Basic Sourdough Boule On The Egg

Hello everyone, first time poster, long time lurker here. I've had my Egg for over a year, and have used it to grill, roast, bake and smoke, but haven't gotten around to posting yet.  First of all, this forum is a great resource, and I've lost count of how many recipes and techniques I've picked up from it. So, thanks, y'all.  Also, shout out to @SMITTYtheSMOKER, from whom I bought my BGE, and who was very helpful in educating me on its basics.


I've made a couple of runs at baking bread on my BGE, and here's the latest attempt. For the recipe, I used this one, which is from the Thomas Keller Bouchon Bakery cookbook: http://www.recipehow.com/sourdough-boule-recipe/.

1) Preheated the Egg to 450ºF for a couple of hours. The pan below the top grate and on top of the plate setter has about 10 lbs. of river rock in it, so as to retain heat and thus improve steam production:



2) Loading the bread:


3) Carefully squirted about a cup of water onto the rocks, and then closed the Egg as quickly as I could:



4) After a 30 minute bake:


I lost a lot of heat when putting the bread on, and the Egg didn't climb all the way back to 450ºF during the bake. I'm pretty sure I didn't get any water on the coals, so next time I'll just open the vents up until it comes back up to temp. and then slide them back about halfway.

The bread was pretty good, though it could've used a crisper crust, obviously.  I hope someone can get some use out of this.