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.

Awesome. Made two Batard loaf's this weekend and didn't have to worry about adding any water to a preheated cast iron skillet. Slide the bread onto the preheated baking steel and covered with the baking shell. Easy to remove after the first 20-25min, nice and light. Bread turned out beautiful

I have two of these batard shaped shells, and one boule. I use these frequently on a large stone in the oven, that fits two shells side by side (also purchased on Amazon), and they are lightweight, and do not require preheating. They seal in the steam so that the loaves have the appropriate amount for proper baking, and I highly recommend them.

This is a useful, well-designed, lightweight addition to my bread baking equipment. Definitely functions as expected and makes baking bread with a nice crust easy. Love that it is so lightweight and doesn't need preheating. Taking one star off for the price which fits seem too high for an aluminum product.

Perfect. I love it. So light and get the job done. Great rise!!!

Works great for baking my sourdough bread. I put the cast iron griddle I use for cooking tortillas on the stove to heat it up to about 450F, then put griddle in my oven I'm preheating to 450F. This speeds up the preheating on my electric oven so it's ready to bake in about 20 minutes instead of 50 - 60 minutes with a dutch oven. Place the dough on parchment, then put the parchment with dough on the griddle and cover it with the baking shell. The cook times for the loaf both coverered and uncovered to browning the crust are about the same as with the dutch oven. It works well for artisan loaves and you can also use it when baking with a bread pan to keep the steam in for a better top crust. I have not tried it with my pizza steel as that would not be easy to transfer the heavy flat steel to the oven at 400+ F. The cast iron griddle has handles and making it easy to move.

I'm not a beginner baker. I was very excited about getting this shell, I mulled about expending that much money but I finally gave in and ordered one. Up to now I have been baking sourdough for many years in the Romertopft clay bakers with amazing and consistent results. However, they are very heavy and cumbersome to take in and out of the oven when you bake frequently as I do. So I was hoping this shell would solve that problem. I prepared my usual dough and split in 3 loafs. I baked the first one using the shell and the results were not good (photo below) it came out flattened and burnt around the sides, same result with the second one so for the third loaf I went back to my trusty Romertopft and you can see the huge difference in the spring and even colored crust. I still have it and I'll give it another try before deciding to sent it back, but honestly I don't have high hopes of better results. Talking to other bakers I've gotten to the conclusion that the Romertopft shields the sides of the dough a lot better than the shell. I'll update after the second try **UPDATE AFTER SECOND TRY** I have decided to keep it and tweak the way I bake the bread. Not having to lift heavy vessels in and out of the oven has convinced me to put a bit more effort into finding how to make it work. The second time I used it I decreased the time in the oven to 20 mins after I uncovered the dough and also I lowered down the temperature. The third loaf looks much better I think. We'll see.

I am really really happy with this. Baked a loaf of caraway rye and it came out just right. Really expensive on my budget but I already had the Brod & Taylor Baking Steel, and together they contributed to a really well baked loaf with a mildly crunchy top and a golden bottom. Glad I purchased this. Big enough to bake both a large round loaf or two smaller oblong loaves.

I’m new to sourdough baking and after a ton of research I came across this shell after seeing it on TikTok and thought what a great and light alternative to a super heavy Dutch oven. I’ve baked a few times with a Dutch oven and was getting annoyed at how heavy it was, it was also not yielding me the desired results in terms of bread structure etc. I used this just once and I was blown away by how light it is and how easy it is to use!! Highly recommend.

I bought the boule and the batard. I would suggest the batard for making bread rolls ( and they are amazing) the boule for making full loaves of bread. Little tip spray both with water before placing over dough and grease the inner rim to avoid dough sticking. Other than that, perfect.

Worked as advertised.

Normalerweise gibt man das Brot in den vorgeheizten Ofen, gibt heißes Wasser in den Ofen, damit das Wasser am kalten Teig kondensiert und so verhindert, dass sich eine Haut bildet, die das Brot am Aufgehen hindert. Dann geht das Brot im Ofen besser auf, man nimmt dafür Ober/Unterhitze, damit die Übertragung nicht zu schnell ist. Oder man bäckt im Topf, macht diesen heiß und die kleine Backkammer sorgt dafür, dass das verdunstende Wasser ebenfalls im Topf bleibt und so dafür sorgt, dass die Verhautung später stattfindet. Führt ebenfalls zu grandios aufgegangenen Broten. Die Backschale nutzt beide Prinzipien auf geniale Weise, wie ich finde. Die Feuchtigkeit vom Brot wird genutzt und die Oberhitze wird abgeblockt, was ein schnelles Verhauten ebenfalls verhindert, die Unterhitze kommt ungehindert ran. Das Ergebnis spricht m.E., für sich. Die beiden Bilder zeigen das obere Brot mit Backschale gebacken, das untere mit kräftig Dampf ohne Dampf. Auf dem ersten Bild ist das Ergebnis. Die beiden Teiglinge sind genau gleich schwer.

I bought this alongside the baking steel works brilliantly for my sourdough no heavy lifting, light to hold great handle excellent quality, my bread turns out great