Baking Steel Pizza Two Ways: Margherita and Caramelized Onion & Burrata
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
In September 2008 I returned from Slow Food Nation convinced I would, by the end of the week, build a mud oven in the alleyway next to my apartment and, as a result, have wood-fired pizzas at my disposal from then on out.
I had watched volunteers at SFN stomp in the mud and cobble together an oven in two days, and I couldn’t stop dreaming about the pizzas, thin and crisp with a blistered bubbly edge, that emerged from that wood-fired oven.
After doing a little research, I made a list of supplies and stuck it to my fridge. I even bought a book: How to Build Your Own Hearth Oven. It was going to happen. I would get my wood-fired oven.
But a few weeks passed, and I never got around to building it. And before I knew it, a few years passed. And then a few children appeared. And then a few dreams disappeared.
Friends, guess what? It’s never going to happen. I am nev-er going to build that mud oven nor am I going to drop ten grand on a more professional wood-fired oven.
But guess what? It’s OK, because there is a product that will make all desires for acquiring these high-speed tools disappear. I had read about the Baking Steel in the Wall Street Journal and then in Food and Wine, but it was this post on Serious Eats that convinced me I had to buy one immediately.
The story of the Baking Steel begins with Andris Lagsdin, a passionate cook, who, after reading about the conductive properties of steel in Nathan Myhyrvold’s Modernist Cuisine, began baking pizzas at home on steel plates made at his family-run steel company, Stoughton Steel.
Pleased to discover that what he had read proved true — that because “steel is a more conductive cooking surface than stone,” pizza “cooks faster and more evenly at a lower temperature, resulting in a beautiful, thin, crispy crust” — Lagsdin initiated a Kickstarter campaign. And so was born the Baking Steel. Serious Eats’ Kenji Lopez-Alt, describes the tool as “the most impressive home pizza product [he’s] ever tested.”
About a year ago I discovered tipo 00 flour, which, when used in the Lahey pizza dough recipe, produced the best pizzas I had ever made. Learning to shape the rounds with a delicate hand, moreover, created great bubbles throughout the pie as well as that ballooned and blistered outer edge characteristic of Neopolitan pizzas. The Baking Steel takes these bubbles to another level. Kenji offers this explanation:
For the past month, I have been making some sort of pizza or flatbread nearly every day, and they have never tasted so good. A few pictures below capture the “oven spring” as well as the crispy, speckled “undercarriage,” the two traits that separate Baking Steel pizzas from the sheetpan pizzas I have been making for years.
There are other virtues to the steel as well — it’s lighter and more durable than stone; it doesn’t require a supply of wood — and again, you can read a thorough and more scientific analysis of the steel on Serious Eats. Below are recipes for two of my favorite pizzas: margherita made with a barely cooked tomato sauce; and caramelized onion and burrata.
So, am I telling you that the next $79 you spend should be on a Baking Steel? Yes, I am. But this is the way I see it: with the Baking Steel now a permanent fixture in my oven, I have no use for any backyard wood-fired apparatus, which means I basically just earned $10,000, which will pay for what, a week (maybe two?) of one child’s college tuition?
I know, I know, you can thank me later. Go on, order that steel and while you’re at it, crack open a few bottles of champagne. There’s never been more reason to celebrate.
Oven spring:
Making the sauce:
I noted last week in the za’atar flatbread recipe that using parchment paper on a pizza peel is kind of wimpy. A nicely floured or cornmeal-sprinkled peel should allow a pizza to slide gracefully onto that heated surface, right? Well, in my experience, this doesn’t always happen. And pies that stick to peels can make a mess both on the steel or stone and on the floor of your oven. Moreover, flour or cornmeal that is left on a steel or a stone burns, which might fill your kitchen with smoke and cause your fire alarm to sound. And think about it: at the best pizza restaurants with those magnificent wood-fired ovens, the pizza maker is equipped with both a peel and a broom, which he/she uses to sweep away any flour, toppings, etc. left in the main cooking area. Home cooks can’t really do this. Parchment paper has solved this issue for me. The pizza-topped parchment paper slides effortlessly onto the heated stone. The presence of the paper does not affect how the pizza is cooked, and the paper can be removed (if desired) after a minute or two.
