Don't buy pizza stone

NetWareHead · Jan 21, 2014

DrPizza said:
I can't imagine that it really saves much work at all. It doesn't take that much effort to make great pizza dough. And, it's easier to fine tune the dough without the breadmaker. One of the keys to good pizza dough is higher gluten flour. Simplest recipe: flour, lard or shortening, salt, yeast, water. NO sugar. Let it rise once until it's about doubled in size, cut into separate doughs, then let rise again before tossing.

Earlier today, ordered a 50 pound bag of flour for pizza in February. (One batch of dough.)

Yep, you need to use good flour and have a good dough recipe. Most grocery store pizza doughs are not up to par. There are a few frozen doughs that I like from the store, but they are from local pizzerias that market their dough in the store. So I would imagine they know what they are doing when making the dough.

It sounds like your oven was too cold. I bake my pizzas at 400-450. You need to preheat the stone for *at least* half hour. I don't like those metal pizza sheets, Ive seen stone replacement that were made of steel and those burn. I suppose a new recipe and baking instructions would have to be calculated for use of a steel pizza "stone" but I haven't bothered to do that because I'm happy with my stone.

Also, if making your own dough, oil/lard/fat is necessary. Don't oil the stone though.

Vdubchaos · Jan 21, 2014

I've used your usual pizza pans with holes in them....but recently switched to Cast Iron Skillets (they do a great job)

jaedaliu · Jan 21, 2014

NetWareHead said:
Yep, you need to use good flour and have a good dough recipe. Most grocery store pizza doughs are not up to par. There are a few frozen doughs that I like from the store, but they are from local pizzerias that market their dough in the store. So I would imagine they know what they are doing when making the dough.

It sounds like your oven was too cold. I bake my pizzas at 400-450. You need to preheat the stone for *at least* half hour. I don't like those metal pizza sheets, Ive seen stone replacement that were made of steel and those burn. I suppose a new recipe and baking instructions would have to be calculated for use of a steel pizza "stone" but I haven't bothered to do that because I'm happy with my stone.

Also, if making your own dough, oil/lard/fat if necessary. Don't oil the stone though.

You should have been at the pizza making party I was at last Thursday.

Owner of the apartment had stones in the oven and a peel.

However, wasn't properly flouring the peel and had to peel the pizzas off the peel (thus negating the purpose of the peel) left the oven open for long periods of time shuffling things, baking 3 pizzas at a time, and oiling the stone.

NetWareHead · Jan 21, 2014

jaedaliu said:
You should have been at the pizza making party I was at last Thursday.

Owner of the apartment had stones in the oven and a peel.

However, wasn't properly flouring the peel and had to peel the pizzas off the peel (thus negating the purpose of the peel) left the oven open for long periods of time shuffling things, baking 3 pizzas at a time, and oiling the stone.

sdifox · Jan 21, 2014

Aldon said:
It doesn't do anything to the pizza if you've been told so. And no, wife bought it, hoping it would. After experimenting and trying out many times to bake our own self-made pizzas, it failed to do whatever it is "supposed to do". Stick with the good ol' pizza pan.

You are supposed to preheat the oven with the stone in it...and add 1/2 an hour or so to it after your oven says it reached temperature x.

Squisher · Jan 21, 2014

I realize I'm late to the party here, but any baking stone works better the thicker it is and hence more thermal mass. I wonder if this pizza stone was pretty thin. The baking stones I have are ~3/4" thick.

http://bakingstone.com/

sdifox · Jan 21, 2014

Squisher said:
I realize I'm late to the party here, but any baking stone works better the thicker it is and hence more thermal mass. I wonder if this pizza stone was pretty thin. The baking stones I have are ~3/4" thick.

http://bakingstone.com/

he didn't heat the stone up first.

JM Aggie08 · Jan 21, 2014

Pfft, you crazy fool. I fucking love my baking stone - it's the only 'baking sheet' I own that cooks everything evenly while maintaining a steady temperature.

Pizza? Crust crisp on the outside; light and airy on the inside.
Cookies? Sweet mother of god.
Fish? Flaky and moist as fuck.

Step up your baking stone game, bro.

Squisher · Jan 21, 2014

sdifox said:
he didn't heat the stone up first.

Ah.

Fritzo · Jan 21, 2014

The purpose of a pizza stone is to give a uniform, flat cooking surface. If you keep it long enough, it will also get seasoned and add a unique flavor to your pizza (the same way old pizza ovens do).

Get a pizza stone if you make a lot of home made pizza. If you make frozen pizza, you don't need one.

PowerYoga · Jan 21, 2014

I bet op also doesn't use a water bath to make cheesecake because "it doesn't do anything".

KeithP · Jan 21, 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_stone

-KeithP

disappoint · Jan 21, 2014

JM Aggie08 said:
Pfft, you crazy fool. I fucking love my baking stone - it's the only 'baking sheet' I own that cooks everything evenly while maintaining a steady temperature.

