I know this has been discussed before, but I am having a hard time finding a definitive answer. If I buy unglazed quarry tile, of unknown origin and content, do I need to worry about lead or other harmful substances? I'm beginning to think that all the worries about lead are stemming from warnings about glazed tile, which have led some people to think that the tile itself is the problem, whereas the actual source of the lead is the glaze, not the tile. If so, then just about any unglazed tile should be lead-free. But before I run out and buy some I'd like to see if anybody has any information to corroborate or call into question my theory.

It is once again Christmas time, and once again I'm volunteering to bake pizzas on Christmas eve for my parents and in-laws.  Last year I baked a series of 7 personal-size pizzas on three stones in two ovens, with generally successful results.  This year my mother-in-law has requested/suggested making somewhat larger pizzas.

Now, in The Bread Bakers Apprentice (and probably in his other books), Peter Reinhart notes that pizzas larger than personal size don't bake well in a home oven.  I took that to heart, and so I have only ever worked with ~300g dough pieces, which produce ~10 inch pizzas the way I stretch them.

So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with baking larger pizzas at home, and could advise me on how big you can get before the crust doesn't bake so well.  Bonus points if you know offhand how big to scale of a dough ball in order to reach that size.

So that you know my parameters, I'll be working with my own 15x17 inch rectangular stone, plus my in-laws' 14-inch round stone, plus possibly a third rectangular stone.  Last year I had two rectangular stones in the main oven, with one pizza baked on each, plus the round stone in the microwave/convection oven combo above.  If I were making larger pizzas though, I might go ahead and skip using the convection, as it doesn't get nearly as hot as the main oven.  I'm using a slightly modified version of Peter Reinhart's Neo-Neapolitan pizza dough from Artisan Breads Every Day.

Any advice appreciated (although now that I think about it, I may just go ahead and bake a largish pizza for lunch tomorrow and see what happens...)

I have read http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/507 regarding baking stones, and some people cannot understand why for the love of god people are discussing quarry tiles and substitutes, when FDA approved baking stones are readily available.

I have no option but to choose a substitute to baking stone, and I'd be glad if you could help me find one. To put it bluntly,

To use a baking stone, a baker need to satisfy 3 conditions:

1) Live in a location where baking stones are available

2) Or Live in a place where safe handling and delivery is made

3) And Have the item tested for safety

Unfortunately, I don't satisfy either:

1) I'm from India, specifically Mumbai city (its similar to NY city, but much worse), and apparently no baking goods supplier knows what a baking stone is here. I just went to some B2C shops in this godforsaken city and they were totally confused. I'm sure the pros get their tools B2B and imported. Also Google, shows no suppliers in India. None whatsoever.

2) Even if I do import one, I will not receive the baking stone in one piece, due to the way things work here. To put it simply, the handling is so bad here, even if it was FedEx-ed/UPS-ed or DHL-ed, the delivery will be made by a chilled out local who will definitely break it if its says handle carefully, or steal it if it says valuable :D Ok so I'm cynical, but I've had my share of experiences when I ordered Zildjian cymbals from NY some years ago which 'luckily' arrived 7 months later, yeah I kid you not. Luckily they were too durable to break. Other items aren't so fortunate.

3) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is USA specific, and others countries may have their own version, but where I live the item to be tested (baking stone) isn't really available and therefore obviously there is no further question of testing.

Regarding Unglazed Quarry Tiles: Its a USA specific substitute from what I've read.

As far as Mumbai is concerned, some Tile shops I went to here clearly said its unavailable, others have no idea what it is. Even if I was told it is available, there is no way to check if it is glazed or unglazed. The seller will pass off a glazed piece as a unglazed here, as long as he makes a sale, since value of life in a country of 1 billion+ (1.1 billion now?) comes very cheap. :)

Therefore, of the other available substitutes (Granite, terracotta flower base plate, ceramic dish, soapstone, anything else? PLEASE SUGGEST OTHERS) which one would you think would be the best bet to get a good bread, especially pizza, or focaccia, and are there any conditions, that need to be satsfied for them to work. eg. unpolished granite, etc.

Although I'm throwing random darts here, I hope you will help me.

