Hi,
I had to share this as something to have a go at…
I thought it might be a bit of a gimmick. However, having bought two stones (£10 each) and a pizza peel (essential) I have now tried not only pizza’s but also a loaf and I must say that it much better than the usual UK method. It is just like you are cooking in the old fashioned way and you will never want to eat soggy pizza from a shop again!
I got two stones from the designer outlet in Mansfield off the M1 for £10. They are 15”. so just fit into my oven so check you can get them in. Then I had to get a metal pizza peel (Pizza Peel – 12″x14″ Blade – 26″) from Amazon. This is important and not really outlined when you buy the stone but without it you cannot really get the pizza, bread or Nan in the oven as the stone stays in the oven!
So how do you do it well it is really simple.
- Put stone in a cold oven
- Heat up oven to the hottest you can i.e. 245
- Roll out your pizza on the worktop
- Dust the paddle with ground rice, semolina or cornmeal. In essence you simply need something that will stop it sticking. Flour is not enough on its own!
- Give you pizza a bit of a shake, if it is free you are good to go.
- Drop all the toppings on, then shake again, if free good, if not then use a palette knife and free and dust some more.
- Then get a friend to open the oven (keep your face out the way) and slide on in one motion. If you did not dust it properly you will get a total mess at this point. Be confident and use Newtons 1st law of Interia!
- Wait about 8-9 minutes (well that is it for my SMEG fan oven) and pull it out. It should be very crisp underneath, you might need longer than you think.
If you are doing bread then simply prove it normally then free with palette knife and slip onto the peel in the same way. Make sure to dust it plenty with your choice of non-stick agent.
Cook for about 30 minutes until it is hollow. Also note that as it is very crusty on the bottom you need to cook for longer as it will sound hollow but it is not cooked inside yet.
I will add some pizza pics soon but we got so excited that we forgot to snap!
