when i eventually buy my own house, an in-house brick oven is at the top of my wish list. i’d also love an outdoor earth oven (susan has been building one over at wild yeast; i’m jealous). while in the meantime (and realistically, forever), i’m not going to have one at my fingertips, there’s no reason i can’t simulate a hearth oven in my own kitchen using baking stones.

what’s the point of baking on a hot stone? stones retain heat much better than metal baking sheets, giving your bread a better crust (like putting a good steak on an extremely hot cast iron pan). waiting for cold sheet pan to heat up can cause the bread to bake unevenly. the stones work best when you heat them up as you preheat the oven. i usually heat the stones up about 100 degrees hotter than the recipe temperature, then turn it down to the appropriate temp just before putting in the bread, making up for some of the heat lost when you open the oven door.

i used to have a pizza stone (an awesome gift!) that worked very well for about a year. however, some kind of oil must have seeped into the stone because it began dripping and smoking profusely whenever i turned on the oven. more than once the apartment filled with smoke and eventually i had to trash it. the problem with pizza stones is that they can be incredibly expensive ($40-$100!) to replace.

i decided to do a little research and found a great alternative in unglazed quarry tiles. you can find them at any hardware/home store (my dad and i hit up home depot). these are 6″ x 6″ and about 1/2″-3/4″ thick, though 1″ thick is probably ideal. the best part? 12 of them cost me less than $5, so it’s definitely not just for die-hard bakers. since i started baking on these tiles, my bread has looked and tasted better than ever - and the crust is incomparable to older loaves. i have them arranged on a middle rack as in the above picture. a few quick tips:

• make sure they are unglazed! glazed tiles can contain harmful chemicals and metals like lead in them. if you aren’t sure, ask someone at the store or contact the manufacturer. liquid should be absorbed by the tiles, not roll off of them.

• cleaning: when you first bring the tiles home, wipe them with a solution of water and baking soda. you can do this if they get pieces of crust stuck on them as well. do not use soap, as it will seep into the stones and then get into any food you put on them.

• transferring bread to the tiles: you might be asking, “if i’m not using a baking sheet, how do i get my dough onto a 500 degree stone without burning off my fingertips?” with smaller loaves, you can pull out the shelf a little bit and literally toss the bread onto the tiles. with anything larger, a cornmeal covered pizza peel is your friend. i recently invested in one (less than $10) and it’s made getting the bread into the oven a cinch.

• care: these tiles require very little care. they may darken from use, but should be fine. you can also leave them in the oven even if you aren’t baking on them. if i need to bake on a sheet, i just move one of the empty shelves above the one with the stones. it won’t hurt them to heat up over and over. if your tiles ever do break from use, you can replace them for mere pennies!

to all foodbloggers - Martha Stewart is having a contest over at her blog! Check it out and enter to get featured on her site! and now, here’s martha with general patraeus and colin powell:

have you ever seen those people in bed bath and beyond or sur la table wandering around the kitchen appliances? staring longingly into the stainless steel bowl of a kitchenaid mixer, drool pooling up at their feet - you know the type. well, stop staring at us, it’s not polite.

really, it’s harder than it looks to resist the shiny gleam of kitchen gadgets. how many times have you been walking through the store, hefted some industrial marvel of kitchen gadgetry in your hands and thought, “i make pretty a good sandwich, but if i had this panini press then i could make a really professional sandwich,” or “why get a regular toaster when i could have one that makes 10 slices at a time and cooks eggs and bacon for me when i wake up - and does my taxes while i wait!”

the at-home amateur cook is tempted by the promise that somehow an elaborate and expensive tool can help their cooking rise out of mediocrity. the only problem is that good chefs and bakers don’t get better by using gadgets - they get better by practicing and testing themselves, mastering simple techniques and experimenting to break through culinary barriers that they or others have put up. in other words, it’s got nothing to do with gadgets.

the only gadgets i need are wooden spoons. the three above have saved me countless times in the kitchen. the one on the far left is the longest, my soup spoon, used exclusively for my giant soup pot (it’s about time i made some summer corn chowder…). the middle one is…pink. why? black cherry kool-aid! this spoon is used only to mix kool-aid which, if you didn’t know, stains anything it touches before it’s completely dissolved.

the spoon on the far right - this is my best friend. this one, the smallest, was used in every single recipe on this site. even with a food processor and standing mixer, this wooden spoon is still my perfect kitchen tool. we’ve been through everything together - doughs, icings, sauces (tomato and alfredo), stir-frys, cakes, cookies, soups, custards, tarts - i’ve even whipped cream with it and gotten stiff peaks. i can say with confidence that no matter what the recipe says, it can be done with little more than a wooden spoon and a bowl.

so tell me, what’s your most indispensable kitchen tool?

sorry guys, no recipe or pictures this time. i just moved into my new place so i’m still getting everything set up to start baking again - but rest assured i’ll be back soon. but i didn’t want to leave everyone completely hanging, so…

i’ve never had any formal training in baking or cooking, but i’ve been doing this for fun for the past few years and have noticed mistakes that i’ve corrected as well as mistakes i continue to make. these are my thoughts on how to be successful at baking and have fun doing it.