Thanks,

spinge

P.S.: This is my first post :)

After reading this site (and many others) for some time, I have read and learned many tricks and tips from fantastic bakers on how to make a better loaf.  My goal is to just keep improving and making my loaves a little better each time.  I don't really make them for anyone in particular.  My wife will have a piece once in a while but I usually make bread for myself.  I think I've achieved a pretty consistent recipe that yields a fairly consistent loaf, and I would like to use this blog spot to discuss the different cooking vessels for baking the bread.  Although the cooking vessel won't necessarily improve the flavor of the loaf, it's interesting to see what kind of difference these things make while baking. 

In the next few post, I plan share with you all the results of my baking so that we can all see what an average (or sub-average) baker with readily available (and relatively inexpensive) tools and equipment can make in his home kitchen.  In particular, I will use my standard recipe as a control and will bake the loaves in: a sheet pan, on a pizza stone, in a dutch oven, on some newly-acquired fire brick, and maybe even on my grill with some of the aforementioned vessels so that we can all actually see what we get when we cook bread using these different techniques.

I hope to start in the next few days and will use the following "Plain as Jane" white bread recipe for all future loaves in this series:

4 cups AP flour (unbleached, of course)
1 1/4 cups water
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt
1 packet of yeast

This has produced a somewhat bland but soft and tasty loaf for m and I will use it as a control in my upcoming "experiments".

After this series is over, I will explore different recipes in order to expand the flavor of the loaves but, as Alton Brown says, that's another show.

Help! I'm just learning to use my new peel and stone. Trying to break away from putting all my breads on or in a pan. So, today I had a beautiful loaf of Multi-flour miche ready to load into the oven. Thought I did everything right. I put cornmeal on the peel. Had the stone blazing hot. Went to load it and the darn thing stuck to the peel. I used my pastry cutter to push it off the peel and it ends up as a squished up mound at the front of the stone, stuck to the stone and the door of the oven.

Is this a normal newbie problem? More cornmeal, put loaf on peel at the very last second? How do you keep a fairly wet dough from sticking to the stone?What should I do different next time? I will learn how to do this, even if I have to throw a hundred loaves away in the process!

I just hope I didn't ruin my multi-flour miche, it was looking and smelling so nice. I'm thinking this is going to be my very favorite formula to start working with. (from Hamelman's Bread)

I would like to try baking a pizza on a pizza stone on my woodstove. Is that possible and if so, what is the best technique? I have a temperature guage on top of the woodstove and depending on how hot my fire is, it usually reads between 450 and 550 degrees. If I put the pizza stone on a hot woodstove, will it break? Would I need to place the pizza stone on the woodstove before I start the fire (or soon after)? What about using a pizza stone on a propane grill? Thank you!

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

I decided after a few sensible, somewhat alarmist, posts here on TFL that i would not buy unglazed flooring tiles (terracotta, saltillo, etc) for use in my oven. There are too many health concerns involved with the manufacturing and raw material differences between flooring tiles and bakeware. Any cause for concern should not be ignored. It's likely that flooring tiles could be perfectly fine to bake with. On the other hand, maybe not.

It helps that I'm getting a good amount of money back after taxes, which I decided to spend on a baking stone and other baking equipment. And to keep track of what I could get, I'm putting together this list:

Sur La Table, (Best Manufacturers) $42, 14x16x5/8

Old Stone, (via Amazon) firebrick, $29.95, 14x16x?

Breadtopia, Fibrament, $51, 13x17.5x3/4, $69, 15x20x3/4

Ace Mart, American Metalcraft, Corderite, $44, 14x16x1/2

Central Restaurant, Fibrament, $58.49, 15x20x3/4

i never thought i'd see the day that sur la table looked like an economic option!

I bought a new baking stone at Sur La Table last week. It is a lot heavier and thicker than your ordinary baking stone (14 x 16 x 5/8). I'm really impressed with how it is performing. My oven is definitely getting and staying hotter and my breads are cooking more quickly and getting browner. My new stone, made by Best Manufacturers in Portland, OR, is lighter in color than ordinary stones and seems to be made of a different type of material. Anyway, I highly recommend it. It was worth the $42.

--Pamela

Is it me and my wife is right that my full size pizza stone is aborbing enough heat to affect other baking? I just made my yummy black and white cookies and noticed they took up to 5 minutes or more to bake. I thought when I got it for Xmas I could leave it in there and forget it. Bummer!