Fire bricks for bread baking instead of pizza stone

benniesdad · Nov 18, 2012

My wife who is a wonderful bread baker is out of town and I am considering surprising her by baking bread on my Performer for when she comes back. Question – can I use fire bricks in place of a pizza stone? I plan on following John Setzler’s Man-Cave recipe and using parchment paper under it. I have a pizza stone that I am really trying not to use on the grill since my wife uses it for her bread baking and I don’t want the surprise to be too big when she comes back if you know what I mean. :doh:

chicagokp · Nov 18, 2012

I'd say go for it. Especially using firebricks. You should be fine.

AJP · Nov 18, 2012

Or head down to walmart and get a cheap stone for the grill, or an unglazed tile.

V-wiz · Nov 18, 2012

Yes you can. Pizza ovens are made with fire bricks and are cooked directly over the bricks.

Yellowhair42 · Nov 18, 2012

I have been using them lately and they work BUT,they take a long time to heat up.

benniesdad · Nov 18, 2012

Thanks for all the input. Based on the comments and some of the other reading I have done, I decided to punt. Went online and found a round 14 3/4 inch one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for $14.99, ordered it and just picked it up about an hour ago. I am going to set it on top of the fire bricks and give it a go.

tish · Nov 18, 2012

Let us know how it comes out. :grin:

pattyp · Nov 18, 2012

Good luck I got one from bed bath and beyond, it lasted 2 cooks. Eventually got a primo pizza stone. But worth the learning

AJP · Nov 18, 2012

The trick with the cheap stones is to put them on the grill when it is cool and let them heat up with the grill. If you put a cold stone on a hot grill it is asking it to crack.

cheez · Nov 18, 2012

Maybe too late, since you bought the other stone, but I use firebrick splits for pizza all the time, and have used them once so far for bread as well. It worked out great! There is a pic in here:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2182264

benniesdad · Nov 19, 2012

Bread was not what I would call a great success, but it certainly was not an epic failure either. I actually ended up doing it on two separate grills. My Performer would not hold a high enough temperature so after 30 minutes of temps that would not go above 325, I moved the pizza stone with bread over to my Summit gasser to finish it. Fortunately, I had additional firebricks that I could allow some to preheat while the Summit was coming up to temp. Had a little burning on the crust, but the bread itself turned out OK. My wife was definitely surprised when she came home tonight and we had it for supper. BTW = don’t plan on seeing me opening a bakery anytime soon.
Here was my initial set up on the Performer with fire bricks under the pizza stone. I also had two small water pans under the grate to provide moisture.

Bread definitely had an awesome crust.

Crumb was a little dense, but not bad for the first time.

Fire bricks for bread baking instead of pizza stone

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