Baking stone

It may be placed on the floor or lowest rack of a cold oven. The stone heats up as the oven’s temperature increases. The stone provides more reflective heat than the oven can generate on its own, creating an environment that closely matches that of a professional bakery oven. With a baking stone, your crusts will come out nice and even, with just the right amount of crispiness. A baking stone should be used for pizza or for baking crusty breads such as foccacia, hard rolls, and baguettes. Cookies baked on a baking stone will turn too crispy.

Most pizza stones need to be "seasoned". A pizza or baking stone will brown naturally with age as it is used in the oven. Repeated use will only further harden the stone and improve its baking performance.

To clean your pizza stone, first let it cool down inside the oven. Brush or scrape off any crumbs or remaining crust, and wash the stone in warm water with dishwashing liquid. If the pizza crust is sticking to the stone, try a natural abrasive made from a little warm water mixed with regular table salt.

You can also line the base of your oven with fired brick, which you can find at building-supply stores; this will produce results similar to those you would get with a brick oven.

Hope this info help.

:rolleyes:

To season and clean, make sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions as they may vary depending on the stone you purchase.

Don't forget quarry tiles as an alternative.

;)

I use my baking stone weekly. As to washing it, I scrub the surface with hot water and lots of baking soda for its abrasive qualities. Do not use soap to clean it, however. The stone is very porous and would absorb the soap - giving off-flavors to your baked items. :eek:

I agree with kokopuffs' advice- no soap. I use a plastic "chip" to scrape off my stone, which I got from Pampered Chef but is similar to those I've seen many other places. Mine doesn't require it to be put in a cold oven, so I preheat the oven and use it like a metal tray. Do follow the manufacturer's instructions, though.

I was advised to burn the crud off my stone in a self-cleaning oven. It works well, the crud ashes away, and the stone stays great.

Did you personally try this method?

My baking stone experience has filled me with bitterness.

I bought one in April, and was delighted with it. In my paltry home oven, I made wonderful thin-crust pizzas, great breads, all sorts of yummy delicacies. I followed the enclosed directions to the letter, and treated it with the loving care I'd lavish on my children, had I any.

Then, one fine day a few weeks ago, I was baking a pizza (caramelised onion, sage and mushroom with a tofu aioli sauce) and a loud PING came from the oven. On investigation, we found that the stone had cracked into two neat halves, the curve of the crack following the outline of the pizza.

I took it back to the store.

"Oh," they said, "that often happens. Uneven heating in the ovens. We warn all our purchasers" (they hadn't) "and we can't take it back; if we took back everything that customers broke, where would we be? Of course, some people have no problems with them, use them for years. But if you buy another, we can't guarantee it won't happen again."

I protested that I'd followed instructions to the letter, that I hadn't been warned, that if they knew a product was flawed, why the **** were they selling it, and if the stone functioned only in some ovens, there should be a note to that effect in the Official Literature, and there wasn't.

All to no avail. They are out one customer, and I am out thirty-five dollars (plus tax).

I am thinking of trying again, with quarry tiles this time. I truly did love my baking stone, through our short relationship, even though it ended in such a nasty breakup.

CompassRose:

Was your stone a pizza stone (thin and round) or a baking stone (thick and square)?

From which store did you purchase the item so I can avoid the same mistake? :mad:

BTW I'd mention this problem in writing to the manufacturer.

[ June 19, 2001: Message edited by: kokopuffs ]

Pizza stone question: I keep mine in my oven all the time--unfortunately, while baking some garlic in the little pottery garlic oven (first time blunder here), the garlic exploded and blew olive oil and garlic juice out onto the stone on the rack below. Now I have this nasty stain on the stone. The oven, of course, could be cleaned (yucky), but the poor stone just has these brown circles on it. Is there any reason to worry about it, or should I just leave it alone? I tried wiping it when it had cooled, which was useless. I confess I haven't put a pizza directly on the stone anyway, but it does a good job of heating up the oven and my pizzas have been great. So, should I just leave it alone? :D

It was a baking stone, thick, large and square, made by Fox Run. The store in question (the questionable store) was Gizmos, but as far as I know they're only a teeny little chain round here (Kitchener-Waterloo). Serves 'em right, anyway; the options for kitchenware are pretty thin round here unless one drives to Toronto, which I WILL now -- hah!

(The funny part was the woman trying to tell me "it happened because it was a stone" -- that is, a natural stone. D'uh. No.)

I've been looking for a web connection to Fox Run ('cos I'm lazy and never have stamps) but haven't found one yet.

CompassRose:
I got mine recently from Williams Sonoma for less than $30 USD. I do believe that WS backs up their products and I think that mine came with a manufacturer's warranty.

The instructions recommended that the stone be gradually heated for a prolonged period to harden it. 250 degrees for a couple of hours, the 350 for a couple more hours was my interpretation although no exact numbers were specified.

Kimmie: Yes, I've baked the crud off of both my pizza stone and the freestanding "stone" pans I have - loaf pan, round pan, etc. Never have had a problem with the stone breaking, but have good quality stones from Williams-Sonoma and/or Pampered Chef. It burned almost all the stains out and just left powdered crud on the stone that blew off. Of course, I'm not making any promises....

baking off crud from stones

Ok when you state you baked it off are you doing by the self cleaning oven method if not please explain if there is another bake method of cleaning the pizza stones. I have the Pampered Chef square and rectangle stones. Thanks

I run my fibrament stone through the self cleaning cycle all the time. As far as stains go that just adds to how the stone cooks.

i buy fire kiln bricks form a quarry, $1.37 each or so.