Pizza? Crust crisp on the outside; light and airy on the inside.
Cookies? Sweet mother of god.
Fish? Flaky and moist as fuck.

Step up your baking stone game, bro.

Ugh, please tell me you have seperate stones for fish and pizza. I don't care how well you wash it, a ceramic stone is porous and will absorb flavors.

notposting · Jan 21, 2014

WelshBloke said:
It's handy because you can load it up, set the timer and you've got a bunch of dough ready at the time you need it while you've been busy doing other stuff.
It's nice to take the time to do it all by hand but sometimes you need good, homemade pizza but you've got life to get on with as well.

If you are chasing young kids around, breadmaker dough cycle is great. And you can fine tune it just like if you were making bread with a mixer and kneading it yourself. Observe results, change recipe as needed, and then have that narrow range of tweaking when you check the dough 10 minutes in.

Works great. Then throw your dough product in/on whatever pan you like, let it rise a bit while oven warms up, and a bit later you have deliciousness. PS a Pullman pan makes some niiiice sandwich bread.

WelshBloke · Jan 21, 2014

notposting said:
If you are chasing young kids around, breadmaker dough cycle is great. And you can fine tune it just like if you were making bread with a mixer and kneading it yourself. Observe results, change recipe as needed, and then have that narrow range of tweaking when you check the dough 10 minutes in.

Works great. Then throw your dough product in/on whatever pan you like, let it rise a bit while oven warms up, and a bit later you have deliciousness. PS a Pullman pan makes some niiiice sandwich bread.

It's also great when you wake up and there's a fresh chocolate brioche just finished cooking for breakfast.

BoomerD · Jan 21, 2014

So...according to the OP, he doesn't have a clue how to properly use a pizza stone...so we shouldn't buy one.

Fiat1 · Jan 21, 2014

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000E2V3X/...l_8l2lqr9tkk_b

Pre heat pan to 550.
I use parchment paper under the pizza dough.

Jeraden · Jan 21, 2014

I'm a huge fan of the Pizza Pizzazz for making pizza. Looks like a hokey as seen on tv item, but it really does make great pizza!

dank69 · Jan 21, 2014

There is 0% chance this is not a troll thread.

Aldon · Jan 21, 2014

BoomerD said:
So...according to the OP, he doesn't have a clue how to properly use a pizza stone...so we shouldn't buy one.

According to the OP, you should stick to your regular pizza pan made out of metal. If your oven sucks, nothing will distribute the heat evenly. If you have a fairly good oven, you can save those $20 and buy some more pepperoni instead of a pizza stone.

IronWing · Jan 21, 2014

dank69 said:
There is 0% chance this is not a troll thread.

The OP hasn't offered any troll material. Other posters simply made assumptions about the OP. I too tried a pizza stone and was underwhelmed.

Aldon · Jan 21, 2014

sdifox said:
he didn't heat the stone up first.

It was preheated. I've used this one, by the way. Also, my pizza looks exactly like this without using a stone and only a piece of metal.

Nevertheless, if your pizza isn't crispy without using you a stone, you should probably let it bake more.

Scarpozzi · Jan 21, 2014

The real advantage to pizza stones are that the stoneware actually absorbs grease just like the pores in cast iron....that seasons the stone and makes the surface more nonstick after a number of uses. Mine actually smelled pretty bad the after the first 10 uses....and seemed like it needed to season/outgas, but works great now.

I prefer making pizza in a cast iron skillet the way Pizza Hut used to. I actually use my pizza stone more often when I bake free form bread. After you form your loaves and let them rise (coating the bottom of each loaf with cornmeal for a thicker crust on the bottom), you preheat the oven and stone to 450 degrees....up to 30 minutes. This allows the stone to get hot enough....from there, you can slide your loaves onto the stone and allow them to bake.

Renob · Jan 21, 2014

I love to have my stone heated very hot when the deliver person shows up, slap that pizza in there to give it the crunch I like.

when making pizzia I use my 17in Cast Iron woot Chicago Deep Dish...

Hayabusa Rider · Jan 21, 2014

Fritzo said:
The purpose of a pizza stone is to give a uniform, flat cooking surface. If you keep it long enough, it will also get seasoned and add a unique flavor to your pizza (the same way old pizza ovens do).

Get a pizza stone if you make a lot of home made pizza. If you make frozen pizza, you don't need one.

Then any flat surface would give identical results, and they do not. The stone must be flat but that's hardly the reason to have one. you could use a flat baking sheet. It's real purpose is to provide thermal mass. The stone absorbs heat and once it reaches equilibrium does not cool down quickly like a thin piece of metal. It's thermodynamics. It has a substantial amount of heat which flows into the dough, maintaining a temperature which allows for browning, much like a cast iron skillet does for a steak. If one doesn't like a crisp texture then use something else.

Don't buy pizza stone

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