Caramelized onion & burrata pizza:
Oven spring:
Undercarriage:
Baking Steel Margherita Pizza
- Total Time: 18 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 pizzas
Description
Adapted from Jim Lahey’s book, My Pizza
If you buy this Tipo 00 flour, this recipe comes together in seconds — each bag conveniently weighs 1000g, which is what the recipe calls for.
If you use the Lahey pizza dough, you need to plan ahead: the dough sits at room temperature for 18 hours before it can be used. Moreover, after the 18 hours, it benefits from some cold fermentation in the fridge. The 6 rounds of dough can be used over the course of three days.
Equipment: Baking Steel, pizza peel, parchment paper (optional)
Ingredients
- 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1000 grams) plus more for shaping dough
- 4 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast:for this pizza you’ll need:
- tomato sauce (recipe below)
- fresh mozzarella (buffalo if you can find it) or burrata, sliced or roughly torn
- olive oil
- sea salt
- fresh basil
Instructions
- Whisk flour, salt, and yeast in a medium bowl. Add 3 cups water; stir until well incorporated. Add more water if necessary, a tablespoon at a time — dough should not be stiff. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature in a draft-free area until surface is covered with tiny bubbles and dough has more than doubled in size, about 18 hours (time will vary depending on the temperature in the room).
- Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Gently shape into a rough ball. Divide into 6 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, quickly shape into a ball. Dust dough with flour; set aside on work surface or a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions.
- Let dough rest, covered with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel, until soft and pliable, about 1 hour. Proceed with recipe or transfer each to a plastic quart container, cover, and store in fridge (or wrap each dough ball separately in plastic wrap and store in fridge.)
- To Make the Pizzas: Pull out a pizza round from the fridge one hour before you plan on baking. Dust dough with flour and place on a floured work surface. Place a Baking Steel or pizza stone in top third of oven and preheat oven to its hottest setting, 550°F. Gently shape dough into a 10″–12″ disk handling it as minimally as possible. Transfer dough disk to parchment-lined peel.
- Spoon sauce in a light layer over the dough’s surface. Top with a light layer of mozzarella cheese. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt. Shimmy topped dough parchment paper and all onto preheated Steel.
- Remove pizza from oven using your peel — a pair of tongs might help, too. Transfer pizza to cutting board. Throw basil over top. Cut and serve.
- Prep Time: 18 hours
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Oven, Baking Steel
- Cuisine: American, Italian
Barely Cooked Tomato Sauce
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups
Description
This is just a modified version of the widely adored Marcella Hazan tomato sauce. The differences here are that the onion is sautéed until soft, there is the addition of garlic, and the sauce just takes less time to throw together — once the tomatoes hit the pan, they simmer for five to 10 minutes and the sauce is done. I have been making this sauce to serve with pasta. Just add a handful of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, lots of chopped fresh basil and freshly ground black pepper. So fresh and delicious.
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 beef steak tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 to 1 onion (depending on the size), diced to yield about 1/2 cup
- Kosher salt to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Cut a small “x” in the back of each tomato. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop tomatoes into water and cook for about a minute. Remove tomatoes and plunge them into a bowl of cold water. When they are cool enough to handle, peel the skin and discard it. Chop the flesh into fine dice.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and season it with a pinch of kosher salt. Sauté (or sweat — you don’t need the onion to brown or caramelize) the onion until it is soft and translucent, about five minutes. Add the minced garlic and the diced tomatoes. Season with more kosher salt. Simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes until the sauce is just slightly reduced.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian, American
Baking Steel Caramelized Onion & Burrata Pizza
- Total Time: 18 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 pizzas
Description
Pizza Dough Source: Jim Lahey My Pizza equipment: Baking Steel, pizza peel, parchment paper (optional)
Ingredients
- 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1000 grams) plus more for shaping dough
- 4 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeastFor this pizza you’ll need:
- caramelized onions
- burrata
- olive oil
- sea salt
- basil (optional)
Instructions
- Whisk flour, salt, and yeast in a medium bowl. Add 3 cups water; stir until well incorporated. Add more water if necessary, a tablespoon at a time — dough should not be stiff. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature in a draft-free area until surface is covered with tiny bubbles and dough has more than doubled in size, about 18 hours (time will vary depending on the temperature in the room).
- Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Gently shape into a rough ball. Divide into 6 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, quickly shape into a ball. Dust dough with flour; set aside on work surface or a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions.
- Let dough rest, covered with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel, until soft and pliable, about 1 hour. Proceed with recipe or transfer each to a plastic quart container, cover, and store in fridge (or wrap each dough ball separately in plastic wrap and store in fridge.)
- To Make the Pizzas: Pull out a pizza round from the fridge one hour before you plan on baking. Dust dough with flour and place on a floured work surface. Place a Baking Steel or pizza stone in top third of oven and preheat oven to its hottest setting, 550°F. Gently shape dough into a 10″–12″ disk handling it as minimally as possible. Transfer dough disk to parchment-lined peel. Scatter caramelized onions in a light layer over the dough’s surface. Top with a light layer of sliced/spread burrata cheese.
- Shimmy the whole piece of pizza-topped parchment paper onto preheated steel or stone. Sprinkle with nice salt. Drizzle with a splash more olive oil. Shimmy dough, parchment paper and all, onto preheated Steel.
- Bake pizza until top is blistered, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a work surface. Top with basil leaves. Slice and serve.
- Prep Time: 18 hours
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Pizza
- Method: Oven, Baking Steel
- Cuisine: American, Italian
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
100 Comments on “Baking Steel Pizza Two Ways: Margherita and Caramelized Onion & Burrata”
I love my baking steel. It is my prized possession. It sounds silly, but it is almost life changing! I was a kickstarter backer of the product and I’m so glad, because it is just awesome.
Hi Regina,
You totally rock! Forever grateful to you for supporting us!
Thank you,
Andris
I just bought mine .. and I’m excited to use it for pizza 🍕 Friday!!
Yay 🍕🍕🍕🍕
The pizzas look fabu – I’ll have to look into a steel, but think I will try this dough recipe just on my stone first to see how it goes.
Regarding the Lahey Dough, some questions:
let’s see if I have this straight – mix dough together, let it rise 18 hours, then form into smaller balls and let it sit in fridge for an hour, then use.
Hmmm so if I start at say 8pm, then the dough is ready at 2pm the next day. If I want to do this for dinner, I’d have to start at maybe 10pm the day before? Seems … I dunno … kinda fussy?
Can the smaller balls at least be frozen and used another time? How sensitive to sitting longer during the 18 hour rise is the dough – if I don’t get back from biking for an hour or two later than planned, is the dough still going “to work”?
Love your posts, love your pics, almost always love your recipes! 😀
Peter, hi! So great to hear from you. Ok, so, yes, the dough in terms of planning ahead is fussy! Yes, after the 18 hours, the dough is divided into six balls and then the balls sit at room temperature (I might need to fix this in the recipe) for an hour before being wrapped and then chilled. After this hour, the pizzas can be used immediately, but you get better oven spring if the dough is chilled for a few hours. I do always mix this dough at night right before bed. Then I portion it in the middle of the day ( I am home with the kids, which makes this easy and which I know is not possible for many people), chill it, and then use two or three rounds that evening. Unfortunately, the Lahey dough does not freeze well. I’ve tried several times, and it just never produces pizzas that are as good as when the dough is fresh. Now, in terms of the 18-hour window, there is definitely flexibility. If you let it go 20 hours, it will be fine. Similarly, on really warm days, I find that by 12 to 16 hours, the dough has risen to the top of the bowl and is ready to be divided and shaped. Hope that helps!
