Still don’t own a pizza stone? Though I might doubt your true love for pizza, I’ll still help you out and help you bake a great pie.
My mother once complained to the doctor that I don’t eat anything but pizza. The doctor said, “Feed it to her, eventually she will get tired of eating it.”
It’s been quite a while since that day and I’m still loving it.
For years I believed you can’t have good homemade pizza without a pizza stone. I extolled the virtues of the pizza stone. I even wrote a recipe for Grandma Pizza on Between Carpools saying, I quote: “So why should you make Grandma Pizza? Simple. I think this is the only homemade pizza that tastes amazing without a pizza stone or steel.”
Some time has passed and I realized a few things. Not everyone has a pizza stone. Even though I’ve written about them so many times, many people still haven’t bought one! (Buy one, it’s really inexpensive. Note: You should never remove a pizza stone from the oven while hot, even if it comes with a stand to remove it.) If you are real pizza fanatic then I can’t brag enough about the baking steel. It will never break and it will last you for years to come. Note: You can buy it on Amazon, however since it comes seasoned I bought mine unseasoned directly from the company and seasoned it myself for kashrus reasons. Ask your LOR.)
Where was I?
Ah yes, not everyone has a pizza stone. And occasionally I’ve had to make pizza in other people’s houses and I was at a real loss on how to get amazing pizza without a stone.
The trick is to bake the pizza directly on the rack. That’s all. You’ll get a crispy bottom without any fancy tools.
So let’s break it down.
Bake for 7-9 minutes on 500ºF or 11-13 minutes on 475ºF. The bottom of the pizza should be crispy and brown.
For those scratching their heads as to why the pizza has to be baked at such a high temperature, I ask you. How high are the temperatures in the ovens of the pizza shop? Don’t be scared. Great pizza only happens in really hot places.
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