How a Stone worktop can transform your Baking.

During these unusual times there have been many ways that day to day life has changed for many but one particular trend that has become clear is the baking phenomena! Flour has been in short supply due to the vast numbers of people baking their own bread and this has led to many customers asking us which worktops are best suited to kneading, rolling and preparing your dough for the oven.

Wood

I thought it best to start with wood as it’s a material I am very familiar with at home and being no stranger to the latest baking craze, I can say first hand that this is certainly not the ideal surface for keeping your dough cool and your worktop clean. In the high temperatures we’ve been seeing, the dough hardens on the surface and makes for a tough clean to remove the residue after a good kneading session.

Stone

Truly the most well renowned surface for the master bakers among us, marble works exceptionally well as it retains the cool temperatures inside the home even on the hottest of days which can make kneading and preparing any type of dough a breeze in comparison to other surfaces commonly found in the kitchen. Other stone types will perform just as well, whether it’s granite, quartzite or engineered quartz but there is something about dough being rolled out on beautiful Carrara marble that sticks in the mind. Visit Culliford’s current stock page to view the full selection of natural stone.

Laminate

At possibly the lowest price point there are clear cost benefits to this material but in the baking arena, it doesn’t quite cut it at the top. Often made up of chip board throughout with a thin laminate veneer on the surface, they can often absorb heat and make rolling dough/pastry with butter content hard and sticky work. With a slight polish to the surface in many cases it may do a better job of cleaning than wood but the clear winner is stone in the baking test.

For More information on the our vast natural stone range, download our surface guide here to learn about how each characterisation of stone differs from one another.

Blog written by Matthew Leary. Part time baker, full time stone fan 🙂