A pizza stone is an essential ingredient for that deliciously crispy crust that you crave on your homemade pizza. However, there is one small problem, how do you clean all that baked-on grease, oil, and cheese on your pizza stone after baking in the oven? To clean a pizza stone, you have to use as little water as possible. Using a lot of water means the stone could absorb the water and it will no longer absorb moisture from the dough. In turn, you will not have that crispy taste on your pizza. Attempts to dry the pizza stone in a hot oven may be hazardous as the stone could crack.
With this guide, you will learn how to clean your pizza stone so it lasts for many years to come.
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Step-By-Step Pizza Stone Cleaning Process
Pizza stones can be fragile and a lot of care has to be put into cleaning them. Below is a step by step guide on how to clean your pizza stone.
- To begin with, make sure that your pizza stone has cooled completely. Wet the stone with a small stream of hot water to wet the surface and get rid of the oil. Ensure that you do not use a lot of water because the stone might absorb the water and you will need to dry the stone before you store it or use it to bake the next pizza.
- Scrub the stone with a stone brush. This tool is worth investing in. If you don’t have one yet, you can use a nylon dish brush to scrub the pizza stone.
- To remove stuck-on pieces of food, you can use the built-in scraper on the stone brush. If you don’t have a brush, a silicone pan scraper will do the job. Make a paste with water and baking soda. This paste will be useful to get rid of the bits of food stuck on the surface of the stone.
- Wipe away any grease or pieces of food on the stone with a damp cloth.
- Use a clean towel to dry the stone, or better, let the stone air dry.
- If there are still bits of food left on the surface, you can heat the stone in the oven up to 500 f for an hour. After heating, use a brush to scrub off the bits of food stuck on the stone surface.
- Allow the stone to dry completely; this takes about an hour or two. After that, store the stone in the oven or use it to heat that last piece of pizza that remained.
There you have it. A complete step to step guide on how to clean a pizza stone. Ensure that the next time you think of baking your own Pizza, you don’t have to stress over a dirty Pizza stone.
What Should You Use to Clean a Pizza Stone
There are ways to clean a pizza stone. However, most of these don’t explain to you the tools that you can use. Pizza stones have high absorbance rates and will likely absorb whatever substance you’ll use to clean. This is because the pizza stones are flat and usually made of a porous material like ceramic, stone or cast iron. There’s a high likelihood that this will alter the taste of food. Furthermore, the excess moisture will interfere with the pizza crust’s texture.
The Pizza stone also helps to make a crisp crust by absorbing moisture from the dough. That’s why it’s important to ensure that the pizza stone is moisture-free. Allow your pizza stone to cool before you clean it. Because of the material pizza stones are made of, some heat can be trapped inside even when it looks like the stone has cooled off.
A majority of the tools that you need to clean a pizza stone are in your kitchen. It is easy to use a tool that is thin to scrape off pieces of food stuck on the stone. Although the best tool in cleaning your pizza stone is a stone brush, the following tools will be of great help too you when it is time to clean a pizza stone:
- Blunt table knife
- Metal spatula
- Plastic spatula
- Sandpaper
Some of these tools can scratch your pizza stone. Only use them when you have no other way to scrape off pieces of food on the Pizza stone. Also, it is not advisable to use dish soap or any other cleaning chemicals when cleaning a Pizza stone. If you wash the stone with soap, it will leave your stone soapy. Of course, nobody likes the taste of soapy food.
The only liquid that should be used to clean a pizza stone is water, and even that should be used in very small amounts.
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How to Remove Stains
Stains on Pizza stones can serve as a pleasant reminder of all the delicious pies that you have baked using your stone. These stains are stamps of good meals and good times. However, if the stains look unsightly to you you can always remove them with baking soda. Below are the steps that you can use to remove stains:
- Try removing pieces of food from the previous baking session if any. For this, you can use a spatula or brush. Then scrape off any burnt food on the stone.
- Make a pest that consists of equal portions of water and baking soda. For example, one cup of baking soda can be mixed with just one cup of water. This will enable you to make a thick paste and avoid using a lot of water.
- Scrub the paste on the stains. Use a brush to work the paste in a circular motion until all the stains are removed completely.
- Wipe the stone with a damp cloth.
- Let the Pizza stone air dry completely before you store it.
If you can’t stand the sight of stains on your stone, this is a complete step by step guide on how to clean a Pizza stone to get rid of stains.
What to do if you wash your Pizza stone with soap
As mentioned earlier, pizza stones should not be washed with soap and water. However, sometimes accidents can happen. Imagine washing your pizza stone with other dishes and then it accidentally falls in a sink full of soapy water. More than that, imagine if a friend visits and you ask them to clean your dishes for you and they use soap to clean your stone simply due to lack of knowledge.
Pizza stones absorb soap and water and may leave your food with a soapy taste, you don’t want anything coming between you and that hot, tasty crust that you like on your pizza. However, you need not worry because you can do away with the absorbed soap with this trick:
- Spread dry, old pieces of bread or pop-can crescent rolls on the pizza stone. Ensure that the whole stone surface is covered.
- Heat the bread until it is roasted. If you are using the rolls, bake as instructed.
- Let the stone cool and then wipe off the dough that you used. The dough should be enough to absorb the soapy flavour from your stone.
- Toss the pieces of bread or the crescent rolls in a garbage can. They are of no use.
How to prevent a Pizza from sticking on the Pizza stone
Baking can be fun and stressful at the same time. Sometimes your dough can stick on the Pizza stone. This could lead to a serious struggle to unstick it. However, you need not worry because there are ways to prevent this from happening. But first, let us look at some of the reasons why your dough could stick on the Stone:
What did I do wrong?
There are various reasons that could lead to your dough sticking:
- Failure to preheat the stone properly.
- Your dough was too sticky the stone just couldn’t resist it.
- Your stone may not be clean. Some food crumbs on the stone could result in the dough sticking.
How can I prevent this from happening?
These are some of the reasons that will lead to your dough sticking on the Pizza stone. Let us look at some of the ways you can prevent this from happening:
- Keep your stone clean – Bits of food from the previous baking causes the next item on the stone to stick. learn how to clean a pizza stone after use. the above steps show you how you can do that easily.
- Master the dough preparation process – It is a tricky task to prepare your dough from scratch. If you notice that your dough is sticky, add some flour or cornmeal to minimize the sticking effect,
- Ensure you preheat your stone- Before you start baking, allow the stone to preheat for about 20 or 30 minutes. A temperature of about 500 f is right for placing your pizza in the oven. Don’t place the pizza on the stone when it is out of the oven.
Conclusion
It is rare to get tired of preparing that delicious homemade Pizza. The best part is usually the crust and a good pizza stone does the trick. It is therefore important to ensure that you clean your stone well and the best way to do that is to use a pizza stone brush. We hope this article gave you an adequate step to step guide that you could use to make sure that your Pizza stone is kept ready for that anticipated, next baking session.
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FAQ:
Q: How to clean a pizza stone?
A: First remove the pieces of food stuck on the stone. Scrub the stone with a stone brush and scrub with a water and soda paste. Then wipe the surface and let it air dry.
Q: How to clean a pampered chef pizza stone?
A: Scrape off any food that’s stuck with a brush. Mix baking soda with water to make a paste, spread it on the stoneware, and let it spread for 10–15 minutes. Scrape off any paste, rinse the stone in warm water, and air-dry before storing.
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Author: Vanessa Richards
Vanessa is a mom of 3 lovely children and she enjoys all things related to culinary and gardening.
