Where to buy thick terracotta tiles?

[naskies]

Something a little different...

I like to bake - my own breads, pizzas, etc - and a couple of years ago discovered the neat trick of using unglazed terracotta tiles as an el cheapo but highly effective baking stone.

The downside of these tiles is that they can't withstand the thermal shock of baking high moisture (> 60%) doughs - they're constantly cracking on me.

The tiles that I get are usually quite thin - around 1 cm for a 30x30 cm tile. I was thinking that if I could find some *thick* tiles, at least a few centimetres thick, it would be less likely to crack. Furthermore, I could bake more bread/pizza before I'd need to reheat/dry out the tiles.

Any ideas for where I might be able to buy a thick unglazed terracotta tile? Thanks!

[Tandum]

You can get a pizza stone pretty cheap, they shouldn't crack.

[tlgerdes]

Go to the local boral or csr display showroom. They give you free samples to take. We took home 6 tiles in with no problem, admittedly they were 2 tiles each from 3 style. 2 styles were unglazed terracotta.

[cybereye]

Bugger the tiles, if that's one of your loaves of bread I'm coming to your place for dinner!!! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Mario

PS Try Apollo Lansdcaping at Coopers Plains or any of the tile places at Underwood/Springwood...
PPS Tandum, I didn't realise the distance from Carindale to Robertson was 96km...

[naskies]

My friends who've owned pizza stones tell me that they're just as prone to cracking as tiles.

I think the problem is the type of bread/pizza I'm baking, which requires preheating the oven to 250+ deg C for an hour or two, and then dumping a very wet dough onto it. Absolutely delicious flavour, but hell on pizza stones/tiles.



Hmmm I didn't think of Boral/CSR showrooms, thanks!



Yep! The pizzas come out even better! :D (In case anyone else is interested, I've found this tutorial (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons) absolutely brilliant.)



I've been getting my supply from one of the ones in Underwood... they give them to me for free if I only ask for one at a time :) Cleaning up cracked tiles is becoming a bit of a pain though...

[Steffen]

I suppose the thick tiles would crack, too, just with a louder bang :D Kind of like river stones in a camp fire.

[naskies]

Thanks Mario! :) I finally got around to visiting them today. They pointed me towards "FirePave" pavers which are 300x300x50 mm - the perfect size to fit in my oven, and hold as much heat as possible. They're also rated for safe use at oven temperatures, which hopefully means no more cracking/exploding.

[naskies]

The pavers finally arrived today, and I gave them a test run. At 50 mm thick and almost solid, they took a while to adequately preheat... but they work amazingly well. They're incredibly porous - much more so than standard terracotta. Check out one of my first bagels - beautifully soft and fluffy insides, and a chewy textured crust :)

[cybereye]

Dave,

I'm glad I was able to help and the bagel looks fantastic! I'll take a dozen of those and a couple of chiabattas as a spotter's fee!!! (Only joking:D)

Cheers,
Mario