Does Anyone Else Use A Hearth Kit?

[holiday16]

if anyone else here uses one and if so have you tried cooking gluten-free with and without it? I think it helps quite a bit with gluten free cooking as far as "crisping" things up sometimes. I wouldn't go so far as to buy one just for that, but it's a nice benefit. Where it really pays off is with pizza. I made crust from a recipe on here, but it came out with a gooey texture. I put it back in on the hearth for 5 minutes and it made it crispy, got rid of the gooey texture and tasted great. I used to use a pizza stone, but this works much better.

What I'm curious about is if it helps cook gluten-free things better or not. It's supposed to help cook things from the inside out, but it's so much work to make gluten-free baked goods I haven't wanted to try making them without it! Thought I'd ask on the slim chance that someone else here has tried it ) If not maybe I should experiment and post my results... I do know it cooks chicken so much better and faster than just using a regular oven.

The sad thing is my dh bought it for me as a Christmas present because I wanted to be able to make a really good Artisan bread. I'd been trying different ways to make really good chewy bread for about 15 years and I finally found a method that worked great along with the hearthkit and was diagnosed gluten intolerant shortly after. I was concerned about cross contamination, but I cleaned it and have never had a problem, thank goodness since it's not cheap! Here's a link to the product if anyone wants to see what it is:

Open Original Shared Link

[kbabe1968]

I have a large pizza stone and several other stoneware pieces. I think they do the same thing...absorb the moisture without making something too dry. I love my stones.

The long bar pan and stone are ALWAYS in my oven....maybe that's why (except for choco chip cookies) I've had some success with gluten free baking.

I'd keep it....I think it'd be worth it to keep.

[FeedIndy]

I have a large pizza stone and several other stoneware pieces. I think they do the same thing...absorb the moisture without making something too dry. I love my stones.

The long bar pan and stone are ALWAYS in my oven....maybe that's why (except for choco chip cookies) I've had some success with gluten free baking.

I'd keep it....I think it'd be worth it to keep.

Have you had any trouble with CC on your stones? I tried to email the Pampered Chef, but customer service referred my question to the test kitchen 5 months ago. I never heard another word so I don't know if that means no, we don't know or we're still testing.

I haven't had issues myself, but I don't feed the baby anything out of the stones as she is quite sensitive.

[kbabe1968]

Have you had any trouble with CC on your stones? I tried to email the Pampered Chef, but customer service referred my question to the test kitchen 5 months ago. I never heard another word so I don't know if that means no, we don't know or we're still testing.

I haven't had issues myself, but I don't feed the baby anything out of the stones as she is quite sensitive.

To my knowledge, I have not had problems with the stones. I have on occasion put a piece of tinfoil over the stone before putting a food down on it. But I haven't had any gluten reactions at home that I can tie to the stones.

I WAS a rep for a while, I think it would depend greatly on how seasoned your stone is. The food gets burned away while the stone seasons. The fat is what remains. Most of my stones are blacker than black...so they have a pretty solid surface.

Of course, I only bake gluten free stuff now. Anything that is not gluten free is purchased (ie. breads, pastas) and cooked only pans that I don't use, for the most part - or in my stainless steel pans.

Did that help?

[holiday16]

I have a large pizza stone and several other stoneware pieces. I think they do the same thing...absorb the moisture without making something too dry. I love my stones.

The long bar pan and stone are ALWAYS in my oven....maybe that's why (except for choco chip cookies) I've had some success with gluten free baking.

I'd keep it....I think it'd be worth it to keep.

Maybe I'll try experimenting with and without it sometime because I really think it makes a difference. I was looking up some posts on bread machine baking and I noticed many people said their bread turns out better in theirs. I used mine to make some bread and it was ok because I was just going to use it for stuffing, but I didn't think it came out near as well. I have the Zojirushi so it wasn't an issue of bread machine quality.

I also take mine out to make cookies because they don't bake as well with it. That's when I wish I had two ovens because taking the entire kit out can be an undertaking and there's no way to take it out when it's been heated!