Pizza Stone

fred funk }{

A Pizza should only take 1-2 minutes in a really hot oven. Our normal domestic ovens dont get close to hot enough to cook a perfect pizza.

brian ireland

brian ireland wrote: »

Put that in a very hot oven and I think it might crack.

dixiefly wrote: »

You could well be right. May still give it a go though.

Well did it crack?

dixiefly

Hi Brian,
No it didnt. I put it in the oven when turning it on so that it heated up slowly.

It performed well, I need to develop a technique for putting the pizzas on it.

I allowed it to cool with the oven slowly and it stayed ok.

brian ireland

dixiefly wrote: »

Hi Brian,


It performed well, I need to develop a technique for putting the pizzas on it.

I have a real one and I haven't figured that one out yet. It's a two man plus burn spray job in my house.
Glad it worked out.

the beer revolu

dixiefly wrote: »

It performed well, I need to develop a technique for putting the pizzas on it.

You'll need a pizza peel . I've improvised with a flat baking sheet.
Get some coarse semolina and put it under your pizza.
Makes it much easier.
Also loudly cursing at the pizza when the toppings go flying onto the stone while the base stays on the sheet helps too!

fred funk }{

I was thinking of investing in one of these badboys http://www.amazon.co.uk/Giles-Posner-PIZZAMAKERSINGLE-Stonebake-Pizza/dp/B0018812R8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293984688&sr=8-1

Anyone ever try them and wondering what temp they get up to?

flan59

Saw Pizza Stone today for €18 in House Of Frazer Dundrum SC. I found that you have two options, have everything ready to go on the Pizza, heat the stone for as long as possible, roll out the pizza base, take the stone from the oven when hot, put on the base and quickly put on all the toppings, should take about 1 min in total until the Pizza is back in the oven, or put semolina or couscous under the base on a tray, put on your fillings and slide this onto the hot stone. Do not let the semolina or couscous too long under the base or it will soften and will not slide. Most important use the Pizza & Pasta Flour Forino Tipo "oo" from Tesco.

KCSOLAR

Nice thread, thanks guys. I have a couple I bought a few years back in Musgraves but now the sister wants one. Given she works in town Kitchen Compliments seems like good bet. I get very decent results at a temperature of 250 but I'm curious is anyone knows of domestic ovens which reach higher temperatures. Anyone got one?

As regards flour I'm using a 'special" Roma Pizza flour anyone care to recommend any other flours? I aim for that elusive combination of crisp/chewy.

bonkey

the beer revolu wrote: »

You'll need a pizza peel .

Absolutely.

My pizza stone came w. one of these.

My technique now is to prepare the base on my worktop - its polished granite, so stays nice n cool, and is perfect for working on.

Then, I sprinkle semolina flour on the peel, and move the base on to it, and start assembling there. After each ingredient, I give the peel a little shake, just to ensure the pizza is still "sliding".

Once ready, over to the oven, and just slide it off the peel onto the stone.

Works (almost) every time.

nesbitt

KCSOLAR wrote: »

Nice thread, thanks guys. I have a couple I bought a few years back in Musgraves but now the sister wants one. Given she works in town Kitchen Compliments seems like good bet. I get very decent results at a temperature of 250 but I'm curious is anyone knows of domestic ovens which reach higher temperatures. Anyone got one?

As regards flour I'm using a 'special" Roma Pizza flour anyone care to recommend any other flours? I aim for that elusive combination of crisp/chewy.

I asked my sister about the oven temperatures in pizzeria being volcano hot as she travels to Italy each year. She said the pizzas cook in 3 mins or so and are searing hot. She seemed to think they are not permitted in domestic kitchen in Italy due to fire hazards. However, I'm guessing they are not sold here due to fire regulations. I will stand corrected of course on this point as I don't know for sure.:)

KCSOLAR

nesbitt wrote: »

I asked my sister about the oven temperatures in pizzeria being volcano hot as she travels to Italy each year. She said the pizzas cook in 3 mins or so and are searing hot. She seemed to think they are not permitted in domestic kitchen in Italy due to fire hazards. However, I'm guessing they are not sold here due to fire regulations. I will stand corrected of course on this point as I don't know for sure.:)

Thanks. I suspected something along these lines. I stretch my bases quite thin and generally have a very acceptable result in about 4 minutes. I'd kill though to shave that minute off as I suspect that's now the only difference between my results and those in a top class joint. As it is though I still manage to turn out product which is better than most pizzerias in these parts.

antoniosicily

I bought a pizza stone for this Christmas (actually I bought it this year, but anyway) and I'm not so happy with it; you need to warm the oven at least 30 minutes before putting the pizza in and I believe that you need to waste a lot of energy/heat before having a good pizza that, as it was said before, should cook in a couple of minutes.

