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

The Brod & Taylor Ultralight Baking Shell has been a game-changer for my steam oven baking. It is impressively lightweight, making it easy to insert and remove even when hot, yet it feels very durable and solid. The flat, smooth surface ensures even heat distribution, which gives consistent browning and a nice crisp crust on bread, pizza, and pastries. I also appreciate that the edges are slightly raised, helping to keep dough or batter in place without spilling. Cleanup is simple since nothing sticks, and the non-reactive surface maintains its quality over time. The shell is slightly larger than I expected, so storage requires a bit of planning, but the quality, performance, and versatility make it an excellent tool for any serious home baker.

Game changer. I bought a pizza stone to use underneath and I love it. No more heavy hot dutch ovens to lift out of the oven.

This brod and taylor cover is perfect for an oval shaped bread loaf. It has the perfect dimensions to trap the steam and bake evenly and for optimal oven spring. I think it is overpriced for what it's made of, which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, but I haven't found any other manufacturers that make a perfect sized cover for oval bread loaves that aren't the heavy cast iron. I prefer using a baking stone with this cover for making bread. Cast iron is too heavy for me and a hassle.

Finally was able to use my Brod and Taylor Baking Shell and I am blown away by how well it worked. I preheated my pizza stone for about 30 minutes, slid my dough, added the cover and voila! The best rise and open ear I have ever baked. Gorgeous color. Now I want the steel as well so I don’t have to preheat as long. No more Dutch ovens for me.

Makes great bread. Way easier than using a cast iron for sour dough. It’s on the larger side so you can make a larger loafs if you like. A little pricey but I think it’s worth it for convenience.

The Boule is light weight and does as great a job as my old, heavy weight, expensive ceramic Boule. So glad I purchased this for my weekly bread baking efforts. Being a senior baker, weighty items can be a problem in the kitchen.

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).

Amazing👍