Did you position your stone on the lowest rack? Is there any kind of sweetener in the recipe?

-Grainlady

If you use a pizza screen, you can safely bake your pizza on a stone at 550 degrees, which is what I do. If you do not use a screen, there is a chance that some of the topping (especially sauce) could drip or spill onto the stone, and there is a very slight chance that that could damage the stone. Anyway, that is probably why PC says not to heat the stone above 450 degrees. I bought pizza screens when I was in Venice because there was no room in my kitchen to use a peel - in fact, you could not stand in front of the oven when the oven door was open because it would be about 3 inches from the refrigerator door! Now I have plenty of space in front of my oven, but I've gotten used to using screens and like them, but I still use them on a stone.

Lars

Did you preheat the stone for at least 45 minutes? an hour is better. If you just turned the oven on for the regular preheat cycle (10-15 minutes), the stone wouldn't have been heated through yet.

I have a PC stone an a $5 one from Walmart. Both give me a nicely browned bottom crust--but I always preheat the stone in the oven for quite a while before sliding the pizza on with my peel.

azzalea -- I did not preheat the stone because PC says do not pre-heat their stones. But the second pizza I cooked did go onto the hot stone and into the hot oven. That is the crust I precooked for 5 minutes. It was more crispy than the first but still did not brown that well.

There's little point in using a stone to cook a pizza if you don't preheat it, despite what Pampered Chef might recommend.

If you're worried about damaging the stone replace it with fire brick and use a pizza screen. Preheat the bricks for at least an hour.

To achieve a nice crispy charred bottom crust(neapolitan style), a pizza brick oven's bed{{gwi:807}} is close to 1,000F.

It is going to be impossible to get that with your pizza stone in a home oven.

The problem with stone is poor conductivity. The surface of the stone cools down immediately the moment you place the dough on top, and it takes a while for the surface to be heated up again. By that time the topings will be burned.

There is a way you can get much better results.

You can get a 1/4" thick steel plate of a size you want, season it as you would with a cast iron pan. Plcae the steel plate on the bottom of the oven shelf and preheat the oven, then put you pizza on it to bake.

Although the specific heat (BTUs/lb) of steel is not greater than pizza stone, the fact that it is heavier by volumn, and significantly high thermal conductivity gives the steel the ability to deliver much more heat to the pizza dough.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Tue, Jan 15, 13 at 0:21

We use a pizza stone on our gas grill which gets well over 700F. This is DH's department so I don't know the details, but we get a lovely crust with a little char and lots of flavor. He puts the stone on the grill before firing it up, and lets it get nice and hot. I think it's around 15-20 minutes, certainly not an hour. Our stone isn't made by Pampered Chef, but I can't imagine that there's a whole lot of difference.

We used to use unglazed quarry tiles which work better IMO. For some reason we can't buy a few here in the Southwest, we have to order a whole box which is expensive and would last longer than our lifetimes. But if you can find 4-6, they work very well in the oven or on a grill.

Cheryl

This post was edited by jadeite on Mon, Jan 14, 13 at 23:54

It is already to go when you get it . Here is a great demo of it in the link too. You may need to look at your flour , as that can make a difference in browning. Good Luck ! c

Here is a link that might be useful: baking steel

Another vote for unglazed quarry tiles from the home improvement store. They are cheap, buy enough to almost cover your oven rack on the lowest brackets. You need to leave at least an inch or two around the tiles on all sides for air circulation. [Wash them off when you get them home and let them air dry.] Yes! do preheat these tiles for longer time than your oven preheats. Yes! crank up the oven temp as high as it will go.

I'm sorry to say, but I would not buy a pizza stone that could not take the heat higher than 450. The tiles can easily be replaced if one cracks. I've even bought extras just for that possibility, but only had to replace 1 or 2 over many, many years of use.

Now I've got another round stone that lives in my oven (not a PC stone). I've got some screens that Lars mentioned and my pizza gets nicely bottom browned on the screen set on my stone. I've got a wood peel too, and most often use that, with some cornmeal sprinkled on to help release the pizza off the peel and onto the stone. With the help of some tongs, I pull the cooked pizza off the stone when it is done, then slice it right on the wood peel. I have also put the pizza on parchment paper on the peel, topped it, then slid pizza and paper off the peel and onto the stone. Lots of ways to make a pizza!

