Q&A for How to Use a Pizza Stone

Use the back of a baking tray, a baking sheet or any flat plate or board you have.

Use the flat side. Some people recommend using the grooved underside for frozen pizza to minimize contact with the stone and so avoid breaking the stone by thermal shock, but that defeats the point of using the stone. It's better to thaw your pizza and have it in full contact with the flat side.

A peel is a large, flat board or sheet of metal with a long handle for removing pizzas from an oven.

Some people do as hot as their oven will go. For sure not below 400F.

Put the pizza slices in a hot pan to re-crisp the dough. After a few minutes, put a lid on the pan to melt the cheese.

Rinse it under running water to remove as much soap build-up as possible. Then put the dry, room temperature stone in the cold oven and heat it up to around 400F. Let it bake for 30 min. Do this a couple of times and it should burn off all impurities and get your stone back to good working order.

Put a layer of semolina on your peel and slide it right onto the stone.

Avoid cutting on it, transfer the pizza and cut it on another surface.

No. Use your oven.

Just put it in the oven while the oven preheats. When the oven is up to temperature, your pizza stone is preheated.

Never spray your stone with any oil. It will ruin the stone and always smell like burning oil.

The first few times you use a stone, you need to season it with a coating of oil. Be sure when cleaning the stone after use to use hot water and give it a good scrub. Do not use soap and do not put the stone in the dishwasher.

You can use parchment paper if you like. Corn flour also works, or just plain flour.

What a brilliant idea! Be careful the stone is not too hot. Also, remember it is fragile. I would wrap it in some towels and then use it in an insulated bag capable of withstanding the heat.

It is not meant for the oven, it is meant to protect your surfaces from a hot pizza stone. However, it is neither necessary nor desirable to move your stone out of your oven when it is hot.

Use it the same as you would for pizza, but adjust the baking time for cookies.

Treat the pizza stone as you would your baking sheet, but allow for a quicker cooking time.

You can use a circular sized baking pan instead. Just be sure to grease and flour it as needed, since it may not be non-stick.

If you'd like to use a pizza stone, this would still work.

The same procedure you would normally use if you're cooking one. The only difference is that you'd have to wait for the first pizza to bake before baking the next one if you only have one pizza stone.

Before you use the pizza stone you have to preheat it in the oven. You can put it in the oven or grill to preheat it. Additionally, you can use a wooden tool to take the pizza out of the oven.

Bake the crust about 2 – 3 minutes, depending on the thickness. Cook it just enough so that it is slightly firm enough to slide around on the pizza stone, without leaving bits of doughy crust or sticking to the stone.

That would defeat the purpose of the stone. Use one or the other, not both.