Pizza stone

bamafan62

do you pre heat the stone to temp. And place the pie on the stone when the egg is heated to temp.

thank you

Legume

Yes, I usually preheat an hour or so for pizza, it takes a while to get all of the ceramics hot - you want the dome fully heated as well, not just the air temp.  If I'm not patient, the first pizza turns out wonky.

bamafan62

Thank you.  The instructions with my stone says you can prepare the pie on the stone and put in the egg.  I am glad I asked.

Shiff

Definitely preheat the stone.  What brand of pizza stone has those instructions to build on a cold stone.

If you have an Infrared thermometer (Great toy, by the way), you can use it to check the stone temperature. I find it takes at least 30 minutes to reach the 500 degrees that I use to cook pizza.

By the way, I use semolina on the stone to keep the pizza from sticking. Some people use corn meal but I find that burns too quickly.

I build my pizza on a wooden peel and put it on the stone, then use a metal peel to remove it (while it is cooking, I build the next pizza on the wooden peel).

bamafan62

The brand is'Emile Henry'.  It says if you are baking a frozen pizza to pre heat the stone.  For a regular pizza " roll out your pizza base directly on the pizza stone and spread your ingredients over the surface before placing in a preheated oven".  Bought from William Sanoma and was not cheap!

Legume

That's funny, I guess they only expect people to make one pizza?

Ladeback69

bamafan62 said:

The brand is'Emile Henry'.  It says if you are baking a frozen pizza to pre heat the stone.  For a regular pizza " roll out your pizza base directly on the pizza stone and spread your ingredients over the surface before placing in a preheated oven".  Bought from William Sanoma and was not cheap!

How exspensive?  The BGE stone isn't either, but worth the money.  I one for my XL last Christmas.  By heating up the stone first, you have less of chance of it sticking and make the pie on parchment paper helps a lot.

jtcBoynton

The purpose of using a pizza stone is to store a large amount of heat that can be rapidly transferred to the dough.  By preheating the stone, heat is stored. It is transferred to the dough by conduction.  Most pizzas benefit by this rapid heat transfer.  

I wouldn't be surprised if the dough recipe included with the Emile Henry stone includes baking powder.

Carolina Q

Always preheat the stone. Think of your local pizza joint... do they put every pie into a cold oven? 

As for putting semolina on the stone, it needs to go on the peel, not the stone. Just a pinch is all you need. Without it, your pizza will stick to the peel. The semolina acts like ball bearings so the pie will slide off onto the stone. Pizza won't stick to a preheated stone. 

bamafan62

Thanks everyone.  Your response helps prove that I am not crazy, today!

bamafan62

The stone was $50.00 plus.  Expensive to me but is is red!