Also, if you are looking for a really good pizza dough recipe, this Todd English recipe was my go-to for years. It’s ready to go the same day it is mixed — it’s a more traditional timeline: https://alexandracooks.com/2008/10/09/pizza-pizza/ Interesting fact, too, is that Andris worked at Todd English’s pizza restaurants for awhile.
I think being raised in Connecticut inspires the need to make amazing homemade pizza. I was never a big fan of the results with pizza stones but I think this post sold me on the pizza steel…even though the thought of a piping hot piece of steel in my oven frightens me a little.
Hallo for Holland! Will that ever get old? Corrine, I think you are right. I have been obsessed with white clam pizzas since I was 10 years old. Don’t be afraid of the steel — it is awesome!
I am so excited!! Because I, too, have had a list of supplies and directions for a wood burning oven sitting around for years, and I trust your advice, I ordered the baking steel before I even finished reading the rest of your post!!! Since a trip to Italy eight years ago, I have been trying to recreate the pizzas of my memories. Thanks so much for sharing this information and helping me get closer to reaching my goal–pizza perfection! Yum!
So exciting, Trish! Do you already have a peel? I had one from years ago. It was fun pulling it out again and took a little practice getting used to again: the first time I used it, I assembled a second pizza on the peel, and so, when I went to remove the first pizza from the oven, I didn’t have anything to pull it out with! Rookie move. I could have just used tongs, but I panicked and ended up burning the first pizza … alas,mi learned my lesson. I hope you enjoy your Steel!
Yes, I do have a peel and I love it. How funny about Pizzeria Mozza! My husband, daughter and I went to LA a couple of weeks ago and we literally drove from the airport straight to Pizzeria Mozza just in time to make our reservations. So good! FYI, I ordered the steel yesterday and it is already being shipped today!
Oh good, glad to hear! And that is hilarious about Pizzeria Mozza…I like your priorities 🙂 So excited for you to try the steel!
i cannot wait to make these, the sauce is superbly simple!
I have been making pasta with this sauce for the past month — it’s so simple yet so delicious. I love tomato season.
I am craving, craving, craving this pizza! Oh my goodness. Always looking for new sauce recipes to try, so excited to try that too!
I recently found a great resource to learn better techiniques for making and shaping pizza dough. It’s at https://www.craftsy.com/class/perfect-pizza-at-home/186#. Peter Reinhart does a great job of demonstrating delicious doughs as well as sauces. We do have a wood fired pizza oven in our back yard that my husband built from plans found on the internet. We love our wood fired pizzas and it didn’t cost anywhere near $10,000! I make pizza dough all the time using Reinhart’s neo-neopolitan recipe. I do use the pizza stone in my kitchn oven when we don’t want to fire up the wood oven. I like my stone, but will be looking into this steel as well~ thanks for the post!
Becky — thanks so much for passing along this resource. I think I need to enroll immediately. And would love to hear more about your wood-fired pizza oven. And I am relieved to hear it can be built for under $10,000…maybe I was being a little dramatic? For awhile I subscribed to the Forno Bravo newsletter, and I got depressed every time I browsed at their selection of ovens. I am going to check out Reinhart’s dough recipe — I love his stuff. I really do want to hear more about your wood-fired oven — how much wood do you go through (roughly) to heat it up, and to keep it going for a night of pizza cooking? I love the idea of it.
Hi Alexandra,
Thank you for sharing your experience with your readers. Your photos are stunning. You make it look easy! I am just loving the oven spring you are getting with your dough recipe! So happy the Baking Steel has made it into your hands.
Beautiful stuff!
Andris
Thank you, Andris! Everyone in the family is thrilled that the Baking Steel has entered our kitchen…it is too much fun. Thank YOU!
Fantastic article/photos and looks like an excellent recommendation! Thank you Alexandra. One question, did you consider the other “sizes” of the baking steel on offer? Is the 22lb or 30lb overkill for a home cook?