1. don’t be intimidated by ingredients or techniques
people often consider baking overwhelming because it’s a science that requires precise measurements and temperatures. true, it is a science, but there’s no reason to think you can’t do it…and there’s plenty of wiggle room if you screw up. i’ll admit that i was afraid of using yeast the first time, but the sense of accomplishment i felt when my first bread came out of the oven more than made up for it. with the internet at our fingertips (not to mention the public library), there’s no excuse for ignorance when it comes to working with a specific ingredient. similarly, a lot of recipes call for fancy techniques - pie crusts are a common phobia. you can either a) try it, fail, and try again or b) find an easier alternative. you can’t go wrong.

2. bake often, bake cheap (at first) and pay attention
the only way to not fear baking is to do it. a lot. it could be gradual at first, but you will improve. you’ll be throwing together ingredients more quickly, you’ll know by smell when your cookies are done, you’ll improve on recipes by adding your own special touches. and you can still get great results from cheap ingredients, so if you’re afraid of failing, make sure you do it without breaking the bank. there’s plenty of time to try extravagant flours after you master a simple cake with simple ingredients. but if that simple cake doesn’t work out, do a little research and figure out WHY.

3. you don’t need gadgets
this is a hard one for most people to get over. if you’ve got an standing mixer or even a hand mixer, put it away for a week and try to make your favorite recipes. i promise: you can do it. heck, you don’t even need a real oven. i’ve made my chocolate chip coffee cake in a cardboard box tin foil oven while camping in the middle of nowhere. the two tools i rely on most are a bowl and a wooden spoon. sometimes you can even forgo the wooden spoon by using your hands. get creative and don’t rely on something expensive you need to plug in.

4. when it says preheat, PREHEAT!
i used to be guilty of this one. how many times have you gotten your cake all set to go and realized you forgot to heat up the oven? it’s easy to just throw it in there and let it slowly warm up, but for the love of all delicious baked goods, BE PATIENT! it is essential that baked goods be immediately exposed to the proper temperature. starting in a cold oven will not only extend your baking time to some indeterminate amount, but the consistency of your cake or bread will be off. oftentimes, the first 10 minutes of baking are the most important, and if your temperature is bad, it can mean hours of trying to fixed a botched recipe or starting from scratch.

5. use real butter
please. PLEASE. there is a difference between butter and oil; they are not exactly interchangeable in recipes. specifically, butter is only 80% fat, the rest being milk solids and water. there are recipes that specifically call for oil, and that’s fine, but if a recipe calls for butter, use butter. the consistency of your finished baked good depends on it. if you are concerned about health issues, moderation in everything you eat is the key. as long as you are not eating 12 cupcakes a day, you don’t need to sacrifice taste and consistency.

6. don’t open the oven until the minimum baking time has passed
i still break this rule. since i was a kid, i couldn’t wait to see when the cookies or the muffins would be done, so i’d open the oven door to check. bad move. i know it’s tempting, especially if you don’t have an oven light, but opening the oven door causes a sudden change in temperature, resulting in disaster. cheesecakes will crack, cakes will fall. you will weep.

7. the amount of love added is directly proportional to your final result
the more i bake, the more i am convinced of this. i believe it’s why my mom’s chocolate chip cookies, despite being the standard toll house recipe, surpass others using the exact same recipe. baking should be a pleasure. the process of baking itself, not just the eating part at the end. if you don’t have fun, it will carry all the way through the cookies you’re making and into the people that eat them. you can immediately tell when something is homemade instead of store-bought. maybe your cake has imperfections, but it’s those imperfections that make it special. i know it sounds sappy, but put love into your baking and you will be repaid in full.

8. uncooked dough can be delicious, but don’t eat uncooked yeast dough
you’ll get a tummy ache. trust me.

9. don’t keep your baking secrets a secret
i don’t understand why some bakers keep their recipes a secret. unless you’re planning on selling it or are worried about plagiarism, spread the word! the more good recipes and techniques we can get out there, the better all of our baked goods will be. got a “secret” ingredient? tell your friends! help each other out - baking can be a scary endeavor sometimes, so if you’ve got knowledge, drop it on us.

10. try anything (at least) once
once when i was making a layer cake, i was afraid that my layers would come out with domed tops and not stack correctly. i came across this tip on the internet: “wrap a damp towel around your cake pan when you put it in the oven. the water will lower the temperature around the edges of the pan, so it will take the same amount of time to cook as the center.” it seemed a little crazy, putting a wet towel in a 400 degree oven, and yes, i did burn myself several times trying to maneuver the whole thing, but it WORKED. my cakes were perfectly flat and even all around.

don’t fear anything. in fact, go out of your way to use ingredients and techniques you’ve never tried. you probably won’t master everything the first time, but you can add it to your list of things you’ve accomplished. go forth and experience everything baking has to offer and don’t ever turn down a recipe because it looks too complicated or takes you out of your comfort zone. thrive on recipes that challenge you and make you a better baker.