The secret to crispy crust...use a pizza stone

Pizza Stone = Crispy Crust

Traditional pizzas are baked at high temperatures in brick ovens. The ovens at your local pizzeria operate between 500° to 800° and contain a large brick or stone surface. This results in the crispy crust that we all associate with restaurant style pizza. To duplicate this at home we use baking stone or pizza stone, which are placed in the oven and preheated. The stones provide even heat distribution and the porous nature of the stone allows the moisture of the dough to escape, resulting in a perfectly crisp crust.

Soggy Crust…

We all have a story about a pizza experiment gone horribly wrong. Maybe we ran down to our local “take and bake”, did not read the instructions or relied on their paper pans to provide a crispy crust, only to find out 30 minutes later that the bottom of the pizza was still soggy. Kids are screaming…you place the pizza directly on the oven rack hoping to dry out the crust and provide them with something edible to eat.

Besides stopping you from purchasing anymore “take and bakes”, we will show you how to properly bake a pizza so that you get the perfect pizza crust every time!

Oven Stone…

Baking stones come in both square and round shapes. Sizes vary from 6 inch to 20 inch, but commonly available sizes are between 10 inches to 16 inches.

Determining what shape stone to purchase is a personal choice.

I prefer the square baking stones because the surface area is larger, and also because I have found that they are easier to store. I store my pizza stone with other baking pans and trays on its side and the round shape is awkward to store on its side.

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Caring for your pizza stone

The manufacturer will provide complete care instructions. It is very important that you do not use soaps or chemicals when cleaning your baking stone. As we discussed earlier, the stone is a porous material…just like as sponge. They will absorb the soap and leave a bad aftertaste.

After use, I will simply wipe down the stone with a cloth. If after repeated use carbon has built-up I will use a scouring pad to “knock-off” the big pieces. The stones improve with age. They become seasoned which is the process of filling the porous cooking surface with carbonized oils. If the oven stone is washed the seasoning process needs to be repeated.

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