Jake — I wish I could lend you mind so you could see for yourself. I am perhaps not the best judge — haven’t lifted a weight since college — but I am amazed by how heavy 15 pounds feels. It is definitely less cumbersome than a stone for whatever reason, but even so, 15-lbs is not light. That said, if you don’t mind lifting heavy gadgets, I don’t see any harm in experimenting with a heavier plate. Honestly, I think you should email Andris: andris@stoughtonsteel.com or contact him on Facebook. He is so receptive to these kinds of questions and might have some better insight. Let me know if you would like me to contact him for you. I would be happy to do so.
Your posting is an answer to my “pizza prayers!” I have tried and tried to make a pizza that looks like your photos; each attempt, a failure. Cannot wait to invest in the pizza steel and will use the Lahey recipe. Thanks so much for all your wonderful info!
Let me know if you have any questions. I have been making a lot of pizza recently — always with tipo 00 flour and with the Lahey recipe. Love it!
Having previously owned and used a wood-burning oven, I am skeptical that a pizza steel and an indoor oven could actually produce spots of char. The only thing I’ve seen produce that is a wood flame.
I could see how direct contact of the steel could maybe create spots of char, but how did that happen on the top of the pizza???
Hi Mark — I’m not sure the steel is actually responsible for the spots of char on top of the pizza. Even without the steel, I was able to get a bit of that blistering on the outer edge of the crust. You can see that charring on the edge of the pizza in this post: https://alexandracooks.com/2012/05/31/tipo-00-flour-worth-paying-for-shipping/ which was made on a sheetpan. I think the charring happens on these pizzas mostly because the Lahey dough by nature has so many air pockets in it, and the layers of dough surrounding the air pockets are thin, which make them more susceptible to charring. Does that make sense? I did try the Baking Steel-broiler method as outlined in Kenji’s post here: https://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/09/the-pizza-lab-the-baking-steel-delivers.html, which created even more charring, but for simplicity, I prefer not doing that method.
And oh my gosh, just looked at your last blog post. Will be diving into the archives. How did you say goodbye to that oven?!! That pizza is perfection.
That makes sense about enough heat and the airy dough…. equals some charring.
Yes, I had to leave the pizza behind. My wife got transferred to San Antonio and our beloved oven had a five foot deep foundation.
We built the oven after moving away from Phoenix. We missed the famed Pizzeria Bianco so much and the wood-oven pizza craze had not yet hit Dallas/Fort Worth. San Antonio has a pretty amazing pizzeria, “Dough,” so we are now happy customers there. But, I miss making pizza.
When we moved across country from CA to VA, my husband drove (I flew with the toddler) and stopped in Phoenix just so he could go to Pizzeria Bianco, which I had read about in Bon Appetit and other places. He said it was amazing. I was so jealous. We had a favorite spot in Los Angeles — Pizzeria Mozza — and our favorite spot here (DC) is — 2Amys. We’re about to move up to Albany area. It won’t feel like home till I find my “Dough.” Hope you get to start making pizza again soon!
I don’t think there’s a food more photogenic than pizza. Now I want pizza. 🙂
Lizzy — loved your eggplant pizza!
G’day! Your photo and recipe look so YUM, true!
WISH I could come through the screen and try a slice or two right now too!
Love burrata!
Cheers! Joanne
https://www.facebook.com/whatsonthelist
Thanks, Joanne!
So intriguing! I bought a cast iron pizza… thing last year. Much better than our two stones that both split and died in the oven. Would love to do a side by side comparison with the steel.
I would be curious to see how the cast iron performs, too. Was it a Lodge product?
It is! It works better than a stone, but we are also relegated to gluten free pizzas, so I am not sure I can ever achieve the beautiful bubble and char that you can. 🙂
Oh man, gluten-free is tricky. Do you have a go-to recipe? I have a gluten-free neighbor that I am about to say goodbye to, and I would love to treat her to something. I might just make her some gluten-free biscotti with my c4c flour, but pizza dough would be fun, too.
Sadly, no – and haven’t attempted a new one in a while. Am thinking about trying C4C in a pizza dough, cause why not, but sure if that’s a good use of a precious commodity!
