NerdChef Steel Stone - High-Performance Baking Surface for Pizza (.375" Thick - Pro)

bottom of pizza comes out crispy and great. Highly recommend

I made the best pizza with this product

Fantastic results ... best pizzas crust I have made using this steel plate .. Highly recommended !

NerdChef Steel Stone - High-Performance Baking Surface for Pizza (.375" Thick - Pro) I seem to be incapable of successfully caring for a pizza stone. Do not ask me to care for your pet rock. You may be sorry. I also do not yet have the motivation to construct a backyard wood fired pizza oven but have an insatiable lust for pizza at home. Enter the pizza steel. After a quick inquiry with NerdChef (they were super responsive and friendly!) about the proper rack height (I used the third setting from the top, but may go one higher next time @ 500F) I was set to try this baby out by making one of my trademark delicious, but homely, pies. I also decided to try a Naan recipe out that previously did not impress much on cooked on a normal stone (prior to me killing it). Long story short. This was the tool I've been looking for. The bottoms and the top of both crust and bread cooked at an even rate. Patience and keeping a close eye (as well as a peel) are key here. I was a tad impatient on my first ugly pie pictured here, subsequent tries were cooked a bit more and were considerably more homely. No material could help me in that department. Pictures are on various baking sheets I put the items on after coming out of the oven, not the steel. The Naan worked out wonderfully and I have been eating delicious sandwiches all weekend. After all was said and done the stone had darkened noticeably, but this is to be expected. It will take quite a long time to cool down so if you have other need of your oven keep that in mind. It is heavy and safety is key if you are going to start moving this piece around. To wrap this up: It's steel. It enhances your oven. It will hurt me long before I am able to hurt it. It is made locally and the company is quite lovely. You are paying quite a bit for the finish, and decorative bits, but I'm not really interested in hunting down a piece of steel and getting it kitchen ready so there you go. Making GOOD pizza at home is both fun and good for your soul! A+, would buy again.

I've bought a number of pizza stones in my time, and have never really had great luck with them. Not exactly sure why. People talk about how the porous nature of the stone makes a better pizza crust, but I haven't found that to be true. Honestly I think the porous nature of the stone means that more of the stone is actually air, and the air doesn't really get hot and doesn't really make the pizza crunchy enough. I've made decent pizza on a stone but never great. Also, every stone I've ever had has broken eventually. I've gotten to the point where I use them even though they're broken, I just put the 2 halves together, and leave them in the oven. Just getting tired of broken stones. Advantage number 1, and not even the best advantage, this steel will never break. Advantage number 2, this thing gets hotter than any stone. Usually a stone is cool within an hour after you turn off the oven. After an hour, this metal pizza stone is still smoking hot. In my mind overall this is the best pizza making tool I have ever bought. Here's the pizza dough recipe that I used, 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup water, 1/4 cup half-and-half or butter, and a tablespoon of salt. I like my pizza dough salty, you might want to use a little less. Some other things to add are diastatic malt maybe a half tablespoon, and/or a teaspoon of white sugar . Use about three quarters of a teaspoon of dry yeast. Mix all together in a stand mixer for about 10 minutes. Then let it sit for a few minutes, and add about 2 tablespoons of oil, and mix it again. Leave that at room temperature for at least 3 hours, 6 hours better, overnight even better, punching it down once or twice if you feel like it, but honestly it doesn't matter. This is enough for 2 nice thin pizzas. If youre good at stretching it, you can stretch it with your hands, otherwise use a rolling pin to press it out (dust it with flour to keep it from sticking to the cutting board and to the rolling pin). I like to make my pizzas oval or rectangular to match the rectangular stone. I cooked them 2 different ways, but I like the manufacturer's instructions better. Manufacturer's instructions are put the pizza stone in the oven on the second from the top shelf, and turn the oven on to full broil. Leave it there for an hour. Manufacturer says 45 minutes but I don't think that's long enough. Then, put the completely assembled pizza onto the stone. At this point the manufacturer says to cook for 4 to 6 minutes, but I like to cook for 2-3 minutes, until I start to see some burnt parts on the pizza. Then I use a pizza peel to move the pizza a little, either turning it 180° or just moving it a little bit on the stone. Once the toppings look done (when they're done you will know it, they are boiling), I turn off the broiler and leave the pizza in there for another 2 or so minutes. At that point use the pizza peel to pick up an edge of the pizza and make sure that the crust is done to your liking. This makes a pizza as good as anything I've ever had in any pizzeria. Especially if you use the butter instead of the half-and-half, but the half-and-half works well too. The second way is to put the stone in the same place and put the oven up to maximum temperature, my oven goes to 525. Preheat it for 45 minutes and do the same thing. The topping won't cook as fast, and doing it this way usually requires more like 8 to 10 minutes of cook time. You're also going to have to turn the pizza if you want it to cook evenly. I think the latter way makes a slightly better crust, but doesn't cook the toppings as interestingly. As you use the stone it turns darker, which I think is very cool. Also, unlike a baking stone, nothing will ever stick to this.