(This information was received from Mrs. Drake:)
500-degree oven for the entire cooking time. Bread goes directly on large PRE-HEATED pizza stone
almost as close to the top as you can get it (he's going to try it lower next time). Then the real secret
- for the first five minutes, open the door every 1-1/2 minutes and spray the OVEN WALLS
liberally with room-temperature water from one of those plant-mister bottles. Do not use convection.
No egg wash. He thinks it only took 25 minutes or so...he took it out when it looked dark and sounded
sort of hollow.
What he wants to know is how to get the really big bubbles inside the loaf - his came out a little too
fine-grained for him.
(Well, Mrs. Drake, you might inform Mr. Drake that there is much discussion on that subject at the
newsgroup rec.food.sourdough.)
Other than that he followed the instructions for the basic recipe for Alaskan Sourdough that came
with the starter.
(Thank you for your report. It was a very good result, particularly for a first try.)