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Baking Stone
Appears in
Published 2011
In ranking the value of equipment, the baking stone is a very close second to the scale in terms of impact on the finished product—at least for the home baker. Baking stones help to make your home oven work more like a professional oven. In fact, they go even one step further: they help to transform your oven into an old-school brick oven just like you’d find in some parts of France or Italy.
Baking stones are made of clay—although some are engineered composite material— and are placed in the oven before you begin to heat your oven for baking. The stone heats up to the same temperature as the oven so that when you put your dough directly on it, as you do for many artisan-style breads, the dough is baking from the first second it’s placed on the stone. This creates a nicely browned and crispy bottom on the bread. And because they retain heat well, they aid in keeping the oven at the desired temperature throughout the baking process. This is important in those instances when you have to open the oven door several times to add moisture during the baking process.