Recipe: Pfaltzgraff Pizza Stone Use and Care with Pizza Recipe

Patricia, we have a Pfaltzgraff pizza stone that is made of "pottery "brick"" according to the instructions.

I'll tell you what we do, then give you the instructions that came with the stone.

We heat my oven to 450 degrees F., place the stone directly on the bottom of the oven and let it heat up (about 1/2 hour or more) before putting the pizza or whatever I am baking on it.

We use a pizza peel (large thin wooden paddle shaped thing)sprinkled liberally with cornmeal and the back of a regular pizza pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. We usually make the dough in our bread maker on dough cycle. When it beeps that the cycle is finished (or whenever we're ready) we form the "dough creation" as the booklet calls it, on the back of the sprayed pizza pan. We sprinkle the pizza peel liberally with corn meal, and, if making pizza, invert the pizza pan over the cornmeal covered peel. We gently peel the pizza crust off the back of the pizza pan and it falls onto the cornmeal covered peel. We slide the crust onto the stone in the oven and bake it for 5 minutes, remove it with the peel (that we have shaken the cornmeal off of) and top the pizza as desired. We then slide it back into the oven for final baking. You want to watch it carefully, as it will bake quickly. This kinda makes a mess of our oven at times, with fire alarms going off, etc. due to escaping cornmeal burning on the bottom of the oven, but the pizza is worth it. We have also put the stone on our grill, tho the instructions don't mention that. It's just too hot here in AZ to heat the oven to 450 (or even 200!) during the summer months. We have had good luck on the grill with it using the same procedure. We like our crust thin and crispy. I have had a hard time getting used to the Dean Ornish recipe without oil in it but my DH loves it and it's growing on me. It's made with some whole wheat flour that gives it a crunchy texture I do like.

We usually make two to three sometimes even four pizzas from one crust recipe as we like them thin and crisp. The last one sits on the still hot stone that we have removed from the oven and sat on the stove burners (turned off). It keeps the pizza warm for a long time, much longer than it takes for us to eat our way to it!

Here are the instructions that came with ours, hope they help, I find them kinda un-organized. You need to heat the stone prior to baking on it each time and it kinda skips over that. You want to heat it for at least 30 minutes prior to placing your dough on it:

How to bake with your Pizza Stone:

1. Season the stone prior to its first use: Preheat oven to 550 degrees F., place pizza stone in the center of the bottom rack of your oven and heat for one hour. CAUTION: Stone will be very hot. Please allow it to cool before removing it from oven with a padded oven mit. Place on a wooden cutting board or trivet.

2. Always handle with care and wear oven mitts when handling the heated pizza stone. Should your pizza stone have a logo or impression side, it should always be placed down for baking use.

3.First assemble your dough creations on a cookie sheet, sprinkled lightly with corn meal. The corn meal enables the raw dough to slide easily onto the pizza stone.

4. Place your assembled pizza or bread onto the pizza stone. Do not exceed the edge of the stone.

5. DO NOT use flour on your pizza stone-it will burn.

6. Remove pizza stone from oven with padded oven mitt. Place on wooden cutting board or trivet. Never place a hot stone on your counter top or stove.

7. Your pizza or bread can stay on the pizza stone. Use kitchen shears or a pizza wheel to cut slices carefully!

How to care for you Pizza Stone:

1. Clean by simply scraping any baked-on food with a spatula. Sponge under warm, running water. Detergent/soapy water is not recommended. Air dry.

2. DO NOT use in Dishwasher.

3. Regard staining as a natural part of the stone's aging.

4. Soaking is NOT recommended. Always cool before placing the stone under running water.

5. NEVER place the stone over an open flame.

6. NEVER drop the stone on a hard surface, as it may crack or break.

7. ALWAYS use an oven mitt when handling a heated pizza stone.

8. DO NOT wash the pizza stone and put it directly in a hot oven as this could cause cracking.

9. If the stone should crack or break under normal usage, call Ptaltzgraff Consumer Services for a free replacement. In the U.S. and Canada dial 1-800-999-2811 or from other countries dial 1-717-848-5500.

Pizza Recipe
Crust:
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons oil (optional)
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large mixing bowl. Stir in sugar, salt, oil and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough folour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface;knead until smooth and elastic( 5 minutes). (Dough is ready if an indentation remains when touched.)
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Form dough on cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Slide onto stone after stone is heated.

If you like thick and chewy pizza-use all dough on one stone. Thin and crispy makes two pizzas.

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Editor's note:
Thanks Micha!

Baking Stones / Pizza Stones (click here)