So I have been handed down a stone bowl obviously for baking as it is made of the same material as my stone albeit a little more poreus.

I am not quite sure as to the best way to use it I have a loaf rising now but I am scared to movei it into the bowl because I dont want to deflate my loaf. I thought about just letting it do its final rise in the bowl, but then it would take ages to warm in the oven, thus effecting the final results.

It's a great shape and would make a great loaf, if i can figure out the best way to go about it.

Do I treat it like a loaf pan, or a stone, I'm confused.

Thoughts?

My in-laws' family has a tradition of doing homemade pizza for Christmas Eve dinner, and this year I volunteered to do the dough and baking, in hopes of a higher quality pizza.  I've got a plenty good crust formula, a great sauce recipe, and I'm sure my mother-in-law will have plenty of toppings.  I'm still pondering, however, how best to bake them.  I'm making 7 personal size pizzas, and I need to figure out a way to get them all baked as fast as possible and finished as close together as possible. I'm hoping some of the wise and kind folks on the forums can advise me here.

Here's the equipment I will have available: 1 full size gas oven, whose true max temperature I don't know*.  1 combination microwave/convection oven, whose max temperature I also don't know, but can probably find out.  1 round pizza stone (which does fit in the combo oven), 1 rectangular stone cookie sheet (with sides, I'm not sure if the underside is smooth enough to bake on), 1 larg-ish baking stone (15x17).

One thought I had was to bake one pizza on the round stone in the convection oven, put both rectangular stones in the full oven and either bake two pizzas, one on each, or hope that the combined stones will bake a single pizza faster and just bake one on the big stone with the cookie sheet as a "top" for the oven.   Does anyone have thoughts as to whether any of those will work, or any other ideas?

*My old oven at home went to something like 575-600 when it claimed to be at 550, and could bake a personal pizza on the stone in 4-5 minutes. My current oven at home is at maybe 500 when it claims to be at 550 and takes 7-8 minutes to bake a pizza.  I thus have no idea how my mother-in-law's oven will perform.

Just like my ID showing, I am a real rookie of artisan bread baking. Recently I am getting interesed in sourdough bread and started to feed my own starter. But when I tried to prepare for my first bread, I realized I do not have a baking stone which is essential for artisan bread  based on expert advise.

Before this I have no idea about baking stone, I googled it online and found some online shop. But the thing is quite confusing out  there. Most of these baking stone's description are about pizza baking. I am wondering is it appropriate to buy one of these stone to bake artisan bread? Since it is quite fragile and easily to be broken during shipping ,is there any local store I can get one?

Thanks a lot for your guys help !!

Hi! 

I know this has been discussed to death but as time passes more people with more collective experience appear so I am bringing up this topic again:)

I have scoured this site and the internet trying to determine what I want in a baking stone and which I should buy.  Somebody always has something to say that makes me unable to decide what I want to get.  (I do realize that this is my partly my personality getting in the way!)

Anyway in the next few days I will decide on a stone, hopefully with a little bit of further input from you.

I have sort listed myself to the following (not necessarily in any order):

1)      Cordierite, http://www.sheffield-pottery.com/Square-Cordierite-Kiln-Shelves-s/320.htm

2)      Fibrament, http://www.bakingstone.com/order.php

3)      Something from fantes.com http://fantes.com/pizza.html which is actually this one from Dacor http://www.dacor.com/Our-Products/Accessories/In-the-Oven/Baking-Stone.aspx  (I have some misgivings about the lip at the back, maybe this won’t matter? Otherwise I like this one quite a bit)  

4)      There is also these two from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Old-Stone-Oven-Pizza-Rectangular/dp/B000QJDBRY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1257962485&sr=1-4 and  http://www.amazon.com/Old-Stone-Oven-14-Inch-16-Inch/dp/B0000E1FDA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1257962485&sr=1-5

5)      And this from William Sonoma http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku1242981/?pkey=x|4|1||4|baking%20stone||0&cm_src=SCH

Money is always an issue but if it lasts and gives me years of convenience and joy then it’s always worth it. 

