Bread Board

[Italiancook]

When I was growing up, my grandmother had a bread board. It was a round, wooden board. She used it for kneading bread and biscuit-baking. Until this house, I had a butcher block counter I used for bread-making. After moving here, I looked for a bread board, but no one had them, and no one knew what I was talking about.

A few Christmas seasons ago, I found a bread board in one of the big box stores. Turns out Grandma's bread board was really a cutting board! The one I bought cost only $20.00, which is probably the reason why the wood is chipping and coming out in small pieces.

Before I contact Williams-Sonoma about their "bread board" cutting boards, and spend the much higher price, I thought I'd ask:

What do you use as a bread board, and where did you buy it? I've thought that maybe what I need is a piece of granite, so washing it doesn't degrade the wood. My concern is that granite might be too heavy for me to lift, even though it wouldn't be a huge piece.

Do you know where one goes to buy just a piece of granite?

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[Mike Nolan]

Check with the local tile and marble vendors. If there's a place that cuts marble and tile to size, they often have scrap pieces (usually where a larger piece fractured or from a sink cutout) that can be cut down to size and polished. I bought a really big piece of marble at a garage sale years ago, it was originally part of the lobby walls of a downtown building that was being remodeled, we had the marble yard cut it to fit on our 30 x 48 butcher block table. (We bought the table back when we were living in Illinois and brought with us when we moved to Nebraska.)

I have butcher block counters, so I just use those for my breadmaking. We had a nice butcher block cutting board that I think we also bought when we were living in the Chicago area that was probably 18 x 24, but it developed a crack and wound up splitting in two along one of the joints. It might have been possible to sand it smooth and reglue it, but we didn't really need it once we moved to this house in 1997, so we gave both pieces to a friend.

I have been tempted to buy a large custom cut end-grain butcher block slab, at least 20 x 30 and 5-6 inches thick so that I've got it at the right height for me, since the butcher block counters are lower (my wife is much shorter than I am) but that'd cost about $500 plus shipping.

[Mike Nolan]

I have some bamboo mixing spoons and spatulas that I like a lot, and I really like the look and feel of the bamboo pastry boards I've seen, but I haven't seen any really big ones, 16x16 appears to be about as big as they go.

[BakerAunt]

It was probably in the late 1990s that I bought a bread board from King Arthur. I was new to their catalog and they were advertising a bread board--a large board with an Italian name that meant "little table." (According to the catalog, a man would give it as a wedding gift to his wife.) I used it for a long time. It has a lip on the bottom so that the board won't move away from you as you are kneading, and it has a raised area on the back to keep flour from spilling off. I still made a bit of a mess, but it cut down on it. To clean, I had to scrape the dried dough with a bench knife. I also wiped it lightly with a damp cloth.

I still have it, but I have not used it for a long time. I started using the Silpat mat (ok, also bought from KAF), and it made kneading so much easier--no sticking!--no need for extra flour, and clean-up was a breeze. I did use the board under the silpat mat when I was kneading on a kitchen table that was rather low. Then I got my stand mixer, and I don't knead by hand much anymore. I shape my breads on the mat. Still, I keep it, and perhaps will use it again some time.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Mike, for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. After Labor Day, I'll call a couple of independent countertop companies & see whom they suggest.

[Mike Nolan]

There are some companies that sell marble slabs for commercial candymakers, but they're usually pretty thick, 3 inches or more, and that makes them quite heavy. Not very cheap either, and shipping is both difficult and expensive.

But check places like Kohls, Michaels and Bed Bath & Beyond, their websites suggest they may have marble slabs for prices ranging from $30 to $60.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Mike! I'll check those websites today or tomorrow.

[RiversideLen]

I have a Boos Block 24 x 18 board that I use for my bread making. It's good for rolling out dough for cinnamon buns too. It's on the heavy side and I really don't have storage space so it sits on the counter and also gets used for other things too, like cutting veggies although I never use any of my wood boards for raw meat. I keep it in good condition by occasionally treating with food grade mineral oil and Boos board cream with is bees wax and mineral oil.

