I added some lightly toasted walnuts and walnut oil too. Mine didn't turn out as open and hole-y as the non-walnut WW one pictured in the book, but it sure tasted great. It was moist and hearty and filled with tons of walnut goodness.

This is another take on Lucy’s recent sprouted grain experimentation.   This time she used a 4 whole grain blend of equal parts of: spelt, rye, farro and wheat for the sprouted part and the whole grain part too.  But she cut the sprouted part in half hoping to further bring this kind of bread back down to earth without it fermenting away at ramming speed and over proofing.

Being a beginner baker would using unbleached flour and ap flour give a better rise and crumb.?Or should I just use one or the other? As many wonderful bread as I have seen here my skills are just not ready for some of the other flours and grains yet. One must know their limits.

                           Thanks for all the help.:-) :-)

So, after the success with the loaf from Lesson One I've decided to change it a little before going to the one from Lesson Two.