Hey Mapleme and other pizza makers

stoneycakes

I got my baking steel and I love it!  I have made three pizzas on it so far and I can see a definite difference in the crust.  It's not a gigantic difference, but it gets more spotty color on the underneath and it's a bit crispier on the bottom.  It really tastes like it's cooked in a pizza oven. You can also experiment with using the broiler to heat it up even hotter than the oven does because it won't crack like a stone.  I haven't tried this yet, but I plan to.

The other cool thing about the baking steel is that you can use it on the stove top as a griddle.  I'm totally going to try making burrito sized tortillas on it.  And you can also freeze it and use it as a platter to keep foods cold at a party. /end infomercial

Into+the+Kitty

Why did yr stones crack? Were you heating it up in the oven?

stoneycakes

Into+the+Kitty said:

Why did yr stones crack? Were you heating it up in the oven?

They crack if they're heated unevenly.  I bake my pizza for the first three minutes and then finish it with the broiler.  I think the broiling part heated it unevenly a few too many times and it just cracked one day while I was preheating it.

stoneycakes

Mapleme said:

How thick is it? Does it seem markedly different from a cookie sheet?

Mine is 3/8" thick.  It's 22 lbs, lol.  They sell 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2".  I almost bought the 1/2" one, but it's over 30 lbs and I was worried it might strain my oven rack too much.

Into+the+Kitty

You were preheating it with the oven though right? Because I'd agree that's probably why, then.

stoneycakes

Into+the+Kitty said:

You were preheating it with the oven though right? Because I'd agree that's probably why, then.

Yeah.  I preheat it for 45 min to an hour every time.