Pizza Stone

[Bier Meister]

Had to rehash this. I got one a few months back and not only have I never washed it, I've never put it into a hot oven. Just found it cracked.

 

 

was it ever stored on it's side? sometimes just tapping it can cause a crack, or extreme changes in temp.

[untateve]

Anyone ever try to bake the pie on the grill? I am not sure if it will get hot enough but I have seen it somewhere. I am thinking the coals and a little wood would do wonders.

 

I've done them on a stone on The Egg at about 550-600 degrees. very nice. Be careful with the wood as initially, my pizza was coming out with too much smoke flavor--I couldn't really taste the other ingredients.

[chester]

was it ever stored on it's side? sometimes just tapping it can cause a crack, or extreme changes in temp.

 

Don't remember. It only left the oven a few times. Just left it in to cool until the next time.

[lkirc]

Anyone ever try to bake the pie on the grill? I am not sure if it will get hot enough but I have seen it somewhere. I am thinking the coals and a little wood would do wonders.

 

I do pie on the grill all the time, but am still trying to perfect the dough. The dough that works great in the oven doesn't work as well on the grill. I hate to admit it, but I am buying pre-made dough at Publix and it works great on the grill. For $1.50, it saves me a ton of hassle.

[Rovers]

Just bought my first propane grill ever, a Stok on sale for a fantastic price of 79 bucks at Home Depot. This grill comes with amoung other things, a pizza stone insert. I didn't have much time to go shopping, and the supermarket didn't have any frozen pizza dough, so I bought one of those stupid Boboli crusts. Might be OK enough for my first pie on the grill, but....

 

Stok suggests preheating and cooking at 250 degrees. Seems far too low a temp for a pizza to me. This grill will heat up to about 650 at full blast. Will this stone crack if I cook at 450? I like it crispy.

[Rovers]

Just bought my first propane grill ever, a Stok on sale for a fantastic price of 79 bucks at Home Depot. This grill comes with amoung other things, a pizza stone insert. I didn't have much time to go shopping, and the supermarket didn't have any frozen pizza dough, so I bought one of those stupid Boboli crusts. Might be OK enough for my first pie on the grill, but....

 

Stok suggests preheating and cooking at 250 degrees. Seems far too low a temp for a pizza to me. This grill will heat up to about 650 at full blast. Will this stone crack if I cook at 450? I like it crispy.

 

First lesson: Don't put corn flour on the stone. Black bubbly crappies. Turned off the heat, flipped the stone and reheating it now. I hope there is a chinese restaurant open today.... I mean, like, "You'll shoot yer eye out!"

[Rovers]

Even with a Boboli cust, the pie was pretty good. Cooked it at about 450.

[Bier Meister]

i used to love bobolis in hs and college. very versatile. 250 does seem low. enjoy your new grill

[detlef]

Just bought my first propane grill ever, a Stok on sale for a fantastic price of 79 bucks at Home Depot. This grill comes with amoung other things, a pizza stone insert. I didn't have much time to go shopping, and the supermarket didn't have any frozen pizza dough, so I bought one of those stupid Boboli crusts. Might be OK enough for my first pie on the grill, but....

 

Stok suggests preheating and cooking at 250 degrees. Seems far too low a temp for a pizza to me. This grill will heat up to about 650 at full blast. Will this stone crack if I cook at 450? I like it crispy.

A stone that can't handle 450 is not worth owning. Like Bier says, 250 is way too low for pizza. Honestly, so is 450 really. If this one breaks, you can get a proper stone from someone like Williams Sonoma for about $25 or so. We've had ours for over 10 years and it survived a cross country move. It's been in our BGE at 700 and did fine.

[untateve]

A stone that can't handle 450 is not worth owning. Like Bier says, 250 is way too low for pizza. Honestly, so is 450 really. If this one breaks, you can get a proper stone from someone like Williams Sonoma for about $25 or so. We've had ours for over 10 years and it survived a cross country move. It's been in our BGE at 700 and did fine.

 

+1

[Rovers]

Cooked my second pie on this stone with store bought pzza dough and cooked it at about 575. Turned out very good, but this stone is 12 inches, I think I want an 18" one. I rolled the dough out with flour, and then the cornmeal would not stick. I guess it's one or the other? In any case, the pizza didn't stick. Very tricky trying to get it onto the preheated stone however.

 

The previous attempt with a Boboli did not present such a problem. Shorty of getting a pizza paddle, any tips?