With a pizza stone the pizza is ready in 4 minutes and the base is actually cooked but what I find pretty disappointing is that it doesn't seem to be designed for the actual pizza cooking, it looks to me as a way to turn a general purpose thing (the oven) into something that can be good to cook a pizza.

After doing a couple of tries with specific pizza oven I think that they are better (in principle) since:
(a): they are designed only for that specific purpose
(b): they can reach up to 400 degrees celsius, which is not feasible in a normal oven.

I did some checks on amazon.co.uk but I didn't find what I was looking for (the G3 Ferrari pizza oven, it seems the best based on what I've seen and some other advices); I found it on amazon.de but I'm happy to listen to other people and see if they manage to find anything here in Dublin; maybe that particular pizza oven is not sold here?

There was another pizza oven which was quoted above, the stonebake one, but I'm not so convinced about it; has anyone tried it? the product description doesn't specify which temperature can reach and some other things (or at least, I wasn't able to find it).

nesbitt

I bought a pizza crisper baking tray (round) grand for large family pizza in Dunnes Homeware for 4euro yesterday. Non stick and withstands up to Gas 9.

I am going to give this one a try... Preheat the tray at oven Gas 9, top shelf, have eveything ready, base rolled, toppings and sauce. Take out tray, whack it all on as quickly as I can, (should be fun). I cook mine for about 20 mins, but put cheese on 7 mins before end.

Must admit not trying for Italian Pizzeria standard... when I win the lottery will buy one along with a house in Italy:D

However, my home made pizzas are yum according to my 3 food critics and they can be hard to please! As a parent feeding a crowd, it is cheaper and much better than the takeaway stuff where I live. So win, win so far.

senorG

I use a granite paving slab that i had left over from the patio. Stick the oven up to 260c and it works a treat.

the beer revolu

nesbitt wrote: »

I bought a pizza crisper baking tray (round) grand for large family pizza in Dunnes Homeware for 4euro yesterday. Non stick and withstands up to Gas 9.

I am going to give this one a try... Preheat the tray at oven Gas 9, top shelf, have eveything ready, base rolled, toppings and sauce. Take out tray, whack it all on as quickly as I can, (should be fun). I cook mine for about 20 mins, but put cheese on 7 mins before end.

Must admit not trying for Italian Pizzeria standard... when I win the lottery will buy one along with a house in Italy:D

However, my home made pizzas are yum according to my 3 food critics and they can be hard to please! As a parent feeding a crowd, it is cheaper and much better than the takeaway stuff where I live. So win, win so far.

Those trays work well but are nowhere near as good as a stone.

A metal tray with holes in will cool down and heat up very fast so by the time you've gotten your base on (along with burnt fingers and broken dough) it will be pretty cold anyway so I'd suggest you make up your pizza on the cold tray and put it into a scorching hot oven (always worked for me before I invested in a stone).

20 minutes seems like an awful long time to cook a pizza unless it is very thick and/or is very heavily loaded with toppings and/or your oven isn't hot enough.
Having said that, if you and your family love the results, why change?

On the tray my pizzas took about 9 minutes. That's down to about 6 with the stone but my bases are very thin and I'm very sparing with toppings cause that's the way we like them.

nesbitt

the beer revolu wrote: »

Those trays work well but are nowhere near as good as a stone.

A metal tray with holes in will cool down and heat up very fast so by the time you've gotten your base on (along with burnt fingers and broken dough) it will be pretty cold anyway so I'd suggest you make up your pizza on the cold tray and put it into a scorching hot oven (always worked for me before I invested in a stone).

20 minutes seems like an awful long time to cook a pizza unless it is very thick and/or is very heavily loaded with toppings and/or your oven isn't hot enough.
Having said that, if you and your family love the results, why change?

On the tray my pizzas took about 9 minutes. That's down to about 6 with the stone but my bases are very thin and I'm very sparing with toppings cause that's the way we like them.

Doing pizza on Sat with kids so will pre heat oven gas 9 and assemble the pizza on the cold pizza tray. I agree the 20 mins is way too long, did not preheat my oven long enough. So definitely should be able to get good result in half time as you suggest. I loaded toppings on pizza (first attempt) too generously, 2nd & 3rd attempst a little less but agree that a better result will no doubt be achieved with evenly spread toppings.

That said, will check out sales for pizza stone or indeed take a trip to tile retailer. I think I will need one of those pizza peel and use the semolina trick advised in previous posts.

Finally, make my own sauce costs about 70cent to do! (learned in cookery course taken recently) and it takes minutes. I think it makes all the difference to final result too...

fred funk }{

Aldi have a pizza stone for 9.99 euro from tomorrow. Good deal.