I know, so true…you’ve got to use that stuff wisely 🙂
Ohh – incredible pictures of these wonderful pizza’s – I’m inspired and ready to go!! SO glad to have found your blog and excited to follow :))
Mary x
Thank you, Mary!
What a fabulous post, and what a terrific site. This is my first visit. I am intrigued by the steel. I have a large round Matfer steel pan I have used for years. I use it on my gas grill outside, and I get wonderful crust. It is not as thick as the steel you have used, however. Thanks for the info and introduction.
And I think Jim Lahey is a genius. Enough said! Thanks for the terrific read.
Welcome! Thank you so much for your nice comment. I am intrigued by the Matfer steel pan — never heard of the brand. Must do some research. I am curious as to how the steel will perform on the grill…i think that could be really fun. Thanks for writing in!
I’ve been using bread flour for pizza but am now going to try 00 which I have in the cupboard for pasta. And of course-now I want the steel !
Do ittttt! Awesome that you have tipo 00 flour on hand, too.
This reminds me of when I first found out about baking steel. I immediately tried to place an order online but it would cost over 150USD to buy and ship it to London. And then I remembered we were going to NYC. So as part of our luggage back from NYC was 7kgs of pizza steel.
I haven’t bought a pizza peel yet but I find if you make the pizzas small and long you can pick up the paper and place it onto the pizza steel ok. When they are done I use drag the paper onto a spatula and hold the paper on the other end and quickly put it on a plate.
Your pizzas looks so professional compared to mines! I am going to try your Margarita recipe when I get back to Australia.
ExplodyFull — hieee! Nice work on getting around not having to buy a peel. I love that you put the steel in your luggage…did they charge you extra? Definitely try the Margherita pizza — it’s so simple but so delicious. Do you use the Lahey dough?
Wow. This looks just delicious. I’ve never heard of baking steel before but now it is definitely on my wish list. Also, your photographs are just beautiful.
No charge extra charge for the pizza steel but they did open it all up and check it when we left US customs. I guess it doesn’t scan good! I have been using your 5 min a day pizza dough from ages ago. Haven’t tried the Lahey dough yet but when I get back to Australia…
I have been using Caputo tipo 00 for some time now, and it is an improvement. I order from The Pennsylvania Macaroni company located in Pittsburgh, or friends bring me a 5lb bag when the go home to visit. Penna Mac has 10 2.2 bags for $31.95 + shipping. Here’s the link for future reference.
https://www.pennmac.com/items/3411//
I enjoy your blog and the pizza Margherita is on my to try list , while the steel pan is on my kitchen toy list.
Vicky
Hi. I just found you yesterday. I already have my flour (My Whole Foods carries it) and I ordered my steel about an hour ago.
Do you think that the recipe for the dough may be cut in half? I live alone and six pizzas in two-three days is a little too many?
Thank you and your blog is just great!
Judy, so exciting! Yes, I definitely think it can be cut in half. I haven’t done it, but I have no doubt especially since it rises slowly over the course of 16 to 18 hours. I have been meaning to do this too — the full recipe is kind of a lot for me sometimes.
Good luck with the Lahey dough and the steel! I am loving mine. If I could offer any bit of advice re the Lahey dough it’s to use a very light hand when shaping the dough. I note this in the Lahey dough post but also in this one — you want to see those air pockets in the dough when you stretch it across the peel (or parchment-lined peel). Let me know if you have any questions!
Pizza update. I made pizza last night using dough that I had frozen in a vacuum sealed bag. The dough had been in my freezer for about two months. It was delicious and I think that the crust was almost as good as when it is freshly made.
Well, I had my first Lahey-Baking Steel pizza last night. I cut the recipe for the dough in half and I think that it worked just fine. I have nothing to compare this with except the crust was far superior to the version that I have previously used over the past years. I topped my dough with honey and garlic roasted cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and a tiny bit of mozzarella cheese. Tonight it will be caramelized onions, gorgonzola and Red Bell Pepper & Ancho Chili Jam. I was unable to find fig jam but this should be good, also.
