Calzone, Pizza Stone and Parchment Paper
I did a little experiment for dinner the other day. I wanted to bake some calzones using Alton Brown's pizza dough recipe [1], bake it on my pizza stone, and see if the bottom browns as well using parchment paper instead of being put directly on the stone. The results were faboo.
In short, with olive oil brushed on top and parchment paper beneath, it browned perfectly on the pizza stone. With the parchment paper you don't have to worry about corn meal on your peel or spills on your stone, and it gives you a non-burning object to grab and give a tug to get the food back onto your peel for unloading.
I made the dough as the recipe says, although I halved the salt and added about a half teaspoon of basil. Fridge it overnight, the next day set out about 3 hours before baking. Divide the dough in half, form into a ball and flatten into a disc. Cover and let rest for about 10 minutes for the dough to relax a bit, then roll out the dough into a disc about 1/4 inch thick (or as flat as possible, I couldn't get it any flatter). Add sauce and toppings on one half, wet the edge with water and fold over, pressing the seam with your fingertips. Gently slash the top a couple of times (I did 3 for pepperoni and 5 for veggie just to tell them apart), bake at 425 for 15 minutes (the recipe calls for a really high temp, but I think 400-450 is usually a good default temp for most bread baking, including pizza). Let cool on counter for a few minutes before slicing.
The exterior was nicely browned, top and bottom, chewy and flavorful.
And right now I have a regular loaf in the oven, on parchment and on the pizza stone, to see how well it works with regular bread.