Then the thickness issue….thicker retains a lot of heat a lot longer but takes a lot of energy consumption to get hot (I am thinking green here).  Since I will probably baking only one or two pizza or ciabatta etc or few naan at a time what is the best thickness for me,  ½ inch?

I greatly appreciate any comments!

Thank you so much.

K.

What rack does everyone place their baking stone on.

I have an electric oven and I usually place mine on the bottom rack. However, lately my Pain au Levain have been getting burned on the bottom. I'm doing 475 initial preheat then turning down to 450 after loading my loaves. 

Hi everyone, 

    I'm fairly new at this, and don't have many recipes to share as yet.  I'm still working through the basics- I'm one of those ppl who like to master the foundations before getting fancy.

So currently I'm working on mastering pizza crust... like this guy :Jeff Varasano's NY Pizza Recipe  .  Although I'm not brave enough to cut the safety interlock off my oven's cleaning cycle lol. 

    I rather think I'm going to go with the dual baking stone concept to make a mini intense convection oven inside my conventional electric oven.  Looking on craigslist, I was able to spot some Pampered C's baking stones for sale cheap... though I have not gotten them yet. And I need a pizza peel... ah, the challenge of low-to-no budget baking...

    One thing I found very interesting is Mr. Varasano's description of what he terms "poolish"... he reccomends starting with a commercial (mail-order) sourdough Italian culture.  Has anyone here had experience in this area?  Has anyone in my area come up with a sourdough culture they would share a cup of?  I'm not sure of what would germinate in my kitchen, but pretty sure it woud be something odd.  I'm in Baltimore, MD btw.

thanks in advance!

Which baking stone is the best? My pizza stone broke after a couple of months. Thanks! Jean-Paul

I was telling a friend of mine about Eric's observations (now, mine too) about how much heat baking stones lose as soon as you put dough on them. She remarked:

I think thermal conductivity may come into play. Some materials transfer heat more easily than others -- You can put your hand into a 500˚ oven without much pain, but if you touch a 500˚ pizza stone, you'll burn yourself, because stone conducts heat differently than does air. So although the stone may lose heat, perhaps (and I'm just guessing) it transfers its remaining heat faster than would a baking sheet, etc.

What do you think? Is it worth it to use a baking stone or not? Does a baking stone transfer heat faster than a baking sheet?

--Pamela

For over 3 years I've been baking artisan style breads in my (really lousy) gas oven without a baking stone but was never quite satisfied with the result. I finally purchased a good baking stone. This is my first effort with the baking stone...

Sourdough Sesame Seed Batards with Spelt Flour

The height of each of these batards is about 4 inches (compared to the 3-1/4 inch height I got without a stone) for a similar type of dough and prebaking dough weight.

The recipe (one of my own devising) uses a white flour 100% hydration sourdough starter. About 20% of the total flour weight is spelt flour (home milled from organic spelt). In an attempt to add sesame flavor to the bread without compromising rising, I use 8% sesame seed meal, which is ground from whole sesame seeds using a small electric coffee mill. Additional sesame seeds are on the outside of the dough. Dough hydration is 68%

I am pleased with this first effort using my new baking stone, although I obviously need to become familiar with this newest addition to my bread baking equipment arsenal.

Onwards and upwards - SF

==========================

For those who are interested, this stone is a Dacor baking stone. It is 1/2 inch thick and measures 15" x 20". This was a good size for my oven, as my oven rack measures 17" x 25". I believe that smaller size baking stones from Dacor are marketed under the brand name Old Stone Oven; these smaller stones are widely available.

The stone was purchased from fantes.com for $50 USD plus shipping. The packaging was excellent and shipping was prompt.

I am including two images of this baking stone from the fantes.com site in this post to give an idea of what the baking stone looks like...

Two simple questions regarding my new FibraMent baking stone:

Does one place a La Cloche or other bread pan on top of this baking stone? 

Will steam crack a FibraMent stone?

Many thanks!

Miz