Making Your Perfect Pizza Preheat your oven to 500 degrees, and place the pizza stone inside as soon as you turn on the oven. As the oven heats up, the stone will also heat and become ready for baking. Next, grab your favorite dough and roll it out to be just smaller than the size of your stone.
I do not own a pizza peel so I rolled out my dough on a heavily floured, large cutting board so I could sort of slide it off onto the stone when I was ready to pop it in the oven. Let me tell you, this method is challenging and a pizza peel would have been EXTREMELY handy. I think the hassle of getting the dough from the floured cutting board to the hot stone would be a cinch with this. Even without it, I managed to get it on there.
Like most people, I love pizza. Takeout pizza, homemade pizza, grilled pizza – you name it, I’ll take them all. While I do make pizza at home frequently, I didn’t own a pizza stone so I borrowed one to see if I prefer pizza on the stone or how I’d been cooking it all along (either in a sheet pan or directly on the grill grates). Given that I’d never used one before, I did some Googling. So now think I have some good tips for all of you out there who haven’t used one either.
The stone instructions said that it would take 10-12 minutes and to watch for the edges of the crust browning. This was right on the money as it took about 10 minutes in my oven.
Another tip – the pizza stone I used is 12” and my dough went almost to the edges. This isn’t a huge deal, except the sauce leaked over the stone and onto my oven. Luckily, I had the foresight (thanks to my husband) to put a sheet pan underneath the stone to catch the drips so I would recommend either making sure you have a pan under it or trying not to have the sauce go anywhere near the edges. I did try to mound the crust part of the pizza up so to limit the run-off, but this apparently did not work the best so learn from my mistakes
Just like when in the oven, you need to slowly get the stone up to temperature to prevent cracking. Place the stone on the cold grill grates, then turn on medium heat, close the grill cover and let preheat for at least 15 minutes. Assemble your pizza on a floured cutting board (or ideally use a pizza peel!!) and slide onto the pizza stone after the stone has preheated. Let cook with the grill cover closed for 10-15 minutes. You want the edges to brown. It took closer to 15 minutes to get my desired level of doneness.
Can I use anything instead of a pizza peel?
If you don’t have a peel, I recommend using a chopping board. Wooden or glass chopping boards are best for this. I wouldn’t advise using a plastic one as it may melt as it touches the hot surface.
Make sure you lightly flour your peel or chopping board to avoid the pizza sticking to it.
Why Pizza Stone Temperature Matters | Top Tips | Essentials
FAQ
Can a pizza stone handle 500 degrees?
How long to cook pizza on stone at 500?
Can pizza stone get too hot?
How hot can a pizza stone be?
550° F. A pizza stone can withstand very high temperatures. In fact, a properly used stone can be heated to a temperature of 550 degrees Fahrenheit. It will stay hot for approximately an hour after it has been removed from the oven. Can A Pizza Stone Go Bad And Wear Out?
Does a hot pizza stone need to be preheated?
A hot pizza stone is key to producing pizza with a well-browned, crisp bottom crust. To ensure that your stone is hot, we recommend placing it in the oven, setting the oven dial to 500 degrees, and leaving it there for a full hour. And yet many folks (even a few here in the test kitchen) question whether this lengthy preheat is really necessary.
How do you preheat a pizza stone?
How to Preheat a Pizza Stone – Temperature The best temperature to preheat a pizza stone in a kitchen oven is around 500 degrees. But you can achieve the best results if the oven is hotter, for which you may consider getting a pizza oven or using a pizza steel. If your stone is not hot when you start to bake, you will get a raw and soggy pizza.
Can you put a pizza stone in a cold oven?
Place the pizza stone in the cold oven. It’s important to put in the pizza stone while the oven is still cold, to prevent the stone from cracking. It’s also safer to position the stone in the oven when it’s not hot. Then let it slowly come to a temperature with the oven.