On the same note, a friend of mine was doing the same about a year ago but fortunately with a metal pan. Unfortunately he was a little sloppy and dropped some of the water on the glass in his oven door. It was safty glass so it didn't explode so much as fragment... very, very loudly.

They still haven't replaced the oven so he does much less cooking now....

YIKES! I'm sorry you were hurt, but glad it wasn't any worse. What a mess. One of my daughters found out about such things when she put a glass cutting board near the grates on the rangetop just after using it...It exploded into little pieces, too...Thankfully it was tempered so there were a million little squares instead of shards. I'm not sure this really says anything about the granite, though... Anything's 'possible,' I suppose, but 'probable' is different. :-) Glad the bread was a success!

Scary - glad you weren't seriously hurt. I had my own thermal shock experience with a hot Pyrex pie pan that I emptied of its food and put into the sink, which had about 1/2" of standing (cool) water. Heard a shatter/crash/bang noise and found a million pieces of glass in the sink but only a few had jumped high enough to get onto the counter. The odd thing was how uniform in size the glass pieces were; they looked like lots of rough little marbles, with no long slivers anywhere.

My kids learned a lesson when they were pre-teens. I wasn't home and they were making a cake recipe that called for a cup of boiling water. They poured it into ~sigh~ a crystal bowl that I had gotten as a wedding gift. Need I say more.

My Silestone quartz countertop (last house) had warning re thermal shock, and my understanding is that granite could also be subject? Of course, it would be in reverse - cold countertops and a red hot pan? I wonder if the glaze on my sink could be affected? I once poured hot water (I know, shocking) in to an expensive tea pot and heard the sound of ice cracking. It was the glaze!! Silly tea pot.

Oh, oven door? I hadn't even thought about that one.

I'm so glad you weren't hurt. We've learned that lesson the hard way at our house as well, thankfully without major injuries. I didn't know that was a risk with the over door either??

chole_s_mom,
OT, but related to you original post,
Have you tried the alternative method listed on the 5 minute web site? You cover the bread with a disposable aluminum pan for the first 10 minutes of the bake. No need to mess with water, and so far I have gotten really good results. I was forced into this method since my oven is constantly pulling in fresh air and I couldn't get the crust right no mater how much steam I generated.

chloe_s_mom - I read your post earlier, didn't reply since it answered my ? from other post. As I said there (in case you haven't checked) I'm glad no one was hurt. Glad the bread was good too! I never thought of the oven door - just figured it would hold up to anything, but I guess glass is glass, even if it's tempered, and cold water and hot glass (or vice versa) don't mix! The tea pot should have held up, you're supposed to prewarm them. Was it boiling water in a cold teapot?

judydel - so sorry about your crystal bowl. Why were they using it as a mixing bowl to begin with?

grendal_fly - OT but wondering - I cooked (warmed) spiral ham last night, 2 hrs at 275 for 9.6 lb ham, covered with foil the whole time. Just like instructions said. It was dry! Of course, we let it stand for more like 45 min instead of the 20-30 min recommended while the kids got home and cleaned up from fishing, but I'm wondering if I needed water in the pan or the bottom of the oven, like the bread?

Pyrex used to be able to handle a lot more thermal differences than the "Pyrex" of today. I say "Pyrex" because it is not the same kind of glass. The old pyrex was borosilicate, which is what is still used in lab glass (as far as I know - its been a couple of years since I did lab work). The new stuff is tempered soda lime glass, which, while tempered, breaks a lot more easily. There have been several reports of "exploding" pyrex since they switched to the soda lime glass, with dishes just shattering in the oven, after coming out of the oven, or after coming out of the dishwasher. It seems that the soda lime glass can get tiny hairline cracks that are almost unnoticeable, and then these cracks weaken the dish...then POP!

I don't have to worry nearly as much with my old, borosilicate pyrex. It can go from the oven to the sink without problems.

