Pizza Stone Help!

PenguinOfDeath

I've been coveting a pizza stone for ages as I've heard they make the best, crispiest pizzas, and we made our own often.

I finally purchased a couple in Home Bargains a couple of weeks ago for £3.99 each, a bargain I thought. Tried one out at first with a frozen pizza which had deforsted during the day (done this before and they have turned out fine), the pizza was ok but some of the base stuck to the stone, I wasn't too worried as it was deep pan anyway and a new type I'd never tried before.

Anyway, last night we made a couple of HM pizzas as usual, the routine being place the stones (or the metal pizza trays we have) in the oven to heat up on 200-220c-ish, then place the rolled out base on them, put in oven for 5 mins or so then take out, add sauce & toppings then cook. We did all this but the pizzas stuck even more than last time, in fact we had to resort to chiselling it off with a knife, and even then the middle was a bit soggy/undercooked, the stones are currently soaking in water trying to soften up the bottom few mms of base!

Can anyone shed some light as to what went wrong? Maybe the stone wasnt pre-heated enough, or possibly it lost too much heat whilst the toppings went on? Was the sauce too 'wet', or the stones of rubbish quality?
The only other thing i can think of I've heard you can cover them with polenta (I think) to stop the sticking, if so, where can you buy this, never tried it before :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

For "polenta" read "semolina".

PenguinOfDeath

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

For "polenta" read "semolina".

Ah yes, thats the stuff!

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hi,

I have some pampered chef stones and I had to "season" them by wiping over with oil before using until the stone gets a non stick surface. I seem to remember the sales lady saying it is good to cook something greasy to begin with (like croissant dough) which helps the seasoning process.

Also with the pc stones you aren't supposed to use washing up liquid on them, just very hot water.

Hth.

sooty&sweep

Hi
I always dust my stones with flour before I put the pizza on
Jen

bellrooster

I always put my pizza stone in the oven and turn the oven on to it's very highest temp and leave to heat up for at least half an hour.

I've never pre baked the bases of home made pizzas either, I roll the dough out, put the sauce and toppings on and slide straight onto the pizza stone and cook for 3 - 5 mins and they always turn out ok, sticking is never an issue. Maybe the dusting of flour on the pizza dough helps?

My pizza stone was a cheapy one too, and I've never seasoned it.

Beckyy

We usually preheat the stone and oven until the oven reaches the highest temp (220), takes our oven quite a while. Then put pizza, inc sauce and topping straight on and in, HM base usually has a dusting of flour underneath so have never had a problem with sticking.

I also keep my stone in the oven, I read it's the best way to dry them out properly and also just to wipe not soak (if possible).

pinkparrott

Yes i've got a pampered chef one and pizzas stuck to it for a while , but once it had seasoned & I rubbed some oil on it , it's been fine.

PenguinOfDeath

Thanks for the advice all, looks like I need to make more pizzas to test this out... shame!