This night be a dumb question, but which side of a pizza stone do you use? There

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dawnnys

Well-known member
is the smooth side, and then the other side has patterend ridges in it. I've always used the ridgey side, but since my crust is never really as crispy as it should be, I began to wonder, and can't find any instructions about this when I did a google search.

I put the pizza stone in a cold oven, turn the temperature up to 450F, and then let it warm for 20 minutes or so. Put the pizza in, let it cook for time said, then take it out, let it cool a little, slice it, and get a softish bottom. I figured maybe along one of these steps I'm making a little mistake (not letting it cook long enough maybe? although the cheese is nice and bubbly and tan, and vegetables are soft), then it occured to me it might be I'm cooking it on the wrong side of the stone, hmmm...?

 
I use the smooth side to cook on. The other side of mine has

some ridges and what looks like little feet that stick out about a half inch. I preheat mine just like you do, but I have my oven at 550, and my crust is really crispy. My crust is thin though. A garlic pizza or cheese pizza cooks in
4 or 5 minutes. A pizza with more toppings takes 7 minutes.

 
Use the flat side. But I don't think it makes much difference. Doesn't sound like yours is getting

hot enough, though. I preheat mine at 500 for at least an hour to guarantee a crisp cooked crust.

 
I agree, you really need to heat the stone HOT. My bread always bakes better. . .

on my second two loaves because I always forget to heat the oven and stone enough for the first two loaves so when I get to the second pair, the oven and the stone are really, really not--finally!

 
Doesn't matter which side but the temp and length of heating time does as Shaun and mistral say

And Liz too. The stone is all the same material throughout.

I heat the stone to 500 degrees for about 30 minutes before putting pizza on it- usually a medium thick crust pizza and I get crisp crust every time. I put a lot of toppings on so I like to bake for about 20 minutes. Heating my oven hotter would burn the crust edge on this type of pizza. If I were making thin crust pizza I would crank it to 550 like the others.

 
Thanks all. Sounds like good advice. If you wander over to the refrigerated

foods section of Walmart and take a look at their Take and Bake pizzas, read the directions! They suggest 375... I laughed and cranked it up higher, but I guess not high enough. It was good, just wasn't crispy. Will try hotter next time.

 
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