Teresa

My PC stone cracked after a year of use.
My BIL always made great pizza and he shared his secret with me. He uses a cast iron skillet.
1. Preheat oven to the highest temp.
2. Place skillet on the stovetop med to high heat to get it nice and hot.
3. Coat skillet with olive oil & place dough into skillet. Let cook for a couple minutes the bottom will get nice and brown.
4. Put on the sauce/toppings.
5. Pop in the oven to finish.

dcarch, now that is a pizza! Looking good. You make me want to go buy steel just for cooking a pizza.

Found these:

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/02/how-to-cook-pizza-on-a-steel-sheet.html

http://modernistcuisine.com/2012/10/get-gourmet-pizza-in-your-home-oven/

Robin, the steel plate is also great on an outdoor grill to make burgers, etc.

dcarch

dcarch is right. The only way you get the temps hot enough in a home oven is to break the lock and turn on auto-clean. Most ovens with an auto-clean feature don't let you open the oven door while that's on because it's very hot and you can be injured. But that's the temp you want. Otherwise you can only go up to 500 degrees F.

Why does that matter?

Because the proteins in the cheese and in the flour will react differently at 900F for 3 minutes than at 500F for seven minutes. And less water evaporates because you're baking for less time.

So your goal is to mimic the hotter temps in a commercial oven.

How do you do that?

By adjusting the flour, hydration, and time you bake.

Putting the pizza on a hot surface instantly dries out the crust and crisps it, while the interior is baking at a more leisurely pace. Cast iron or steel is as good or better for a home oven. The reason some places advertise their coal-fired ovens is that those ovens get hotter than natural gas ovens do. So your crust can crisp and cook before it dries out.

In your case, if you have a stone and don't pre-heat it, you may as well not bother with it at all. Brushing with olive oil isn't going to matter. 450 is very cool for pizza. Crank up the heat, make sure the stone is as hot as it can be, and then put the pizza on with a peel. Don't do it slowly. If you have a convection oven, turn on the fan. I've found that the fan makes a huge dif in my oven. I can get the pizza done in like 3 minutes, and the crusts are better than ever.

Fresh mozzarella will also break at lower, longer temps, so you end up with a runny pizza. We never use mozzarella and rarely have any kind of tomato sauce - I'm not trying to make someone else's version of what a pizza should be. So we use whatever cheese we have around and if we have tomatoes or sauce, that's nice but not critical. The key is the crust.

I know there are a lot of pizza dough recipes out there to choose from....but this recipe posted by Becky_ca in the Recipe Exchange in 2008 has become the only recipe that I use since 2008:

Artisanal Pizza Dough

3 cups bread or all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups 2% low-fat milk
2 tablespoons olive oil -- plus more for bowl

Whisk the flour, yeast and salt together in a large bowl, then pour in the milk and oil. Mix together with a large fork or your hands. Knead once or twice to form a ball. It may be sticky, but that's okay.

Oil a bowl and set the dough in it. Lay a sheet of waxed paper loosely over the top, then cover with plastic wrap. Place a clean dish towel over the bowl and allow to rise at room temperature and undisturbed for 24 hours. Turn the dough once in the bowl about 3 hours before you want to use it. The 24 hour fermentation process takes the place of kneading the dough.

When you are ready to make your pizza, divide the dough in half on a lightly floured board, then proceed with your pizza making. The dough can be frozen for up to a month; Thaw at room temperature before using.

Makes two 12"-14" pizza crusts

Source:
""Pizza on the Grill" by Elizabeth Karmel and Bob Blumer

When I make mine I fry the ground beef first saute onions ,peppers etc I make what they call specialty pizza,gr beef,bacon pieces,onion,peppers,mushrooms,ham,olives bl.2 cheeses.mmIm hungry for my pizza now also I bake the crust a little before I put anything on ,keeps it from being soggy.

I use Pizza flour from KA (really finely ground), cook on my pizza stone at highest temp on my gas grill. 5 minutes it's done and perfect!