Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I used to have a pizza/bread stone, and I hated the darned thing. First, it really did have a terrible odor from the start. I didn't realize that wasn't 'normal'. Then over time, everything got stuck to it. And finally I just tossed it in the trash.
Hesitantly bought this one. Had read all the reviews on it, and particularly for the money, seemed to have the best overall reviews. Was skeptical, but had wanted to start trying to bake 'artisan' bread, and the recipe I was using was very specific about baking directly on a stone only, and using a pizza peel to get bread in and out of oven.
Took new stone from box - happy to note there was no odor at all when I stuck my nose on it - brushed off the little bits of styrophome from the packaging, and without doing anything else to it, set it directly into my oven and turned it on to 500*. Had the worst fear I'd hear a big "pop", indicating the stone had cracked in half. But it didn't. Cooked stone like that for an hour - not a hint of scent coming from my oven.
Used the Prime shipping, so knew stone would be here in 2 days - had gone ahead and made the bread dough I'd been dying to try. Was a little worried though - my recipe has you keep dough in fridge until you bake it - was concerned about putting cold dough on extremely hot stone. But - was no problem at all. Cold bread dough + hot baking stone = no problem! Pizza peel came in same shipment, and it slid my dough onto the hot stone much easier than if I'd have tried to do it with my hands (I'll rephrase - slid the dough onto hot stone so I wouldn't burn the crap out of my hands and probably my arms too!).
Bread came out exactly as cookbook writer said it would - dark and crusty. When it was cool enough to cut, the inside was still moist and chewy, as recipe indicated. Excellent 'artisan' consistency!
The next day, I opened the oven and looked at the stone. Besides having a little cornmeal on it, it otherwise looked exactly as it did when I'd placed it in the oven - no stain or spot from the dough, still no smell.
Saw another review rebuking the pizza cutter. For me, I was buying a stone - the cutter, albiet not professional quality, was just a 'bonus' that came with the stone.
I'm happy - this stone is definitely a keeper!
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Keilen Italian Villa 14-by-15-Inch Rectangular Bread Baking Stone with Jumbo Pizza CutterTransform your oven into an old brick hearth oven with our 14 X 15 Rectangular Bread Baking Stone. The stone bakes evenly without hot spots and includes a jumbo pizza cutter
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