Thicker stone?
Hi Everyone..
I made some pizza tonight and after thought that I need a thicker stone. The stone I have is about a centimeter thick and 12 inches in diameter. It's a typical store bought inexpensive pizza stone.
I set the oven to 550 with the stone in it while it heated up. The stone was set about 8 inches from the top of my stove. About three minutes before I put the pizza in, i set the stove to broil to get the stone extra hot. Just before I put the pizza in, I set the stove to broil in an attempt to add extra heat to the stone (a tip from FWSY).
In goes the pizza (on parchment paper). It cooks for about 3-5 minutes. I then put the broil back on for about 2-3 minutes to give the top a nice cook / almost-char. But the bottom of the pizza is, while cooked, "white". I'd like to get the bottom of the pizza to come out with a dark almost burnt crust like you get with a wood fired oven. Is that possible?
I'm thinking if my stone was thicker, it would absorb more heat an that would burn/char the bottom of the pizza just a bit. Thoughts?
Thanks!
pizza sized iron griddle heating it up on the stove first then putting under the broiler. Standard ovens just don't get hot enough with or without a stone. You might try broiling the stone longer. Still...
Have you tried to ascertain what temp the stone is when you put the pizza on it. Maybe you just need to heat it up longer to allow the stone more time to come up to temp. Also, since your stone isn't very thick, it won't hold as much heat energy as a thicker one with more mass would. I'm not aware enough scientifically to say it will work, but one thought is that if your stone is flat on both sides, getting a second one and stacking both together might address this.
.. the stone temp, or have a simple way to measure it. But I think the thicker mass might help. Will try to find another to double stack and see if that helps!
E=mc2! Since the speed of light is not a consideration, it drops out of this discussion. Energy then becomes proportional to mass. If you are going to transfer energy into your dough, you might consider the mass of the tool you wish to do that with. There is no real need for guesswork here. Stone mass is an absolute prerequisite for efficient heat transfer.
Actually, it is a surprise that the thin stone survived what you have been trying. They usually crack under those stresses due to defects and impurities in the stone matrix itself.
Is there a restaurant supply company anywhere near you? They often sell heavy pizza stones at very good prices. If you want to really make a great pizza oven at home, buy two big ones. Put one on a rack in the top of your oven and another down in the center on a rack. Heat your oven for a long time, like an hour, to 500F. When we have to do pizzas in residential ovens, this trick consistently produces very good results. The whole set-up should cost you less than $75.
Also, go purchase a handheld laser thermometer. You can get those in Lowe's even for about $20. Really helps eliminate guesswork if you're intent is to create a great pizza in a home oven.
Anyway, good luck. There is no such thing as a bad pizza! Some's good and some's better as they say.
Grady.. simplicity is best.. of course.. as soon as I read the formula, I was like homer and had a "duh" moment.. or should I say d'oh! Great and thanks!
My wife and I just had dinner. By absolute coincidence, I had made some test pizza doughs today using home milled flour. So, we are sitting here sampling a couple pizzas. They are quite good but the real useful part for you is that they were baked as described above and they rival any pizzeria for crispness, texture and flavor. Using this method, we got everything out of the formula that it could give. That's the reward! Great crust makes great pizza.
We recently visited our son and daughter in law and while there, I wanted to make them pizza. He had no stone, but there was a Wally World just a few miles away so off we went and came back with a stone much like what you described. One pizza later, it was cracked. I believe that when the much cooler pizza is first set on the heated stone there just isn't enough mass there to absorb the temperature gradient and they stress crack at their weakest point. So, we happen to have also just gone through what you and I were discussing. The crust was "cooked" but certainly not crisp and delicious. Good stones make such a difference. Do you know you can even just go to a home center and buy terra cotta floor tiles and line the a 3/4 sheet with them, then put that on your lower or middle rack? They break over time, but they cost literally pennies and they do a pretty decent job.
I hope my post helped you. I am new to this site and eager to exchange tips and techniques with everyone. Happy baking!!
Thanks Grady,, your post was helpful. Pictures are great too.. your pizza sounds great! Will get some better stones for next weekend! Thank you!
As for stones, I cannot recommend the stones from Forno Bravo emphatically enough. https://www.fornobravo.com/product-category/oven-tools-cooking-accessories/pizza-stones/
(If you follow the link and check out a stone, you'll see a blurb praising them. That was me.)
I have had mine for years and it's great. After going through a lot of others this one stands out. I have a 42" WFO I built in my back yard so I really don't use the stone so much any more. But I won't get rid of it either. I'm thinking of getting a rectangular one though, as the rectangle will still accommodate a pizza whereas the round one is a pain for breads, especially if I want to fit more than one loaf. (This when all I want is one or two loaves. For more - like 10 or a dozen, I just fire up the WFO outside).
Is yours a gas or electric oven? If gas then I find it best to place the stone on the oven floor, crank up the heat to 550° (provided you don't want to break the lock for the self-cleaning feature, which essentially shoots the heat way past 550°) at least an hour before baking. That will allow the stone to become fully heat-saturated and assist in the browning of the bottom as well as decrease the total baking time.
Have fun.
I bought a couple of off-cuts of granite from a company that installs counter tops. These stones are about 1 1/4 inches thick and they're very sturdy. I've been baking on them for about a year (I bake bread 3 or 4 times a week) and there's not a crack in sight (unlike the tiles I bought which cracked the first time I used them!). I spray them with water when they are hot, load wet dough onto them and have had no problems. I do have to heat them for at least 45 minutes (to 475 or 500 degrees) but once they are hot, they stay hot for a long time. I have baked pizza on them too and they work fine for that.
If you use these, make sure you use them shiny (finished) side down, otherwise things will stick to them.
The stone you have at 1 cm thick loses it's heat to the pizza crust to fast (not enough thermal mass). I have been baking pizzas with great success on 3/4" stones (1.9 cm) but iterate your pre-heat will become longer. My pre-heat at 500 degrees F takes about 45 minutes with the stones in the center of the oven. I then reduce the heat to 450 F and place my pizza (on parchment lined with cornmeal or polenta) directly on the stone. I close the oven and set timer for 15 minutes. At 15, the parchment gets removed and the pizza gets a 180 turn. bakes another 5 to 7 minutes, depending on toppings.
bread1965,
When I was using the oven in a conventional home range I placed a piece of granite on the bottom plate of the oven. I did like 'Lazy Loafer' and had a kitchen counter shop cut a piece of granite the size of my oven bottom plate. I then ordered a 'Baking Steel' to bake on. See the link below. (Nice folks and they will cut any size you would like or you can get one of the standard sizes.)
I had a them cut a piece of 3/8" thick the size of a standard oven rack. It is heavy, but when the steel and the granite bottom 'heat-soaks' I was able to get nice results. Not perfect as MiniOven suggests, but OK.
After heat-soaking the oven to 500 +f for about three cycles of the thermostat, I would bake on the steel until the top of the pizza was nice and then place the pizza on the granite for the last 5 +/- minutes. This gave me nice dark spots on the crust that I think you are looking for.
I never received any complaints from my crowd of "friends", but hey,,, why would anyone complain about free pizza, beer, and my company….. (Just don't ask my wife.)
I actually still have the great piece of 'Baking Steel' I used if anyone is in the neighborhood…...
Keep have'n fun…..!
http://www.bakingsteel.com/shop/baking-steel