Saturday, August 13, 2011

About baking stones


I read that stones retain heat much better than metal baking sheets, giving your bread a better crust. My Jewish friend showed me his baking stone lugged all the way from Damascus. I am all excited over this!
  

I looked around my garden and found some spare terracotta tiles. Ah-ha! I could improvise with this. So long as they are porous and not glazed, they can be used. I scrubbed them real hard with water and baking soda, taking care not to use detergent or soap as these stones are porous and the chemicals can seep in and eventually get into your food. Chemical contamination, I have learnt about that.

Mine is definitely too thin, should be at least one inch or more. But I'm going
to give it a shot anyway. If it breaks, I have a whole pile in the garden to clean.

I will post more on this topic when I know more - consider this as just a culinary experiment.

Update: See the Jamie Oliver baking stone I bought at Sia Huat and see what happened to it after 2 months.

2 comments:

  1. Ahah, baking stones! I spied some at Tott but the price put me off. In the end, I got myself a panasonic microwave convection oven with a stone turntable at the height of my baking frenzy and it seems to work fine. Now, I am considering getting a peel but these things look rather tacky to handle in my teeny kitchen.

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  2. Oven with a stone turntable..hmm...I've not seen one. Sounds more practical than having to handle this hot slab. Anyway, I heard you can get one at Sia Huat for a steal. I'll check it out the next time I'm there!

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