This time I baked them on cookie sheets instead of a pizza stone, and this resulted in greater ovenspring*. It is very difficult to get a consistent shape, and more often than not I ended up deflating them almost completely in cutting the dough into the individual servings. At 500°F they baked for a scant 10 minutes, but turned out terrific! Unfortunately, I also learned that if you get any excess cornmeal or flour on the pan, it will burn and fill your entire house with smoke, causing your children to flee to the nearest open window, gasping for air. But it won’t harm the buns!

Good thing, too!

 (You’ll just have to imagine that bun full to bursting with thick bacon, crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes and slathered with mayo. I can’t take a picture of them anymore, because we ate them all!)

* When the loaf is first placed in a well-preheated and hot oven, the heat from it causes a final burst of fermentation and expansion called “oven spring”. This gives the bread a nice rounded and well-risen top. Oven spring continues through the first five to ten minutes of baking and stops when the loaf has reached 140 degrees F when the yeast dies. The flour’s starches gelatinize and the gluten sets, making the loaf’s shape permanent.