The Baking Steel produced one of the best looking pizza crusts Ive ever made, if not actually the best crust.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • The Baking Steel produced one of the best looking pizza crusts I've ever made, if not actually one of my best pizzas.

So, my "Baking Steel" arrived yesterday afternoon, right on schedule, and with a dough already cold-rising for two days in the fridge, I immediately put the steel to the test. After a 45-minute preheat at 550 degrees, I slid my pizza off the peel and onto the steel. Eight minutes later I had a pizza. (By comparison, baking on a pan, my pizzas normally take 12 to 14 minutes.)

The bottom of the crust looks exactly like the bottom of a well baked pizza crust should look.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • The bottom of the crust looks pretty much like the bottom of a well baked pizza crust should look.

The result: one of the best looking—and certainly the crispest—pizza crusts I've ever baked at home, if not actually one of my best pizzas.

To be fair, I wasn't actually trying to make a great pizza, just testing out the steel. So I kept it basic. My usual pizza dough recipe, some canned sauce, shredded mozzarella, and a handful of onions. Also, I didn't adequately adjust for the smaller surface (I usually bake on a 16-inch pan rather than the 14 x 16 steel) so I couldn't stretch out the dough quite as thick as I normally do. Next time I'll make a smaller dough.

So while the crust came out admirably crisp, it was also a little dry. The main problem is that I like my cheese rather caramelized, hence the eight-minute cooking time, while the crust was probably perfectly baked at about six minutes. I think I can fix this by baking with the broiler on, as many home pizza aficionados suggest. (I'm using the smaller top oven of a Maytag Gemini, so single rack is only a few inches from the element.)

Apart from that, the results were fairly impressive. I mean, a six-to-eight minute pizza in a conventional oven is no small feat. And a faster baking time means more "spring" to the crust—those largish but unevenly sized bubbles—the goal of all home pizza bakers:

Fast baking times produces more spring to the crust.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • Fast baking times produces more "spring" to the crust.

So my first impression was pretty good. I need to play with my dough recipe a bit (this one had no oil), as well as oven temperatures and settings, in order to achieve the best results. But so far it looks like the baking steel might actually live up to its hype.