March 26, 2009 - 12:32pm
My New Baking Stone
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
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Good for you on the stone. We have one around here somewhere, but if I can't find it, I'll definitely take a look at this one here. I'll probably start doing some stone things after the Easter holiday.
Best Manufacturers has a web site but it is pretty crummy, or maybe it just isn't Mac friendly! I could open up Parallels and try it there, but Parallels isn't too Mac friendly either. But the site might be useful for some. --Pamela
Best Manufacturers
It's stamped "The Pizza Gourmet" on back. I bought two of them several years ago. Same dimensions---14x16 (3/4" thick), which just barely fits in my current oven. The convection fan cuts a few inches out of the depth, but I can still get the door shut. How much does your new stone weigh? I'm always looking for something heavier.
According to the bathroom scale, it weighs about 11 pounds. --Pamela
That's what mine weigh too. Guess I'll hold on to them a while :-)
Does anyone know of a source for a 13" x 21" x 3/4" baking stone??..
The stone that I own that I purchased 12 years ago measures 14 1/2" x 15 1/2" x 7/16"..It works fine, but I would like more thermal mass in the oven to help stabilize the internal temperature of the oven when the door is opened and closed for steaming..The SteamMaker website sells a 13" x 21" x 3/4" stone as a part of their large kits, but not separately..The larger stone would have the advantage of more than twice the thermal mass than the stone I now own..It would just fit on the shelves in my oven..
Thanks. Bruce
Small Baking Stone That I Own
14.5" x 15.5" = 224.75 square inches
224.75 divided by 16 = 14.04688 x 7 = 98.33 cubic inches of volume
Larger Baking Stone That I Would Like To Purchase
13" x 21" = 273 square inches
273 divided by 4 = 68.25 x 3 = 204.75 cubic inches of volume
Fibrament does stones close to this size ( for ~$70!) or will custom make any size stone.
I just received my new FibraMent D stone from Breadtopia. It's 15 x 20 x 3/4, although many sizes are available. It weighs 19 lbs. Used it yesterday, for the first time on BBA Potato Rosemary bread. The spring was amazing. I've had several stones from Sur La Table, but they didnt last long. They weren't very thick, but shouldn't have been that fragile. Breadtopia had a good price and free shipping.
My new stone wasn't the average stone that Sur La Table carries, so I'm hoping for the best. It doesn't look like it will break, and, as I said earlier, it doesn't resemble the run of the mill stone.
--Pamela
Thanks for the info on FibraMent..I somehow missed them when searching for a larger stone the other day..
Bruce
Just got a fiberamat stone. Seems to leave bottom of bread not browned completely??
I assume you mean fibrament, not fiberamat? If so, then fibrament is not that conductive a material, on other words is somewhat inefficient at transferring heat from itself to bread. On the other extreme would be a steel plate - it'll blacken the bread in no time if you were to try to bake on it.
Mullite/cordierite are what kiln shelves are made of, and make excellent baking and pizza stones. For a start, like fibrament, they are almost impervious to thermal shock (they won't crack if they get splashed with cold water while hot). They are also more conductive meaning excellent pizza crusts (at 600F + you can get a 3-4 minute bake time) and beautiful brown, round bagels. (for *much* more detail, see the pizza making forum: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=8ce1ea16d9dc660d466eef2f8542b94e&board=49.0)
I bake tons of bread and pizza on a fibrament, and all have browned beautifully. Make sure you give it at least a full hour to preheat, if not longer. If the bread needs more browning on the bottom versus the top, move the stone to a lower rack. If it's getting too dark on the bottom, move the stone to a higher rack.
Thanks for your reply. I have it on a low rack Also have a rack below the fiberment stone for use with steam. i've been adding about a cup of water to produce steam. Could this be stopping the bread from browning on Bottom??
I'm also using the rough side of the fibrment on the op side. Have been pre heating for at least and hour at 500 degrees??
Frustrated!!