Thanks for your wonderful blog and for enlightening all of us on the “right way to make pizza.” I am tossing my pizza stone out the window!
So happy to hear this! The combinations of your pizza toppings are making me salivate. Can you elaborate on your honey and garlic roasted cherry tomatoes? They sound heavenly. And I love the idea of pairing them with goat cheese…divine. The pepper-ancho jam sounds wonderful as well — sometimes fig jam is hard to find. My mom usually finds it at Marshall’s. Anyway, I am so happy to hear you are liking your baking steel! I haven’t used mine in my new house/oven yet, but I hope to soon. Will obviously keep you posted 🙂
The Maple Syrup Roasted Tomatoes recipe came from Saveur Magazine’s website. You should be able to find it. After I roast them, I freeze them individually. They come in handy in the dead of winter. I use them for salads and pasta and pizzas. They are yummy.
Awesome. I found the recipe. (Here it is for anyone else interested: https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Maple-Syrup-Roasted-Tomatoes) I am definitely going to try these. I have a ton of tomatoes on hand. Thanks!
Day three, last of the pizza dough. It ended up with toppings of pineapple, Canadian Bacon, Cheese, Bacon Bits, and finally scallions, after the pie came out of the oven. Overall, i think that this has been a really great experience. This weekend, maybe some baby back ribs on the Big Green Egg, and next week, the steel moves to the Egg for my Lahey-Steel-Alexandra test! Have a nice weekend.
I can keep you posted if you like. Thanks for all of your great input!
Oh my gosh, this all sounds so amazing, from the latest pizza toppings to the Big Green Egg-Steel-combo experiment…please keep me posted! One of my dear friend’s parents have a Big Green Egg and swear by it. Do you love yours? Also, I am in the process of making the maple roasted cherry tomatoes. I used bigger tomatoes (about the size of plum tomatoes but in the shape of a circle) so I am cooking them longer — they’ve been in the oven for six hours now. The house has smelled amazing all day long. Can’t wait to try these tomatoes!
Alexandra! I sure wish I had read this BEFORE I sunk thousands of dollars into a brick oven in our back yard. It does not circulate the heat well, dough gets either burned or not cooked enough. What a pain in the neck! We are mad about pizza! I’m going to try this method this weekend. Maybe I could put the steel inside the brick oven? Thanks for the beautiful pictures and great tips!
Oh no! You should get a refund! or they should come and make improvements or something! I’m sorry to hear this. I am mad about pizza, too, and I am sure the Steel would work well inside the brick oven. I have been using the Steel at least once a week. Wish your pizza oven would work out for you.
Update. Well, I finally got someone to take my steel outside to my Big Green Egg and it did not fit!!! So, we baked three pizzas on a stone on my Big Green Egg. i was able to maintain the temperature at about 650 degrees. I used the Lahey recipe for the dough. All three pizzas were really, really good but I think that they would have been a tad better with the steel. I emailed Andris Lagsdin at Stoughton Steel and got a very quick reply. They can make a round steel. I gave her a dimension and asked for a quote.
Oh no! Andris will come to the rescue! Glad you were able to get a quick response, and I hope the circular Steel ends up in your hands soon — can’t wait to hear how it works with the Big Green Egg. Am I going to have to purchase one of those? ALso, I don’t know if I ever reported back on the maple-roasted tomatoes, but they were absolutely divine. I brought them to a friend’s house I was staying with for a few days, and we gobbled them up and added a few to this baked feta recipe: https://alexandracooks.com/2012/08/29/a-sprouted-kitchen-feast/ Heaven! Thank you. Great to hear from you again.
I love pizza and make my own at least once a week! I have one word to describe your pizza…SEXY!
Haha, I love it. Thanks 🙂 And I know, is there anything better than homemade pizza?
