Pizza Stone help required

Ted_Hutchinson
Ted_Hutchinson Posts: 7,142 Forumite
edited 23 June 2009 at 6:23PM in Old style MoneySaving
Yesterday at Aldi's I bought a pizza stone for £2.99 it came with a cutter and a slice so seemed good value.

Has anyone used a pizza stone?

There were no instructions with it so am not sure if it needs greasing before use, like a metal tray.

Presumably you have to leave the pizza to rise on it first (if using a yeast raised dough rather than ready bought pizza) so I assume I can just bung it into a hot oven when the pizza dough has risen sufficiently.

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Comments

  • Hi
    That was a bargain! I paid much more than that for my one a few years ago.
    When I first got mine I used to spray it with oil before I used it, now it doesn't need it.
    I find it works best if you preheat the stone in the oven. I leave my dough to rise on the kitchen counter. I assemble/chop all my toppings and only roll the dough out when I'm ready. Then I fold it in half and half again to transfer it to the stone, pile the toppings on quickly and bung it back in the oven. You get a lovely crisp texture.
    Wash it just with hot water, mine came with a plastic scraper for getting off stuck food.
    BTW, Aldi's mozzarella is a lot cheaper than Tesco's etc.
    I wish I was having pizza tonight now!
  • You need to pre-heat it in the oven before using then place the pizza on it to cook once it's hot enough. I'm not sure of exact temps for heating/cooking though.
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  • AnnaV
    AnnaV Posts: 531 Forumite
    Doh! We have one and I just thought it was a pointless thing to cut pizza on! Thanks everyone :)
    Anna :beer:
  • Kippsy
    Kippsy Posts: 259 Forumite
    I've never used oil on my stone, but to help get the pizza off easily and to stop it from sitcking anywhere i put a little polenta or cornmeal on the stone before I put the dough on to it.

    Don't use soap on the stone as it will absorb it and you pizza will taste like washing up liquid! Don't worry about any stains on it just treat them as beijng added character and proof of use! :D
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  • Tim_L
    Tim_L Posts: 3,816
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    I've been using a Pizza brick for years. This is a bit bigger than your average pizza stone - about 20" diameter, and it is absolutely wonderful. I bought mine in the US, following in the family footsteps as my father bought one well over 25 years ago. Once you have one of these, you will not be able to do without it. Worth seeing if they can be bought here or online I think - any US department store will sell them.

    I don't preheat mine, but roll the dough straight out onto it, using a bit of olive oil to grease it. They're made of a porous firebrick material, but after a while they do become sort of non stick because the olive oil permeates through (in fact it's best not to wash them, just wipe them down - I remember having extraordinary battles of will with my mother-in-law about this). They do stick like b*ggery when they're new, I'm afraid.

    I also have a patent recipe for bread machine pizza dough, viz:

    - 300ml of water (perhaps just over for a nice squishy dough)
    - 1 lb 3 1/4 ounces of strong white bread flour (sorry about the wierd quantity, but trust me)
    - 1 teaspoon salt
    - 2 teaspoons sugar
    - one whole sachet of supermarket yeast. Again, trust me on this.

    Make this the morning of the pizza to let it prove (you may need to knock it back around 3 so it doesn't balloon out of the top of the bread machine). There's enough dough for two pizzas, and you can wrap half up in cling film and put it in a box in the fridge for a couple of days later - don't keep it too long as it will ferment a bit and start tasting like beer.

    Also the recipe for cheap but delicious tomato sauce (enough for 4 pizzas):

    - One small onion chopped finely and gently sweated in plenty of olive oil until transparent
    - two cans of peeled plum tomatoes (or chopped if you can't be bothered chopping them for yourself) - economy style is fine. Put these into the frying pan chopped up when the onions have sweated
    - loads of finely chopped herbs, a bay leaf, etc, depending on what you have
    - salt and pepper
    - two or three finely chopped cloves of garlic. Don't fry these, put them in raw when the tomatoes go in. You get a better flavour that way.

    Simmer over a lowish heat until thick and unctuous. I often also put in any spare pasta sauce I may have lieing around.

    Combine the dough and the sauce with mozzarella, some Aldi salami and black forest ham, mushrooms, red pepper, and small plum tomatoes for an absolute feast. Sardines are good on Pizza too - less aggressive than anchovies but a very pleasant fishy flavour.
  • Has anyone else tried making pizza dough in their breadmaker? It's simply FABBO!!! :) Only disadvantage is the time it takes - you will need to put your breadmaker on timer or do it on a day when you can start the dough about 2 hours before you want to eat......
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  • Has anyone else tried making pizza dough in their breadmaker? It's simply FABBO!!! :) Only disadvantage is the time it takes - you will need to put your breadmaker on timer or do it on a day when you can start the dough about 2 hours before you want to eat......


    Yes! I always make it in there now, but I made the same mistake the first time of not allowing enough time as I didn't realise the dough programme took 2 hours :doh:
    "An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will"
    ~
    It is that what you do, good or bad,
    will come back to you three times as strong!

  • My friend has a pizza stone and leaves it in her oven permanantly. They go a very dark colour after a while. They should never ever be washed, just wiped with a lightly damped cloth.

    Thats a bargain Ted. My friends is a Pampered Chef stone, very very expensive!!!

    Good luck with it.

    Thanks for the Pizza Dough in breadmaker tip - time my Morphy Richards had a dusting off!!! :D
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  • jen_jen_2
    jen_jen_2 Posts: 1,032 Forumite
    huge thanks to Ted, my OH eats sooo many pizzas been after one of these for a while to cook better pizza cheapest ive seen is a tenner though

    in fact so good i bought two.
    Ready to Go Go!
  • £2.99 thats amazing! And yes you need to get them as hot as !!!! (very hot) in the oven then carefully take it out, whack the pizza on it and back in straightaway - it's suppossed to (somewhat) create the effect of a wood fired pizza oven I think?
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