What I like about wood boards is, if the surface gets scratched up from knifes or whatever, I can give it a sanding and return it to new or near new condition.

[Mike Nolan]

Butchers have been using wood surfaces for cutting meat for a long time, but they wash them down frequently (with chlorine bleach these days) and then scrape it dry. You can tell a really old butcher block because the surface isn't perfectly flat anymore from having been scraped so many times.

But I don't cut raw meat directly on my butcher block countertops, either. I use a plastic mat that can be washed in the dishwasher.

[Italiancook]

Mike, I hadn't thought of a marble board. I was thinking only granite. I appreciate you mentioning it and checking to see who might have one online. I found that one of the sites had one without any description. A different site's reviews were fraught with accounts of products arriving broken. The company graciously replaced the broken ones. I don't recall why I nixed the third site. You put me on the right track, so I checked Amazon.

I found one sold by Sur La Table. So I went to Sur's website, where they're offering free shipping for it (yesterday). I decided I preferred to buy it from the store. A call there said they had one. It's a long trek from my home, but hubby and I went there. I took him, because it was reviewed as having a shipping weight of 25 pounds.

Now, the marble slab sits atop my movable island waiting for its first project. The problem is that the legs it's on slide on the countertop. So I have to go to Walmart and buy a non-slip product to put under the legs for using it. From the reviews, I knew this was a problem before I bought it. Nevertheless, I'm pleased with it and planning its maiden voyage. Thanks, Mike!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Italiancook.

[BakerAunt]

If you have a typewriter mat--probably unlikely in this day and age--it would prevent sliding. I actually do have one, but I keep it under my sewing machine. A silpat mat might also work, although that seems a waste. One of the gals who helped care for my mother-in-law told me that at a place where she cleaned, a young woman was using her silpat mat under a typewriter--she had received it as a bridal shower gift and did not know what it was.

Maybe some plastic shelf lining?

[RiversideLen]

How about some non slip furniture pads?

https://www.amazon.com/SoftTouch-Self-Stick-Heavy-Non-Slip-Surface/dp/B005XGOV7O/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1504553420&sr=8-20&keywords=non+slip+feet+pads

https://www.amazon.com/Thick-Non-Slip-Rubber-Self-Furniture-Gripper/dp/B01KT9MCAC/ref=sr_1_28?ie=UTF8&qid=1504553420&sr=8-28&keywords=non+slip+feet+pads

[Mike Nolan]

How high are the feet? I usually just put a dishtowel under a cutting board that slides around. (I've got a big 18x24 hard plastic one that I use for large projects.) Or you can use the stuff you line drawers with or put in between dishes to keep them from getting scratched, it's also slightly tacky.

[Italiancook]

RiversideLen, thanks for the links. I checked out both of them. One may be a possibility if Mike's dishtowel idea doesn't work.

Mike, the six feet are about 1/4" high. Thanks for your ideas, too. I'm hoping the dishtowel will work, because it's free.

BakerAunt, I no longer have a typewriter pad. In fact, I no longer have a manual typewriter. I hadn't used it since 2001 and finally gave it away. I enjoyed the silpat story. It reminds me that when I was a newlywed, I wanted to make a recipe that called for a clove of garlic. I patiently cleaned and chopped an entire bulb of garlic, because I thought the bulb was one clove. Live and Learn.

[skeptic7]

When you talk about bread board do you mean something like this?
https://www.fantes.com/fantes-wooden-pastry-board-28x22-inch

I've admired these but don't have the storage space. I currently use a tupperware plastic sheet made for rolling out pie crusts. It gives me a clean surface to knead large amounts of dough and its easier to wash and store. I knead smaller amounts of dough on a large plastic cutting board. Again a cleaner surface than my counter top.

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