NerdChef Steel Stone - High-Performance Baking Surface for Pizza (.375" Thick - Pro)

bottom of pizza comes out crispy and great. Highly recommend

This thing is so much more effective than the ceramic stones I've gone through (about 3 now, by my count)!! While the instructions do recommend a warm-up time longer than a ceramic stone, the heat retention on this thing is much better. So far, I've tried on a store-bought uncooked pizza, a pizza from a delivery chain, and then a pizza product: Store-bought: -the dough didn't stick like it did to my past ceramic stones. Initially it did, but lifted off as it cooked, making it easier to remove. Sure, I could've put cornmeal before placing it on the stone but I don't stock cornmeal since I'm not constantly eating pizza. With this stone I didn't run into the sticking problem. -this probably wouldn't happen with a frozen pizza, store-made tends to only be heavily refrigerated and not frozen. Delivery-chain: -sometimes they don't make it as well done as you'd like. This stone fixes that problem and can easily crisp up your crust to your preferences. -if anything, this stone makes it great to warm it up to a lower temperature (start at the recommend temperature and then when the pizza arrives, lower to about 150 degrees) and keep your pizza 'fresh' for the duration of your meal. Pizza-product: -I bought pizza rolls and it cooked them faster and made the outer crust nice and crisp and not soggy like cooking in the microwave. Have been happy with this so far and while a bit on the heavy side (I got the 3/8" model), it will survive way better than the ceramic stones I've been through. Be sure to season regularly (it already comes seasoned but I decided to lightly season it after the second use). It appears easier to clean off if any parts get cheese or ingredients on it other than dough than a ceramic stone. Keep in mind that because this retains heat longer, that you'll have to be mindful of handling it properly after cooking. Recommended.

Fantastic results ... best pizzas crust I have made using this steel plate .. Highly recommended !

I made the best pizza with this product

I've bought a number of pizza stones in my time, and have never really had great luck with them. Not exactly sure why. People talk about how the porous nature of the stone makes a better pizza crust, but I haven't found that to be true. Honestly I think the porous nature of the stone means that more of the stone is actually air, and the air doesn't really get hot and doesn't really make the pizza crunchy enough. I've made decent pizza on a stone but never great. Also, every stone I've ever had has broken eventually. I've gotten to the point where I use them even though they're broken, I just put the 2 halves together, and leave them in the oven. Just getting tired of broken stones. Advantage number 1, and not even the best advantage, this steel will never break. Advantage number 2, this thing gets hotter than any stone. Usually a stone is cool within an hour after you turn off the oven. After an hour, this metal pizza stone is still smoking hot. In my mind overall this is the best pizza making tool I have ever bought. Here's the pizza dough recipe that I used, 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1 cup water, 1/4 cup half-and-half or butter, and a tablespoon of salt. I like my pizza dough salty, you might want to use a little less. Some other things to add are diastatic malt maybe a half tablespoon, and/or a teaspoon of white sugar . Use about three quarters of a teaspoon of dry yeast. Mix all together in a stand mixer for about 10 minutes. Then let it sit for a few minutes, and add about 2 tablespoons of oil, and mix it again. Leave that at room temperature for at least 3 hours, 6 hours better, overnight even better, punching it down once or twice if you feel like it, but honestly it doesn't matter. This is enough for 2 nice thin pizzas. If youre good at stretching it, you can stretch it with your hands, otherwise use a rolling pin to press it out (dust it with flour to keep it from sticking to the cutting board and to the rolling pin). I like to make my pizzas oval or rectangular to match the rectangular stone. I cooked them 2 different ways, but I like the manufacturer's instructions better. Manufacturer's instructions are put the pizza stone in the oven on the second from the top shelf, and turn the oven on to full broil. Leave it there for an hour. Manufacturer says 45 minutes but I don't think that's long enough. Then, put the completely assembled pizza onto the stone. At this point the manufacturer says to cook for 4 to 6 minutes, but I like to cook for 2-3 minutes, until I start to see some burnt parts on the pizza. Then I use a pizza peel to move the pizza a little, either turning it 180° or just moving it a little bit on the stone. Once the toppings look done (when they're done you will know it, they are boiling), I turn off the broiler and leave the pizza in there for another 2 or so minutes. At that point use the pizza peel to pick up an edge of the pizza and make sure that the crust is done to your liking. This makes a pizza as good as anything I've ever had in any pizzeria. Especially if you use the butter instead of the half-and-half, but the half-and-half works well too. The second way is to put the stone in the same place and put the oven up to maximum temperature, my oven goes to 525. Preheat it for 45 minutes and do the same thing. The topping won't cook as fast, and doing it this way usually requires more like 8 to 10 minutes of cook time. You're also going to have to turn the pizza if you want it to cook evenly. I think the latter way makes a slightly better crust, but doesn't cook the toppings as interestingly. As you use the stone it turns darker, which I think is very cool. Also, unlike a baking stone, nothing will ever stick to this.