Pizza Stone help required

anguk

blushingbride wrote: »

Hey i have a pizza stone & love it, however i find it difficult to clean! how does everyone else clean theres?

I don't think you're meant to clean them. I just scrape any burnt bits off and give it a wipe with some kitchen towel.

blushingbride_3

ok cool! just always looks dirty!haha just the oil marks i suppose!

anyone else find theres is too big for their oven?
i have to rest it on the gaurd at the back of the rack!:)

dutchy

Hello!

I need some advice about baking bread on my pizza stone. I heard that you get a much crispier crust when you use a pizza stone, and was lucky enough to be brought one by Santa. I've been hand making bread successfully for years, so I know it's not my dough. But twice now I've tried and both times my bread has really stuck to the stone and I've lost the base of the loaves trying to prise them off. I have to say, however, that the crust left on the loaves was nice and crisp.

I've been placing the shaped loaf onto a cold stone to prove, and then putting it in the oven to bake; is this why it sticks? How about if I heat the stone first, then put the dough on the hot stone and leave it to prove? The stone stays warm for a long time.

I can't see how I can leave the dough to prove then transfer it onto a hot stone, as handling the proved loaf will effectively knock it back, if you see what I mean.

Any help or advice anyone can offer would be very gratefully received.

Thank you.

Dutchy

Savvy_Sue

I am neither a seasoned bread maker nor a pizza stone user, but I swear by those thin silicone sheets for things which tend to stick. I always stick pizzas on one, for example, and then straight into the over, rather than using a baking tray.

What do the experts reckon? Is there something about the actual surface of the stone which would make this a bad idea?

belfastgirl23

The only thing I'm wondering is whether you might need to season the pizza stone. I know my first few pizzas on a new one do stick a bit but I tend to use a bit of oil both in the pizza dough and on top as well and gradually the stone does absorb some of the oil and it then gets easier. Maybe try brushing the base of the bread with a little oil for a few goes before leaving to prove, then transferring to the stone?

BTW for removing stuck on stuff from the stones, I've tried a few things but a paint scraper is best

Herbsman

dutchy wrote: »

I need some advice about baking bread on my pizza stone. ...twice now I've tried and both times my bread has really stuck to the stone and I've lost the base of the loaves trying to prise them off. I have to say, however, that the crust left on the loaves was nice and crisp.

I've been placing the shaped loaf onto a cold stone to prove, and then putting it in the oven to bake; is this why it sticks? How about if I heat the stone first, then put the dough on the hot stone and leave it to prove? The stone stays warm for a long time.

I can't see how I can leave the dough to prove then transfer it onto a hot stone, as handling the proved loaf will effectively knock it back, if you see what I mean.

I'm no expert and I'm more than a bit drunk, but, I'll try and help you. First of all, you need to look at how pizza is traditionally made.

The pizza is prepared on a surface dusted with semolina flour. This is then lifted up with a pizza peel (a bit like a giant spatula - see danlepard.com/content/pages/applejack.htm) and placed directly onto the floor of a wood-fired brick or clay oven.

It is not left to prove on the surface that it will be cooked on. So don't prove it on your stone. Leave the stone in the oven while it pre-heats, then use a peel to deposit the pizza onto the stone when the oven's hot enough*.

You only need to let your dough rise once - once it's risen, it's ready to cut into balls and then stretched into discs. Careful handling will prevent it from deflating completely. Stretch it, top it, then cook it. see here italianfoodies.ie/2008/12/08/making-the-pizza-the-dough/ and here italianfoodies.ie/2008/12/11/making-the-pizza/

I need a decent pizza stone and peel myself. If only it were easy to get ones hands on decent quality pizza equipment....

I think, rather than buying an actual pizza stone, which is probably going to be a 15" diameter circular ceramic thing with metal handles on it - it is better to buy a granite or terracotta slab cut to the size of your oven. This gives you a larger area to deposit the pizza onto (firstly so you can make pizzas as large as possible and secondly so you have a larger area to drop the pizza onto - less chance of part of it drooping off the side.) and it'll undoubtedly be thicker, so it retains more heat energy.





*'Hot enough' is probably not something the average oven can do. The main thing that makes decent pizza impossible for the majority of people is that the average oven only goes up to about 250 degrees C. Iwas lucky enough to live in a (rather !!!!!!) rented house that had a seemingly cheap and nasty gas oven, but that went up to about 350 degrees! So pizzas were pretty great, back then. I stopped making them after I moved somewhere better, but with a 'normal' oven that only went to about 230 .

Herbsman

gah :mad: wasnt paying attention - too much wine. i see you're doing bread rather than pizza. still. use a peel for this.

fridgesoup

Hi! Just thought I'd add my trial and error solution to good homemade pizza. I don't have a pizza stone (yet) and I don't like chewy bases. I do have a really heavy cast iron skillet (a le Creuset one) - it's not really big enough, so I have small pizzas! I've just scored a 10" cast iron flat griddle from the charity shop, so I'll try that next.

Put the grill on it's highest setting and set an oven shelf at the right height to take your pan and pizza as close to heat as you can without the toppings sticking to the element!

Put your empty pan on the hob as high as you dare. Let it get really hot - at least 5 mins.

Meanwhile roll/stretch dough on the kitchen counter. (I use the bread dough recipe and method on whatever dried yeast packet I've got on the go. If I'm feeling fancy, I might replace a couple of tablespoons of strong flour with fine semolina flour - it's meant to make it crunchier). I might transfer it onto floured baking parchment if I've got it really thin as it's easier to pick up.

Get toppings all ready (don't use an over wet sauce or too many topping) but don't put on pizza yet.

When the skillet/flat griddle/chaphati pan/cast iron crepe pan is piping hot slide the base onto it or flip it over from the parchment paper. It will start puffing up and cooking straight away, so work quickly to spread on the sauce and add the toppings. Lift up an edge to check underneath - I like it toasty and burnt in patches - if the middle's not as done move it onto a smaller burner on very high. The toppings will start cooking too. Soon as bottom's done (2-3mins) whack under the grill for another couple of mins - you should aim for a few scorches around the top of the crust and hey presto!

If you need to make multiple pizzas, you could try heating a heavy oven tray under the hot grill and sliding your pizza from the pan onto the tray for the grilling part, freeing your hot frying pan up for the next pizza. This might be a good idea anyway if your le Creuset has a wooden handle!

It sounds more complicated than it is, but it's a great way of overcoming the lack of the really searingly hot oven you need for authentic pizza!

zippychick

sounds interesting. ! I wouldn't have thought about frying a pizza (although have recently learnt the delights of toasties made in the frying pan. DROOL )

fridgesoup

Oh, one thing I forgot to say - make sure you don't have any holes or tears in you base - the sauce will leak out and you'll get stewed pizza instead! Also - and sorry if this is blindingly obvious - you use the cast iron pan dry - no oil!