Leesh and I have been working to perfect our pizza making over the last 3 or 4 years. We have tried lots of different things to make our pizza perfect. In our eyes it's pretty darn perfect! Now that we've found the secrets that make a good pizza we want to share them with you.
This post will be the first of 4 about pizza that we'll share with you over the next week or week and a half. Today's post is dedicated to pizza tools. We've narrowed it down to 4 things we love and really need for making pizza.
Our Favorite Pizza Tools
1- A pizza stone. Leesh and I both have pizza stones. I don't always use mine - I go between my pizza pans (#4) and my stone. But the stone if used properly makes and excellent crust and pizza! I love the crisp crust that come from baking on the stone. I think it works so well because the stone is super hot before placing the pizza on it and it is more efficient at heating evenly. The trick with the pizza stone is an easy one. All you have to do is preheat the stone in the oven before you put the pizza on. We preheat our oven to 500 degrees F for pizza baking. If you put your pizza on a cold stone and then preheat the oven and stick the pizza in it will be a huge mess to remove....trust me, I've done that.
When I use my stone, I like to make my pizza on the back of a cookie sheet lined with parchment so I can easily slide it onto the stone once it's hot. Works like a charm!
2- A Zyliss pizza wheel. A good pizza cutter makes all the difference. I've had one of these Zyliss pizza wheels for almost 8 years. It's still sharp, it cuts with one roll - no back and forth a hundred times. Another thing I love about it is that it come completely apart so it's super easy to clean! Bless those engineers! My husband is an engineer so we are always commenting on poor and great designs. This is definitely a great one!
3- A Wilton Rolling Pin. Any rolling pin will work when making pizza as far as I'm concerned. However, I love this Wilton, non-stick silicone rolling pin. My mother-in-law knows my love for cooking (Hello, Mom!), and a few years ago for Christmas she gave me this - and now it's all I use. My wood one just sits in the cupboard. It was the best gift! The non-stick feature is my favorite becasue nothing has ever stuck to it. I used to have trouble rolling all sorts of things out with my wood one, but this one has never given me that kind of trouble. I also love that the handles come apart so you can clean and dry it really well. Love easy cleaning!
4- A Coated Non-Stick pizza pan with holes in the bottom. This is the one I have and love. I've used some that don't work. The one I have and hate is metal but does not have the coating or nonstick finish on it - and so my pizza is never as cooked through, sometimes sticks, and it makes a horrible crust. I've never got a crispy or good crust with that one. So if you are in the market for a pizza pan, buy one that is coated with the dark non-stick finish. It makes the prefect crust, crisp on the outside and perfect on the inside and the pizza has never stuck for me.
Do you have any other pizza tools you swear by?
If you aren't already a pizza maker - hopefully these tools will help you in that direction.
Stay tuned this week for some more posts on perfecting pizza making.
-Lu
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