I ran across your pin about the baking steel & decided to do a little research. My dad owned a pizzeria in Decatur, IL back in the late 70s, early 80s & his recipes were from his dad who owned a pizzeria in Chicago in the 1940s. Thin & crispy Chicago style pizza is a family favorite & though we have awesome sauce & sausage recipes, getting a crispy crust was a challenge. I ended up ordering a pizza steel from Dough-Joe Pizza Steel through Amazon. Arriving 5 days later from South Dakota to my home in Glendale, Arizona I used my baking steel that night! (We had already planned our family pizza night & it arrived early!) I had already prepared a couple of different dough recipes from Pinterest to compare crispiness & flavor & couldn’t wait to try them with the baking steel…it was incredible how our pizzas came out! I wish my Dad was still with us to enjoy that evening & pizza as much as we did! So thank you Alexandra for making our weekly family tradition of pizza making with fantastic homemade pizza just like we made at my Dad’s pizzeria!
Yay! Julie, I’m so happy to hear this. I have been so happy with my Baking Steel. I am dying to get the stovetop griddle model. Thank you for sharing your dad’s and grandfather’s story — how amazing! Good pizza making is in your blood! Glad you have a Steel now to help you along 🙂
Hi Alexandra,
I’ve been following your website for a while now. Love all your recipes and pictures. In fact, your posts on the Baking Steel inspired me to get one about a year ago. We love making pizza with it. Right now, we use a gas oven when making pizza. We are moving in the spring to a house that has an electric oven. Do you have a gas or an electric oven? Just wondering if using a different type of oven will have a different end result with our pizza. Thanks!
Natalie
Thank you for your kind words, Natalie! So happy to hear you’ve been liking your Steel. I have an electric oven — would kill for a gas oven 🙂 — but it works just fine overall, and I haven’t noticed anything different in regard to the Steel. When I first bought the Steel, I had a gas oven, so I’ve used both, and it works well in both. Let me know if there is anything else!
Hi, Just curious to know why you would like to have a gas oven. Do you mean gas cooktop/electric oven or all gas? I’ve been reading a lot about dual-fuel vs. gas ranges etc. because we may have to replace the range in the house we will move into. Some people like electric for baking and others like gas for roasting/broiling. There is so much info and so many opinions out there, that I think I’m driving myself crazy! I sent a message to Andris @ the Baking Steel and he said he had both types of ranges in his kitchen but preferred his gas range/broiler for the pizza. I’m glad to hear that electric ovens also yield a good result as well. Thanks again for your reply.
Hi Natalie,
I prefer gas for a cooktop — I find it easier to control the temperature of gas than electric, and I feel (though this isn’t scientific) it heats things faster.
That said, every oven (within reason) is workable — it’s really a matter of getting familiar with how it behaves. I’ve never purchased an oven — I’ve always used whatever has been in the house when we arrived. I think for the most part I’ve always had electric ovens though I may have had a gas broiler at one point. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the tip on the parchment paper. That is a game-changer in terms of getting the pizza in and out cleanly and not coating your kitchen in flour and cornmeal.
It has made pizza making in my house so much less of a hassle. Glad you agree 🙂
Made this pizza tonight on a stone using parchment paper (pizza steel ordered today). The parchment stuck so badly that we had to throw all the pizza away. It was especially sad because the crust looked amazing! Really want to figure how to get this right. I did start with very soft/wet dough (followed recipe exactly). Not sure how I would manage to get this dough onto stone or steel without parchment. Any suggestions?
oh no!! I’m so sorry to hear this. So, I have been noticing something myself regarding parchment paper and that is that it is becoming less nonstick. I don’t know if companies are changing their “formula” but I have had parchment paper stick to bread and to brownies when I used to have no trouble at all — any food would immediately release from it. I am going to look into it because the parchment paper with pizza truly is a godsend when it works — wet dough should not be an issue. Every pizza dough I make is with a wet dough. If you want to try something else, however, I would use cornmeal or flour. What’s unfortunate about cornmeal or flour is that any left behind on the steel or stone burns. But, that’s preferable than having to throw away your pizza. I’m so sorry about this. Will report back.