Allen Cohn asked what others do regarding placement of pizza
stones--high or low? When I started baking all my family's bread in
1977, I read Beard on Bread and followed James Beard's suggestion for
placing six unglazed, brick-colored "quarry tiles" on the bottom rack
of my electric range. (The sketch in the book shows the tiles on the
bottom rack, but he references sometimes placing a pan of boiling
water on the rack below to create steam.) I found that the tiles did
such a great job of diffusing the heat from the heating element, that
I left the tiles in permanently. No more dark spots on cookies and
muffins! I have since replaced the tiles with a pizza stone. It
does take the oven longer to reach the desired temperature than
without tiles/stone, but the results are worth it.
Gloria Linnell