The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

perforated pizza pan

Diane's picture
Diane

perforated pizza pan

I've done a search on perforated pizza pans, and since I can't seem to find the dates of the postings, I'm not sure how long ago this topic has been discussed.

In any event, is there any advice on perforated pizza pans for fresh dough?  Instawares has a large variety, but I don't know what would work best.

I've read enough to understand that perforated pans with large holes work well with frozen dough. I've also seen complaints about not being to use cornmeal to avoid stickiness.

Yes, I actually have a very large square stone that is the length and width of my oven, but I find that not only is the stone super-heavy to remove when I don't bake bread or pizzas  - I can't find a decent place to "store" it in or around my kitchen!

I've read "American Pie" and I know that stone is de riguerer.

Personally, I like a thin pizza crust.

Thanks,

Diane

MNBäcker's picture
MNBäcker

Diane,

I have a stone in my kitchen oven. I just leave it in all the time. When I don't use the stone, I have a rack that slides right above it into the oven. When I did use it, I'd just take the rack out while making pizzas (a lot easier to keep the rack somewhere for a couple of hours than heave the baking stone in and out all the time - just remember to take the rack out BEFORE heating up the oven). When I made pizza in that oven (I do it outside in the WFO now), I used to prepare the pizza on a sheet of nonstick baking parchment that was placed on top of a cookie sheet. When the pizza is assembled, simply slide the sheet of paper onto your baking stone.

Works great for thin crusts. No comparison to baking on ANY kind of pizza pan.

Hope this helps,

Stephan

Diane's picture
Diane

Hmm.  If you leave the stone in the oven and use the rack above it, then when you are using your oven for something else, you are heating the stone as well, yes?  I tried leaving my stone on the oven rack and the weight of it actually "warped" the rack over time. It also absorbs a lot of heat.

I'm also going to be replacing my oven (it is time....) I need a free standing range, and I'm thinking about the KA double oven which has a  3.9 cu ft convection/bake lower oven and a 2.1 broil/bake upper oven.  I wonder if the smallish upper oven would be good for baking pizzas.  Perhaps I could keep the hefty stone in that....

Diane

MNBäcker's picture
MNBäcker

Diane,

yes, the stone gets heated even if I don't actually bake on it. I haven't noticed any warping of the rack that the stone is sitting on - it's a pretty hefty rack in a Maytag oven.

I think you're on the right track with the double oven. A setup like that should be perfect for baking pizzas in the upper part, and you could leave your stone in at all times.

 

Stephan

Diane's picture
Diane

Stephan, I checked out the double oven configuration.  The top shelf would be fabulous for pizza.  The bottom shelf could be great for big round artisan loaves.  However, in order to open the bottom oven, which is on floor level, one needs to be younger or pilates-trained, neither of which applies to me ;->

Diane

varda's picture
varda

for fresh dough.   They are cheap pans I found at the supermarket.   I oil them very lightly before using.    I put one directly on top of my stone (preheated for 40 minutes prior to bake) and the other on the rack below, then reverse if I remember to.   I think they work pretty well for thin crust pizza.  

Dragonbones's picture
Dragonbones

I'm with Stephen on this; put the stone on the oven floor or lowest rack, and leave it there all the time. Put the pizza on a sheet of oven paper, atop a support like a peel or flat cookie sheet or the back of one, and transfer it straight to the stone to bake. Or load the support with liberal amounts of cornmeal and put the pizza on that, giving it a jiggle to loosen it before transfering to the stone. Or put cornmeal on the oven paper, then put the dough on that, for the most trouble-free loading plus that nice cornmeal texture.  Oh, and if you get a wooden peel with a hole in the handle and a leather strap, it looks great hanging on a hook on the wall near the oven.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

said to keep it in the oven on the bottom rack all the time.    I keep mine one up from that so I can get steaming aparatus on the bottom without having to  move it.  As a real help, the catches the overflow from other baking diasters and makes oven cleaning easy - even though I keep foil on the bottom all the time too.  All this is of course after my San Joaquin fire and smoke bomb with the first loaf I tried baking since joining TFL