Getting the most from your Pizza 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.

[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.

[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

[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

[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

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

[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

[blogan]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

When I bake bread in a home oven on a pizza stone
I baste the bread with water before it goes into the oven
and I then throw 1/2 cup of water directly onto the oven floor
when the bread is first loaded

In the wood fired mud oven there is an old cast iron pot
filled with nuts and bolts, nails and pieces of rebar
which remains in the oven during firing
just after the bread is loaded
1/2 cup water is poured into this pot
the water creates a steam cloud
(be careful)
and the results are similar to a steam injected oven

[Wlodek]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Not spraying, but I tried a steam pan with my bread batch last night and it worked wonders! Fantastic crisp crust, different colour. It really made a difference.

W.
(chewing a bit of crust)

[swripley]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Jim and Dutch,

Thanks, I will search for the posts on steam and bread baking. I've been spending so much time on the oven, I haven't really taken any time to read up on everything I can do with it once I am done. I downloaded both eCookBooks and haven't even looked at them since. So much to learn!

S

[Dutchoven]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Oh definitely spray into the oven. There are several threads on this topic if you look around. Most of us use a garden sprayer/mister and there will not be an issue with spraying water on the bricks, as the superheated air in the oven steams it immediately. The brick oven can be steamed before the loading and right at loading.
Best
Dutch

[CanuckJim]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

S,

There are posts here about steam and good baking in a WFO, so I suggest you do a search. Also, consult the bread baking eBook for a discussion of methods and benefits. Without steam, you will not get maximum oven spring for bread, because the steam keeps the surface of the dough moist long enough for it to occur. Generally speaking, steam should be vented half way through the bake time so the crust can firm up and crisp.

Jim

[swripley]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

For years I have been using I 16" square unglazed terra cotta tile about 1/2" thick to not only bake pizza on but also bread. I spray water not only on the stone but on the walls of the oven just before I put the pizza/bread on the stone. For bread I spray again about half way through the bake time.

Really improves the crispiness of the crust.

Now that I am building my oven, I am wondering if anyone has an opinion about spray water into the oven? Good idea? Bad idea? Not worth the effort?

S

[canadianbacon]

Re: Steam

Hi Jim,

what are you spraying on your stone with just before baking ?

I'm going to assume water, but then, I'm thinking this could crack an el-cheapo stone, if it were preheating in the oven at 500 degrees F or so for 30 mins. I have a cracked pizza stone, which I bought several years ago, but haven't changed it, because I also use **unglazed ** quarry tiles I picked up from a place like HomeDepot for 35 cents a piece ( they are about 5"x5" ) and I have lined my kitchen oven with them... then the cracked pizza stone goes on top, and it has never cracked more over the last 3 years or so. ( it cracked right down the middle )

James,

Good idea. Can't remember where I picked up this tip, but it does help to spray the stone liberally about ten minutes before you bake. Add a few sprays during the first minute or so of baking, plus a steam pan (these as recommended by Peter Reinhart) and crispness improves.

Jim

[Xabia Jim]

Re: Getting the most from your Pizza Stone

Pizza stone materials?

I see granite and marble used in the last post.....What about a slate roof tile?

....but I thought pizza stones were fired clay....

James, is the FB stone essentially a firebrick then?