Anybody use one? Do I need to preheat it before I use it? How long/what temp do I need to bake this pizza anyway?
Focus, People!! I'm trying to impress my husband with my Master Chef skills! Ken, I KNOW you know. Oy??? 8)
Cornmeal's for chain pizza. I've always gotten better results without the stone, which cracks when heated up to 500 degrees as they tell you to do. My best results have been to do the pizza on a perforated aluminum pizza pan. When the crust is done enough, slide it off the pan directly onto the oven rack to finish.
I use a Pampered Chef one and I use the premade crusts and I don't preheat. Not sure if you're using dough.... sorry!
You can go to Primavera and watch them make it. Maybe a little flour on the piel (sp?) to slide it in the oven.
Traditional at Domino's. A peel's not one of the impliments I use. :lol: I like beer crust, personally, as noted here about Old Forge Pizza: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza
Mrs. Oy would laugh out loud if you said NY pizza uses cornmeal. And for the record, she grew up in Elmont, Long Island, and Richmond Hill, in Queens. Her favorite pizza is still the stuff her father used to bring home from hole-in-the-wall places in Brooklyn when he was working there for NY Telephone.
Watch what you say about Old Forge Pizza!!!! The assassination of former Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa was ordered from Brutico's restaurant in Old Forge. Besides, where else do 86 year old ladies get up at 5 in the morning to make the dough? http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11128274&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=450444&rfi=6
I use a pizza stone from Pampered Chef and cook those Chefboyardee pizzas. I haven't got the hang of it yet. I think you've got to lower the temp so the crust doesn't burn becuase I'm getting an uncooked center, chewy. I haven't tried preheating the stone yet. That would be a bitty to get a limp crust onto a hot stone. I already have enough cooking scars. I had some, awesome, awesome pizza in Wilmington a week and a half ago. Downtown, Slice of Life Pizza. The best pizza I have had in two years.
You can knead a quick homemade dough right in your food processor that will beat the tar out of those packaged things without making a big mess! Place about 2 cups of unbleached flour in your food processor. Add 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp. sugar, a good tablespoon olive oil, and a package of active dry yeast. Turn on the machine, and while it's running, pour in 3/4 cup warm water. Dough should form a ball. If too thin, add a little flour. If too stiff, add a little more water. Let the machine knead it for about a minute or a minute and a half. Grease your hands with olive oil, and take the dough out of the machine. Form a ball, and put it in a bowl with a little flour. Toss it around to lightly coat with the flour. Cover with plastic, and let it rise in a warm spot. Then just roll or toss it into a thin crust in your greased pan, or on your peel lightly coated with flour so that it will slide off onto your pizza stone. They tell you to preheat the stone, usually to 500 on the lower rack, because it will absorb moisture, resulting in a crispy bottom. Personally, my best results have been to use a 400 oven, and start the pizza on a perforated aluminum pizza pan on the middle oven rack. When it's done enough to take it off the pan without having a disaster, slide it directly onto the oven rack to get brown and crispy. I also spray the pan with Pam so it won't stick. Then again, it's been eons since I've made a regular, full carb pizza.
I've used my stone LOTS of times for pizza and have never preheated it. So far, so good. I'm not sure if I am doing it "correct" or not, but it works!
We've also never preheated for our stone. Hey Pirate Girl, I'm going to Fayetteville tomorrow. Do you want me to tell anybody hello for ya? :lol:
Hey Cleo, I use a Pampered Chef pizza stone and love the results. I preheat it for about 15 minutes while I put together the pizza. I usually preheat it at the same temp I am cooking the pizza at: around 425-450 degrees. I also use the stone to bake croissants, rolls, french bread, bisquits, reheated pizza (gives a nice crisp crust). And the hot stone keeps the food warm for a while after it comes out of the oven. It was worth every penny I paid for it. I very much dislike soggy pizza crust and the stone produces a nice crisp crust when preheated.
We used to have one. The Pampered Chef one to be exact. Wife used it once and it worked well. Me being the considerate husband decided to wash dishes the next night (which included the pizza stone) and she promptedly proceeded to (in not so polite terms) tell me that I had screwed the pizza stone up and it ended up in the trash. We haven't bought another one since. Now I just cook the pizzas in the oven on the rack. Craig
Honestly, I've washed mine with soap and water, it didn't hurt it, the idea of not washing it gives me the "heebie jeebies" LOL. I don't soak it, just give it a quick swipe with the soapy dish cloth and rinse well. Sacrilege to Pampered Chef folks everywhere, but works for me.
supposed to be along the lines of a cast iron pan... the oils get into the stone and just make it better and better to cook on. I don't think it actually ended up in the trash, it might even still be in the cabinet... but we haven't used it since we moved into this house.. so thats atleast 5 years and yes... I was pretty peeved at him for washing it so thoroughly at the time. :wink:
Mine is pretty seasoned, like I said, just a quick swipe and rinse the daylights out of it, but definately don't soak it in water, I do the same thing with my cast iron too. I'm sure it's all in my head, but call me a little OCD about that sort of thing, LOL! I don't make much pizza at home anymore, but maybe I will have time over the winter. It's great for cookies too!
I've got every stone Pampered Chef has made, and I've never preheated any of them...always cooks everything perfect!
I love my pampered chef stones. i've never preheated them either. The bar stones cook bacon and sausage up crisp everytime. No need to stand over the stovetop to cook 'em with grease flying all over. Also, if your stone has been washed in soapy water, buy a cheap can of biscuits and lay them out all over the stone, and bake them. The biscuits will "soak" up the soap. Then discard them!
