Heating the oven

Real Bread needs to be baked in an oven that’s already hot. If you put it into an oven that’s cold or only warm, the dough will have skinned over by the time it gets up to the right temperature, and your loaf will be far from perfect. To give dough baked in a domestic oven the best chance of getting heat not only by convection from rising hot air, but also radiant heat from the oven walls and heat conducted directly from a baking stone, you should turn the oven on 20–30 minutes (or whatever the oven’s manufacturer suggests) before you intend to start baking.