Bread/pizza stones

[alfreda89]

Does anyone own a bread/pizza stone they recommend? It is too lowly a topic for Consumer Reports, but the comments I've seen at Amazon and elsewhere suggest that they vary a lot. Alton Brown uses a quarry tile -- but you need to find a quarry near where you live, and we have limestone and marble quarries in the area. Not the right thing, I imagine -- no one talks about marble bread stones. He does say don't try one under 1/2" English.

Other sources say quarry tiles start to disintegrate almost immediately. Yeah, they're a buck each, maybe, but with gas for the car, that could add up. I don't want to be constantly worried abut the stone cracking. I already have a cooking crock with a crack in the lid.

I need bread with no yeast other than natural sourdough sponge, so I need to make my own. To get good results, it seems everyone recommends a stone.

Cook's Illustrated likes the Baker's Catalog stone -- only 1/2", but slightly over 14" by 16" in size. King Arthur sells them, says they are made in the USA, plus they're an employee-owned company, and have great products. I've seen stones cheap, and I've seen them pricey. There is a FibraMent type of baking stone -- comes with a 10 year guarantee. Alton Brown also likes soapstone, but says they are devilish hard to find. I found several on-line -- mostly with stainless or copper handles, running $100 or slightly more for something like 14-15 x 16-18 inches. They are usually at least an inch thick.

Any users around here?

Comments

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

Don't know about baking stones, but my mom used a marble slab--actually the top of an antique nightstand after the wood deteriorated--as a cutting board. It made great pie crust which needs to be cold and marble retains the cold.

[reudaly.livejournal.com]

I've been very happy with my Pampered Chef baking stones. I've had one for so long it's black. I don't know what kind of stone it is, but they're in the $30-$50 range and mine have taken a lot of abuse.

[cabin77.livejournal.com]

I have several stones from Pampered Chef and I love them. It's a home based company which means you either have to go to a home show (a la Tupperware) or you can order them online. They are reasonably priced, too. Pampered Chef has a lot of stoneware - lasagna pans, bread pans, pizza stones, cookie sheets and the like. I have a lot of them and I use them all the time!

Hope this helps!

[apricot-tree.livejournal.com]

I don't much about stones, but I do know I've never gone wrong taking advice from the Cooks Illustrated folks.

[sparkylibrarian.livejournal.com]

It's still new enough that I haven't had any problems, but I got a cast iron pizza stone from my mom. My cajun heart believes in the power of cast iron. :)

[madspark.livejournal.com]

We had a nice pizza stone but it spontaneously broke in half.

We are currently using a cast-iron pizza plate -- I doubt it will crack!