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_15894.htm

Honey-ec

nesbitt wrote: »

Finally, make my own sauce costs about 70cent to do! (learned in cookery course taken recently) and it takes minutes. I think it makes all the difference to final result too...

Surely everyone who goes to the trouble of making pizza dough from scratch makes their own sauce, no?

Dummy

nesbitt wrote: »

Doing pizza on Sat with kids so will pre heat oven gas 9 and assemble the pizza on the cold pizza tray. I agree the 20 mins is way too long, did not preheat my oven long enough. So definitely should be able to get good result in half time as you suggest. I loaded toppings on pizza (first attempt) too generously, 2nd & 3rd attempst a little less but agree that a better result will no doubt be achieved with evenly spread toppings.

That said, will check out sales for pizza stone or indeed take a trip to tile retailer. I think I will need one of those pizza peel and use the semolina trick advised in previous posts.

Finally, make my own sauce costs about 70cent to do! (learned in cookery course taken recently) and it takes minutes. I think it makes all the difference to final result too...

Nesbitt,

I am still using the inverted baking tray for cooking the pizza and it works a treat for me for the moment. But a large pizza stone would be ideal. Oven heat gets lost as I try to balance the pizza onto the tray.

My sauce contains celery which I find enhances the taste of the sauce. Like you, I don't cram loads onto the pizza. One of our favourite toppings is sausage meat, that I have seasoned with fennel the night before. Basil leaves with pepperoni is also a favourite.

The kids want a movie night on Saturday, so I made my dough when I got home this evening. Tomorrow night I will have 12 * 250g dough balls made up. My wife & I might be lucky enough to get one pizza to ourselves this time.

The pizza peel is a must.

Enjoy your Saturday night & Happy Cooking !!


D.

nesbitt

I got the Aldi Pizza stone earlier tonight, for 10 euros. So will use this hopefully it won't crack!:) Interested to see how it compares with my Dunnes 4 euro metal crisper tray.... Will keep trying. Mind you the pizzas are wolfed down so all good so far.

nesbitt

Honey-ec wrote: »

Surely everyone who goes to the trouble of making pizza dough from scratch makes their own sauce, no?

You would think so but some folks I know use jar of sauce or tomato paste...:D

unkel

nesbitt wrote: »

I got the Aldi Pizza stone earlier tonight, for 10 euros. So will use this hopefully it won't crack!:) Interested to see how it compares with my Dunnes 4 euro metal crisper tray.... Will keep trying. Mind you the pizzas are wolfed down so all good so far.

Got the Aldi one yesterday too. Comes with a large (and sharp!) pizza cutter too. Will post when I've tried it

nesbitt

unkel wrote: »

Got the Aldi one yesterday too. Comes with a large (and sharp!) pizza cutter too. Will post when I've tried it

I was disappointed with result from pizza stone. Perhaps I did not pre-heat it up long enough before cooking pizza. Very happy with size of stone whilst it is grand for extra large pizza it fits in my cannon oven:) Kids on mid-term next week so going to do pizza for lunch then, will give the stone another go.

So my jury is out on this so far...:)

unkel

nesbitt wrote: »

I was disappointed with result from pizza stone. Perhaps I did not pre-heat it up long enough before cooking pizza.

Did you rinse it with water and let it dry completely before first use? Did you stick the stone in the cold oven and let both the stone and the oven fully warm up before sticking the pizza in?

Haven't used mine yet but it looks like a very porous kinda material, so I expect it to work well. As you say it is quite big (just measured it - the diameter is about 13.5" or 34cm).

unkel

Used the stone today and it made the pizza lovely and crispy. Big difference compared to the round pizza baking tray, with the holes in it, that I used before

stasty

It might sound crazy, but you can make great quick crispy pizzas in your frying pan. I have tried lots of pizza stones, pizza trays etc. but a non stick frying pan still makes the crispiest pizza.

<mod snip>

unkel

stasty wrote: »

It might sound crazy, but you can make great quick crispy pizzas in your frying pan. I have tried lots of pizza stones, pizza trays etc. but a non stick frying pan still makes the crispiest pizza.

That doesn't make sense to me. Would the top of the pizza not stay soggy / soft when just pan frying? The air on the top of the pizza will stay a lot colder than the air in a 200C oven...

stasty

Hey,

You actually put the rolled out dough (no sauce) onto a very hot pan with a little vegetable oil. It will immediately start to bubble. Pierce any bubbles with a knife. Once it has browned nicely underneath, flip the pizza over. Now place the sauce on top of the crispy pizza and cook for another few minutes or pop under the grill to get extra bubbly cheese on top. Done...delicious crispy pizza!

There are a couple of blogs about, just do an internet search on it :-)

unkel

stasty wrote: »

flip the pizza over

That's the secret