Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

[Burntroof ofmouth]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Does the amount of water make a difference, in over as per pan idea or spraying stone better

[Wiley]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

By no means am I as experienced as many here in relation to making bread. However, it is easy to see that a pan of water (hot or boiling) will produce steam which in the environment of a WFO very quickly becomes superheated steam. The direct application of water to the hearth or dome would most likely result in superheated steam more quickly in the baking environment, however, the pan idea might make for a longer duration of the superheated steam as some is bound to escape.

I think this is where knowing one's WFO and experience is very important. Baking bread is more in the category perhaps of an "Art" than a "Science". How much steam is "right" for a given bread, at a given time is one of alot of variables.

Wiley

[sunday]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

hi

i'm going to be building an outdoor pizza oven this spring
but for now while practicing to bake, i will use a pizza stone

[Wiley]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Sunday, I might be so bold as to suggest you find a copy of Richard Bertinet's book "Crust" (at the library or buy if you are into building a 'baking library"). The book comes with a DVD inside the front cover. While I find the method he uses to knead dough quite different, in his DVD he goes thru making dough for one of his classic round loaves (also several other receipes) including baking it in a more conventional oven using two pizza stones. On the DVD one can see how much water he sprays into his oven before and during the baking of that loaf as well as the finished product. Informative in a visual rather than a series of still photos and written description of the typical cookbook.

Beyond that I find the whole aspect of right quanity of steam for a proper bake most interesting. If one compares the amount of water (and hence steam generated from that water) Bertinet sprays into his oven with that involved in the New York Times video on no knead bread, one can see a huge variance. Just in case you haven't seen the New York Times video here's a link to the same article with a different heading:

YouTube - EASY Crusty Bread Making

Wiley

[jacktheknife]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Gentlemen,


My Pizza stone cooks great if Pizza is laid directly on the stone but it sure made my stone look bad after a few years. I use a Pizza pan on the stone now but the stone looks so un-brand new, {ie. it is almost black} I may as well go back to cooking on a naked stone. Do y'all put the Pizza directly on the stone?

I'm 59 years old and disabled but have been making Pizza from scratch for 35 years. I have a WFO in the works and have, up untill the 109 degree temperatures lately, been landscaping the east side of the yard, the cooking porch where the grille, smoker and net wire cook wood barrels are and where the Pizza oven will go. Till then the Pizza oven makes a real good Pizza and I kinda do... like the bottom of a Pizza pan cooked Pizza with the burnt, oily, black taste rather than the 'breadie' taste WFO's make. Actually since I like both and am cheap {Pizza uses a lot of propane} I will just have both capabilities, a WFO and an oven/oven so as to have a choice.

But the Pizza is supposed to go directly on the stone, isn't it?


Thank you...


Jack the Knife

[stoveup]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

I always put the pizza directly on the stone. I don't even have a pizza pan. My stone is over 20 years old and, like yours, is much discolored from use. It makes great pizza so I really don't care how it looks.

I also use the stone for bread baking. Again, directly on the stone.

[JoeBaker]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

I am using “stone oven” for pizzas. It gives the flat dough and thin dough. Brick-oven’s baking rock absorb the oven’s temperature, then transfers it to dough for equally crusty pizza crusts.