Do you pre-heat a pizza stone?!
Do you pre-heat a pizza stone?
Answers:
It depends on the stone! The heavier stones often do require pre-heating, or they will crack. You need to look at the directions to see what the manufacturer says to do about pre-heating. Mine don't need to be pre-heated, so I roll my dough out on the stone and then just place the stone in the oven to bake and I remove the stone and the cooked pizza to the counter when finished. NO messing with messy pizza peels coming in or out.
To use a stone that needs preheating: roll out your crust, transfer it to the peel which is well dusted with corn meal (or flour works too) & maybe roll it out a little more, about 1/4" thick, put on the toppings and meanwhile your stone has been preheating in a 450 oven. The longer you preheat the stone, the crispier the crust. Then you open the oven door & do a little Italian-o maneuver with "shaking" your crust FROM the peel ONTO the stone. I forgot to mention, make sure you've sprinkled your stone with corn meal too (can do that right when you're ready). The only problem I've had is when I didn't dust the peel enough & the crust was kind of sticking, so my "shaking" maneuver ended up with lots of mozzarella on the floor of the hot oven (stinky) & a crumpled pizza...it was still delish!
yes
Preheat for a crispy crust. For a regular crust allow the stone to heat up with the pizza. Make sure the stone is clean, it will keep the heat constant all over the stone. Do not wash with soap. You can keep the stone in the oven on the bottom rack for storage. No need to take it out, It helps keep a constant temp of your oven.
yes ,to make it as hot as possible