Quite awhile back there were some heated debates about setting hot things on granite. It's stone, it's thick, and much of it was formed under intense heat that you could never replicate in a kitchen...But I suppose there is always a tiny chance there is a fissure or a material in the rock that may react to the temperature change. If it were me, the ability to set hot things on it would be one of the things I would consider as an advantage with stone counters...and I'd set hot things on them. Personally, I just wouldn't consider the reaction of thin, highly heated glass facing very cold water to be the same as setting a heated pan on a room temperature slab of rock. But I also think every person has to make the judgment they will be comfortable with.

Grendal fly...I hadn't seen that hint. Sounds like a good idea.

Another thing to watch out for: placing a hot Pyrex baking dish into a sink that is along an outside wall. We'd moved our sink to an outside wall, under the window, when we reno'd the kitchen. DH placed a Pyrex baking dish, fresh from the micro with hot bacon in it into the cold sink, onto the sink grid--and craaack it went. Now we make sure to run some hot water into the sink (esp in the winter) before or as we set something hot down (the glass coffee carafe for ex.).

chloe's mom - I used a graniteware broiler pan that was about two inches deep for my 5 minute bread. Next time I think I will put in the pan just a few minutes before adding the bread and the water so that it's not scorching hot (or do you think that would defeat the purpose?)

Bread turned out great! Thanks, RHome, for the great lead.

Eliz

I reckon what happens with thermal shock on the granite is it's the rapid expansion of the hot part. Most slab granite is only 2 cm thick, which means that up and down is an easier way for the stress to go than side to side. But it can't dissipate much up and down if the pot is still there, wood is an insulator, and the heat is pushing out into the cold stone on all sides. Little earthquake :) Granite is crystalline, and rather brittle. Stands to reason it could crack, especially if there are seams of different materials (all the pretty stuff). I know vectors a lot better than geology, but that's what I think is happening. But I've never heard of granite exploding like pyrex!

Chloe's Mom, I'm glad you're okay!

Melanie, Thanks for explaining why I don't like the new Pyrex. According to Wikipedia European Pyrex is still borosilicate. Hm...

i'm so glad you were not hurt badly. and congratulations (not), you're one in hundreds of millions as it seems "Literally, hundreds of millions of dishes are being used multiple times a week without apparent incident."

Here is a link that might be useful: Pyrex, Soda Lime, Borosilicate, and the Environment

ajsmama

LOL That's what I wanted to know also when I got home! They were probably 6, 10, 13 at the time . . . the older two are boys. To this day ( 8 years later) I still have to remind them that there is difference between mixing bowls and serving bowls.

I guess that I'm one of those special people who managed to use it WITH incident (that being said, it was a bit stupid of me).

Grendal - no I hadn't come across that gem of info yet (I'm the kind of person who uses the item before reading the instructions) - will check it out, thanks for the tip!

Ajsmama - I wonder if that method didn't act like a food dehydrator?

Should I be concerned re using granite as a countertop around my bbq? It gets COLD here in the winter, and I'm hoping to use the bbq.....?

As for my kitchen counters, I suppose that I'd put a hot pot down on them in case of an emergency - risk be darned. My granite is 3 cm thick, but has lots of veining, crystals, etc, so I wonder if it would be more delicate? Certainly along Rhome's points, not a major red flag though.

I forgot to say, Elizpiz, I think that adding the pan and water together, right before the bread, might cool down the oven too much? On an earlier experiment, I tried preheating with the water and pan already in there - took so long to preheat that I thought my oven was broken (in fact, I declared this emergency, kept turning the darn thing on and then off - started wondering if I smelt gas - really quite silly of me).

Chloe's mom - I was thinking about just the broiler pan and then add the water say 5-10 minutes later (when you pop the dough in the oven). When I made it, I followed the instructions, which say to preheat the baking stone AND the pan for 20 minutes....

I also put in more than a cup of water; more like three.

Here's the end result (the one on the right...)

We need to start a "bread" conversation on the other side!

Eliz

I think that if the shorter time in the oven makes a difference to the pan, that it might make a difference on its effectiveness to make the needed steam. Does that make sense? A nice weight of metal roasting pan shouldn't be adversely affected (and not warp and throw water), and do the job well. I think I usually put in more than 1 cup of water, too...But probably not as much as 3. Maybe 1 1/2 to 2.

chloe_s_mom and others.
Here is the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great Crust without steam