[detlef]

Cooked my second pie on this stone with store bought pzza dough and cooked it at about 575. Turned out very good, but this stone is 12 inches, I think I want an 18" one. I rolled the dough out with flour, and then the cornmeal would not stick. I guess it's one or the other? In any case, the pizza didn't stick. Very tricky trying to get it onto the preheated stone however.

 

The previous attempt with a Boboli did not present such a problem. Shorty of getting a pizza paddle, any tips?

First off, I suggest skipping the cornmeal and just use plain flour. It won't matter if you're only making one pie, but if you're making a few, the cornmeal will start to accumulate and burn.

 

If you're going to make pizza often enough to warrant owning a stone, I'd go ahead and buy a pizza peel (paddle) as well. They're not too much and last for ever. If you don't want to do that, roll the pizza out, then flour the back side of a backing sheet, place the dough on that, build up the ingredients and slide it off on to the stone. The trick to sliding it off is the carefully shake it back and forth a bit to free it from the peel or sheet-pan, then it should slide right off onto the stone. Obviously it's much easier to get the pie out of the oven with a peel but if you don't have one, you simply need to lift up the front edge with a pair of tongs (which will be easy once it's done) and then pull it onto the upside down cookie sheet. Then slide it off onto a cutting board and go at it.

 

Lastly, I'm not sure how big our stone is, but we never make pizzas big enough that a 12 inch stone would be too small. Making a bunch of small pizzas is pretty fun and they get eaten before they get cold. We're actually going to try and find a smaller one that will work better in our BGE because ours is so large that it cuts down on air circulation and keeps us from keeping the temp as high as we'd like.

[sundaynfl]

First off, I suggest skipping the cornmeal and just use plain flour. It won't matter if you're only making one pie, but if you're making a few, the cornmeal will start to accumulate and burn.

 

If you're going to make pizza often enough to warrant owning a stone, I'd go ahead and buy a pizza peel (paddle) as well. They're not too much and last for ever. If you don't want to do that, roll the pizza out, then flour the back side of a backing sheet, place the dough on that, build up the ingredients and slide it off on to the stone. The trick to sliding it off is the carefully shake it back and forth a bit to free it from the peel or sheet-pan, then it should slide right off onto the stone. Obviously it's much easier to get the pie out of the oven with a peel but if you don't have one, you simply need to lift up the front edge with a pair of tongs (which will be easy once it's done) and then pull it onto the upside down cookie sheet. Then slide it off onto a cutting board and go at it.

 

Lastly, I'm not sure how big our stone is, but we never make pizzas big enough that a 12 inch stone would be too small. Making a bunch of small pizzas is pretty fun and they get eaten before they get cold. We're actually going to try and find a smaller one that will work better in our BGE because ours is so large that it cuts down on air circulation and keeps us from keeping the temp as high as we'd like.

 

+1 all very sound advise. There is a peel made especially for home use called the Superpeel Website; never used it but looks good for home oven use. If you use a traditional peel it is VERY important to keep anything wet away from the bottom of the dough, thats what causes it to hang up. I also tend to work quickly once I roll out the dough when putting the toppings on, the longer you wait ie, letting your kids make the pie, the stickier the pizza gets and harder to get it off the paddle. To free up sticky pizzas I will use a can of air and spray the air between the pie and the paddle.

[Rovers]

This Stok grill is round and large. An 18" stone would still leave plenty of room for circulation. I have no plans for making my own dough, and the store bought pizza dough is perfect for an 18 inch pie. The crust is a bit too thick at 12 inches for my preferred thickness. OIf course I could cut it down but this last pie was still pretty good after it got cold. It was as good as my favorite pizza joint's pie. After the sauce, I layered spinach leaves, added mozz and some sharp provolone, then italian sausage and anchovies.

 

If I had followed the directions from the dough package, I would have burnt the pie. 10 to 12 minutes was fine for a crispy crust. I think I will buy a peel, and I think I want one of those metal pie plates they use in the pizzeria too. I could preheat that and keep the pie from cooling too quickly on a cold wooden cutting board.

 

Frankly I'm surprised I can make pies that are this good. Using flour instead of corn meal seems a better approach, I mean how would I roll the dough out without sticking using corn meal? Once it's floured, corn meal won't stick anyway.

 

Pretty happy with this new grill. Never had a propane grill before, it has it's uses, but I'll still use my smoker on a regular basis when the outside temps aren't so fridgid.