Granite baking stones

In both Dough & Crust I recommend putting a baking stone in your oven before pre-heating and baking directly on the stone.  I use granite and often suggest that people use a granite chopping board (examples are available very reasonably from Morrisons and Asda and it is a convenient size and thickness).  We have never had any issues with any of the pieces of stone we have used but one customer contacted us recently to say that they had used a granite slab from Asda and it had shattered in the oven during use.  As I said I have never had any problems so in order to make the use of granite boards as safe as possible here are my recommendations for using a board in this way…

  1.  Place the granite slab onto the bottom shelf where you have any exposed electric elements or onto the base of the oven where this is safe (for example in an Aga although in an Aga you can also bake directly on the floor of the oven);
  2. If you use one of the granite chopping boards, place them into your oven the wrong way up – i.e. bake on the rough side;
  3. When creating steam only use a misting spray. Some people recommend throwing water into the oven or placing trays of water or ice cubes into the bottom of the oven but I have to say I don’t agree.  Where you use larger quantities of water you are much less likely to get the steam you want and if you are using an electric oven it seems to me you can only be creating a safety hazard.  Misting sprays are easy to buy from garden centers and kitchen shops and we will be introducing them to our online shop soon;
  4. Don’t worry if your slab simply cracks – this often happens – indeed many of the pieces of stone I have in my ovens have cracks in them.  It will not make any difference to your bread.

If you have had any problems with baking stones do let us know.

7 replies
    • Jo Bertinet
      Jo Bertinet says:

      Richard recommends baking on the under-side as it is un-polished and a little rougher more similar to commercial oven stones.

      Reply
  1. Marc
    Marc says:

    When you say the stone cracks, do the cracks run through the stone? As in they look like the stone is splitting? I have been using a granite stone for a while and it seems to have developed to cracks at the edges and along the length. Is that ok or should I just replace it? Thanks

    Reply
    • Jo Bertinet
      Jo Bertinet says:

      Hi Marc
      Yes – they can crack through. It is inevitable as they are composites and they react to the heating up / cooling down. We just leave them in place – the cracks don’t effect their use. It is only an issue if you want to remove them when you are not baking but we just leave them in our ovens all the time. Hope that helps.

      Reply
  2. Mimie
    Mimie says:

    I have been following you and had always wondered what you had in your oven . I just got the answer coming to this page.The granite stone…Is it good to leave it in to bake other pastries ike pies and cookies.

    Reply
    • Carrie Bell
      Carrie Bell says:

      Hello Mimie

      Many thanks for your enquiries. Yes you can leave the baking stone in the oven to bake other pastries on but put them onto a baking sheet or tray first, not directly onto the stone. The stone doesn’t have to be an exact fit and cover the whole floor of your oven, Richard sometimes uses off cuts of stone.

      I do hope that helps.

      With kind regards

      The Bertinet Kitchen Team.

      Reply

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