KitchenCraft Round Cast Iron Baking Stone / Cooking Girdle

I bought this on a bit of a whim and I’m really glad I did. It’s proper cast iron – nice and heavy, feels solid, and holds heat brilliantly. Once it’s hot, it cooks really evenly with no annoying hot spots. I’ve mainly been using it for pancakes and flatbreads, and they come out beautifully browned every time. It’s also great in the oven for things like pizza or bread when you want a good, crisp base. You can tell this is one of those bits of kitchen kit that will last forever if you look after it. Yes, it’s heavy (it’s cast iron, after all), and you do need to treat it properly – a light season and no chucking it in the dishwasher – but that’s all part of the charm. The handle is handy too, especially when moving it on and off the hob. All in all, this is a really versatile, no-nonsense bit of cookware. If you like traditional kitchen tools that just work, this is a cracking buy and great value for money. Would happily recommend 👍

Good product and realistic price

First of all I deducted 1 star because the baking stone is not completely flat slightly rocking from side to side and there is some minor pitting of the cast iron. But this is probably the most basic of all cooking utensils and to deduct more than one star would be churlish. The instructions on seasoning implies that the bakestone only needs to be seasoned on one side. But this is cast iron and will go rusty if not seasoned all over and on both sides. So while the seasoning instructions will no doubt be followed I should think that most owners will oil it all over and bung it in a hot oven for an hour. Prospective users should also not that there is no rim mainly because it's a flat bakestone: Those who like to swirl a knob of butter around should get a shallow griddle pan instead. Overall you get a usable diameter of 23 cm and a rough texture to cook/bake on. The flat essentially cut-out type of handle will be cumbersome for some and for those perhaps a griddle pan or sizzle pan will be better. Lastly, yes it can be used to make Welsh Cakes but it's so much more than that: In addition we should be thinking such delights as Potato Cakes, Griddle/Girdle Scones, Drop Scones, Scotch Pancakes, Crepes, Muffins (the flat bread type) and Crumpets.

This cast iron pizza stone is fantastic! Yes, the initial seasoning process is scary - giant block of super-heated metal to deal with - and a bit of a pain, but you only have to do that once and once it's done and you can start using the stone, it gives terrific results. You can make truly delicious pizza - and I don't even like pizza that much. So my young kids have gotten into making their own - and we're not idiots, we regularly buy frozen pizza too, but making pizza for lunch is quite time-consuming - kneading the dough, and such - which makes it a pretty good home-based activity to take up part of a wet winter day. A bit of trial and error showed us you just can't cook home-made raw pizza dough successfully in a conventional oven unless you have one of these. You heat the stone up for about 10-15 minutes in the oven beforehand, 'apply the pizza' to the hot surface (unless you have one of those designated pizza-shop giant round spatulas, admittedly this can be tricky) and then back it goes into the oven for about 15 minutes where the stored-up heat from the metal base cooks the dough beautifully (while the ordinary oven cooks the topping). The stone's a good size. You can use it on the stovetop too. It makes good girdle pancakes - albeit with an awful lot of smoke generated. I wouldn't be without one of these things now.

Really soft and warm

it's a good buy, the only regret is not to season both sides, as the side I didn't season got rusty

Great for anything from Welshcakes to Pizas ,drop scones to pancakes endless ,I use on the cooker top and in the oven

It did get a bit fumey when I was going through the seasoning process but I’m very happy with it. I’ve been using it to bake flat breads on an Aga hot plate or in the oven and it has been faultless. Nothing has stuck. I’ve made a grease proof bag for it from paper and I slot it in amongst my baking trays for storage.

Works great for Welsh cakes!

Hace 21 años me fui de Venezuela, tenía muchas cosas por meter en mis 2 maletas y no eran suficientes para que entrara todo. Entre las cosas que siempre me arrepentí de no haber traído estaba un clásico en las cocinas de Venezuela: el Budare para hacer mis arepas asadas! No lo metí en mis maletas porque pensé que en algún lado en Europa podría comprarlo y preferí meter fotos en una época donde las micro SD ni Facebook existían... Ayer navegando por Amazon me encontré con esta maravillosa sorpresa: UN BUDARE Aunque con otro nombre un poco sin sentido: "Piedra (es de hierro fundido) para Asar" LLamar a un Budare piedra cuando es de metal!!! -pensé mientras le daba al COMPRAR YA!- Lo compré un domingo y el lunes en la mañana ya lo estaba recibiendo en mi oficina - la magia de Amazon y sus trabajadores!- Hoy mismo al llegar a casa de la oficina, llegué a casa contenta con mi compra, encendí mi cocina de leña, saqué mi harina PAN de la despensa y me puse a amasar mi masa para hacer arepitas asadas para cenar!!! Una maravilla, ese olor a arepa asada en BUDARE!!! Ese olor que millones de venezolanos en el exilio añoramos como añoramos ver las guacamayas volar en pareja por los cielos de Caracas, ir a la playa el 1 de enero, los tambores de San Juan, el raspao' de colita, el helado de bolibomba, los diablitos, la chicha andina y tantas cosas que dejamos atrás junto a nuestra infancia, nuestra Venezuela que ya no es lo que era ni está como la dejamos, los recuerdos de esa Venezuela que hoy solo vive en nuestra memoria y que muchos nos tememos que no volverá. Quizás algún día volvamos, pero seguro muchas cosas ya no estarán... Es por esta añoranza que me llenó de alegría encontrar esto que aquí llamáis "piedra de asar" a lo que es un BUDARE de toda la vida, de toda mi vida... Muchas gracias Amazon por hacer posible algo que creía imposible! He de decir que las arepas quedaron perfectas! Recordar curar el Budare antes: candela y aceite y limpiamos con papel de cocina unas 3 veces más o menos antes de poner las arepas en el Budare Cuidado si la usáis en vitro, que pesa una bola!!! Un abrazote para todos los venezolanos areperos y para todos los españoles que leyeron mi crónica mas que mi recomendación 😘 QUE VIVA ESPAÑA 🇪🇸 y QUE VIVA VENEZUELA 🇻🇪

Works as a Venezuelan Budare for arepas

Fidèle à la marque .. je recommande ! En fonte de bonne qualité .

Bought this over five months ago to learn how to make Welsh cakes, which it does very well, though I seldom use it for that purpose. What it does spectacularly, is turn my Breville convection countertop oven into a pizza oven—small pizza for one or two. While collecting ingredients and assembling pizza on peel, turn on oven to 450F and place griddle on stovetop until it too reaches 450F (use laser thermometer to measure). Slide pizza on griddle, let sit for about one minute and then move the griddle and pizza to oven. Instead of limp pizza slices from the countertop oven, these have crispy-thin crust—bottom, too—and no need to overheat the kitchen unless you have a crowd.