>I am now the proud owner of a baking stone and am looking for hints on how to
>best use it. I have made one pizza with some success. However I did have some
>trouble getting the uncooked off the "peel" and onto the stone. I used corn
>meal under the dough; is there a better way.
Robert,
I love my baking stone! It's porous texture helps distribute heat to
produce a fine crispy crust. Preheat oven with the stone in place on the
middle shelf for at least 30 minutes. Form your focaccia, bread, etc. on a
large wooden pizza paddle/peel that is generously covered with cornmeal and
allow to rise while loosely covered. When ready to bake, give paddle a
little shake to make sure dough will move freely. Sprinkle the hot stone
with some cornmeal. Holding the paddle directly over the stone, give it a
slight forward movement and a hard backward jerk toward you and -- voila!--
the dough will slip
onto the stone.
With pizza, I shape the dough on a floured surface and then transfer it to
the cornmeal covered paddle, cover with toppings, and slide from the paddle
onto the preheated stone in the oven (eliminating the rise). I try to
rotate the bread 1/2 way through the baking time for even browning.
A great cookbook that utilizes a baking stone in many of the recipes is
"Rustic European
Breads from Your Bread Machine" by Linda Eckhardt.
Hope this helps.
Sandee Ritter
adritter@txdirect.net