A pizza stone is a surefire way to elevate your pizza game. It absorbs and retains heat which allows your pizza to cook evenly and gives you a perfectly crisp crust every time. You can even use it to cook a variety of other foods like chicken, root veggies, and bread.
However, putting sticky pizza dough on hot claystone could result in some fusing. You don’t want to have to deal with peeling your pizza off of a burning surface so you may be tempted to throw a piece of parchment paper under it as a barrier. Is this a good idea?
You shouldn’t put parchment paper on a pizza stone when making pizza because the oven must reach temperatures in the 450 – 500°F range in order to make the pizza crispy, and parchment paper can become a fire hazard when temperatures exceed 430°F.
Don’t worry, though! There are other alternative methods for preventing pizza from sticking to your stone.
Read on to discover them as well as more information on how to care for and make the best use of your pizza stone.
How Do Pizza Stones Work?
In order to use a pizza stone, you have to put it in your oven while the oven is still cold. Preheat your oven to the temperature you will be using to cook your pizza and wait another 30 minutes once your oven is done preheating.
This allows the stone to heat up completely. It is then able to retain heat so that when you open your oven you are not diminishing its temperature.
Pizza is meant to be cooked for a short time at high heat and baking it directly on your oven rack does not provide even heat distribution.
Pizza stones are not made of, as the name would have you believe, actual stone. They are most commonly made of clay and that is the cheapest version you will encounter.
Other materials used to make pizza stones are cordierite (a more durable type of ceramic), cast iron, or stainless steel.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Parchment Paper On a Pizza Stone
We’ve clarified that parchment paper isn’t your best option when cooking on a pizza stone. But, to ensure that you truly understand why you shouldn’t use parchment paper – and instead find alternative methods, we will explain the reasons in greater detail below.
It’s A Fire Hazard
Most types of parchment paper are designed to be heat resistant to temperatures of up to 430°F while the recommended temperature to bring a pizza stone to is between 450 to 500°F.
Parchment paper is not entirely heatproof, so it will catch fire at such a high temperature. Not only will this completely ruin your pizza but it will likely smoke out your entire kitchen.
The fumes silicone parchment paper releases aren’t toxic and you will notice the smoke early on so the risk of setting your kitchen on fire is not huge but there’s no reason to even entertain the risk by putting a flammable object in an environment that is too hot for it to withstand.
You Won’t Achieve The Perfect Crust
If you are insistent on using parchment paper for cooking your pizza you may do so but at a significantly lower heat than what is recommended for baking pizza.
It is true that parchment paper is useful for removing your pizza from the oven because your pizza stone should not be exposed to a drastic change in temperature.
If this is your reasoning for using parchment paper, keep in mind that a safe temperature for using parchment paper is one that won’t make your pizza perfectly crisp.
There Are Better Options
Parchment paper is convenient yes. Many people shape their dough and assemble their pizza directly on it to prevent it from sticking to the counter and to make it easier to carry.
You can still use parchment paper for these purposes, but there are other solutions to ensure that your pizza doesn’t stick to your pizza stone. We will be discussing them more thoroughly in a second!
Can You Put Raw Pizza Dough Directly On a Pizza Stone?
A pizza stone is specifically made to be used with raw dough. This isn’t exclusive only to pizza; you can also bake bread or cookies on a pizza stone.
A pizza stone is designed to mimic the floor of a stone hearth or brick pizza oven. It doesn’t have a particularly sticky surface and if it is cleaned properly and well maintained then your dough shouldn’t be sticking to it.
However, not all dough is made equal. Depending on what you are baking or how wet you’ve made your pizza dough, it may be more prone to sticking.
This doesn’t mean that you are using your pizza stone improperly. If you bake regularly (or have even done so once in your life) you probably know that you need to grease your pans and tins before pouring or placing raw dough or batter on them because it can stick easily.
So, yes, you can definitely put raw dough on a pizza stone, you just might have to take some extra steps to ensure that it doesn’t become one with the surface of the stone.
What Can You Put On a Pizza Stone to Keep It From Sticking?
The first instinct many people have for what to put on a pizza stone to keep it from sticking will be flour. This is a viable choice but it might not be the most effective one.
The better option for dusting your pizza stone to keep it from sticking is fine polenta, cornmeal, or semolina. These things are coarser than flour so they will provide the perfect barrier between the stone and your pizza dough.
Other Ways to Use a Pizza Stone Without Peeling
The biggest issue that causes pizza to stick to a pizza stone is improper heating. If your stone has been preheated to a high enough temperature and your dough isn’t excessively wet and sticky, then you shouldn’t be encountering these issues.
Proper care and handling of your pizza stone is an important way to keep the surface healthy enough that it is not prone to sticking.
Keeping your stone clean by dusting or wiping it down with a wet cloth (once it is properly cooled) is essential to preventing sticking.
When assembling your pizza, be conservative with the toppings. Overloading your pizza, especially with ingredients that contain a lot of fat or juices, will release extra moisture that can affect the crispiness of your crust and could cause it to stick to the stone.
Be sure to use dough that has been properly dusted with flour. Wet pizza dough is not ideal for pizza making in the first place, so you should always check your recipe to ensure that you’ve made the dough properly and it is the correct consistency to bake without fusing to the stone or pizza peel.
How to Transfer a Pizza on and off a Pizza Stone Without Parchment Paper
Transferring your pizza to and from the pizza stone is the last piece of the puzzle. Removing and placing the pizza on the stone can both be a bit tricky if not carried out properly. The pizza dough is quite fragile and can quite easily break if it has stuck onto the pizza stone.
First and foremost, I recommend you look into purchasing a pizza peel or find a suitable substitute for one. If possible, look for one that is made out of wood, as the material seems to be a bit less prone to sticking than other materials.
Then, prepare your pizza on the countertop. Once you’ve added all the ingredients, it’s time to move the pizza over to the pizza peel and then to the pizza stone. Now, if you’re wondering why I don’t recommend constructing your pizza on the pizza stone or peel, there are good reasons for that.
Assembling your pizza on the pizza peel
Because it takes some time to prepare the pizza, the dough will be left on the peel for quite some time. This can cause the dough to stick to the peel firmly, making it quite hard to remove, especially if there’s limited space to wiggle the dough on the pizza peel.
If you’re quick when assembling the pizza, then it can be done on the peel. Make sure to put some semolina, polenta, cornmeal, or flour on the pizza peel if you decide to go this route. This will prevent the dough from sticking.
Assembling the pizza on the stone
The stone should be preheated with the oven to make sure the temperature difference between the two is very small. Exposing the stone to sudden temperature changes could cause it to crack.
Additionally, the stone and oven should already be hot when the pizza is placed inside the oven to ensure it starts cooking right away.
Therefore, you can’t keep the stone outside the oven to assemble the pizza. You also can’t place the pizza in the oven with the stone and preheat them together.
Doing so will either cause the stone to break or the pizza to be cooked at the wrong temperature. You only want the pizza in the oven for a short period of time, until the cheese has melted.
With that said, I recommend assembling your pizza on the countertop then moving it over to the pizza stone using the pizza peel or any similar tool. Remember to put any of the grains we mentioned earlier on the countertop to prevent the dough from sticking.