If you have guests over or simply live in a house with a family full of bread-lovers, then you’ll likely appreciate the wonderful thing that is hot, fresh bread. Well, the best way is to use a bread basket complete with a bread warming stone.
A bread warming stone can be heated to high temperatures in the oven or in the microwave, and then be added to the basket. Once added, the stone will slowly release its heat into the bread, leading to a tasty basket full of warmed bread.
If that sounds like you, then you might want to invest in a bread basket with a warming stone – you’ll keep your fresh bread hot for an hour, ideal for a little alongside dinner.
How Do You Use A Bread Warmer Stone?
Bread warmer stones are a very simple invention. At the core of it all, they’re essentially just a stone that you get hot and then allow to slowly release that heat into the bread on your table.
To get a stone hot, you can either bake it in the oven or zap it in the microwave.
To bake a stone in the oven, first heat the oven to 350ËšF. Then, add your stone, and bake it for roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. This is the ideal length of time to do this, as any longer and you’ll just be wasting heat – the stone will be as hot as it can be.
Alternatively, if you wanted to heat the stone in the microwave, you can! We’d recommend you wrap it in a tea towel, and then microwave it for three to five minutes. At that point, the stone will be as hot as it can get, and you can use it in your breadbasket!
Make sure that you don’t touch the hot stone directly – you will hurt yourself due to the heat.
When the stone is hot, you can place it into the breadbasket that it goes with, and then place a cloth over the top to maintain the heat for longer. Place the bread on top, often followed by another cloth, and your bread will be warm, perfect for spreading butter on.
Generally speaking, the breadbasket will have a small compartment for holding the stone. If this is not the case, then the accompanying cloth may have a pocket that is designed to hold the stone. The reason that these compartments exist is because the stone will be exceptionally hot, and so it needs to be housed in a manner that will protect both it, the basket, and the table that they rest on.
What Is A Bread Basket Brick?
A bread basket brick is the same thing as a bread basket stone. They are both a piece of terracotta that has been treated such that it will retain heat well and exude it slowly, over the course of forty-five minutes to an hour.
The only meaningful difference between a bread basket brick and a bread basket stone is that the brick may be differently shaped. It is likely that brick will be shaped more like a cuboid, and a stone may be flatter and rounder
How Do You Make Bread Basket Liners?
Breadbasket liners are best when made from fabric. This material will help to retain heat in both the bread and the stone, much like how a blanket helps to retain heat when you’re lying in bed.
If you wanted to make your own bread basket liner, then you’d best get started with some fabric, a needle, and some thread. The best way to do this is to use a pre-existing towel or cloth that fits the basket well and measure its size.
From there, you can then cut your new fabric to size. If your fabric is not double-sided, then you will need two pieces. Place them right-side-out, and place the backs together. From there, sew the two pieces of fabric together, and you’ll have a wonderful bread basket liner ready to go!
If you simply wish to have a quick fix, though, you could just buy it online or just opt for a tea towel that is roughly the correct size. Using a towel such as that will be a lot easier than making your own, but will be less visually appealing.
How Long Can You Keep the Bread Warm in A Basket with A Warming Stone?
Well, this depends on a number of things.
Generally speaking, a bread basket warming stone will keep bread warm for forty-five minutes to an hour. This is plenty of time to be sat around a table eating bread, as you won’t really ever find yourself eating bread for hours on end.
If the bread itself is already hot before being added to the basket (if you’ve just removed it from the oven, for example) then the bread will likely stay warmer for a much longer amount of time, up to two hours!
[Related Article: How To Bake Bread Without Yeast And Other FAQs Answered]
Best Breadbasket with a warming stone
KOLSTRAW Wicker Woven Fruit Baskets For Bread
These lovely bread baskets are ideal for the home. IWhat we like is the wide variety of the size of bread baskets that we see online, which might make it ideal for both small and big households. However, if you need to heat the bread, you may like to consider this handily sized ceramic bread warmer stone which is ideal for heating up quickly and easily.
The basket is very strong and sturdy, ideal for some an item that may need to withstand a few knocks and drops. Importantly, though, the cloth liner is actually machine washable. This is ideal for a food product such as this, as it will likely spend a lot of time near food, so it is likely to become stained.
Longaberger Bread Basket With A Warming Stone
This stone is very well designed so that any bread or rolls which are placed upon it are likely to fall into the center of the basket itself – this is because of the slight slope at the edges of the stone. This means that the stone is likely to hold heat for slightly longer, as the bread will fall to the center – where the heat will be maintained.
The warming stone also has a slight texture to the side where the bread is designed to be placed. This means that any bread upon the stone will have increased ventilation, leading to a much-lowered chance of it getting wetter or at all moist, which is not desirable in bread.
Italian origins bread basket with warming stone set, 3-piece
This warming basket looks very visually appealing, perfect for filling the table at a family get-together. The basket itself is especially decorative for holiday dinners. Furthermore, it comes with a thick cloth napkin, which is actually machine washable!
Of course, this is very desirable since it will be around food, and is likely to get stained in some way. Within the center of the cloth napkin, there is a small pocket that is designed to hold the stone.
The basket itself is handwoven, making it very sturdy. It’s the perfect size for a family of four – the center is particularly deep, and it is quite long too. This means that not only can it hold a lot of bread all at once, but it can also hold several different types of bread, whether long or wide.
Pier One Bread Basket With A Warming Stone
This would be a great option for any family of bread-lovers out there! The stone itself has a large surface area on the top, meaning that you could place a number of bread rolls on it all at once. They would all get warmed through evenly and quickly, leading to a great side dish being there for all.
This basket, however, doesn’t come with a cloth liner. This is a little frustrating, but you can easily get cloth liners of your own, or simply use a small towel instead – you’ll achieve the same goal in the end.
Besides warming bread very well, the stone itself could serve as an impressive platter, irrespective of whether it was warm or not.
[Related Article: How To Bake Bread On A Pizza Stone And Other FAQs]
Conclusion
Bread baskets may seem a little like an antiquated notion, but it’s worth remembering that inventions like these existed for a reason. In the past, people realized that bread was nicer when it was warm and fresh. As such, they made the decision to make bread baskets that were designed to do just that.
There is no modern equivalent for a bread basket with a warming stone because it’s a simple, elegant way to get a simple, elegant job done. If you come from a family of bread-lovers, then we’re sure that you’ll likely adore having a bread basket in your home – they can be great for any number of people at any time of day