Substitute for cornmeal to keep pizza dough from sticking to stone

[murphlaw152]

Just received a pizza stone as a gift. It specifically states: "Do not use sprays or oils on the stone. Dust the stone with cornmeal to keep dough from sticking". From what I understand, seasoning stoneware requires some oil/fat. I'm allergic to corn so I tried to do without the cornmeal, and my dough did stick. The next time around, I tried to flour the bottom a little more but it came out strange. Any suggestions to keep my dough from sticking to the stone?

A friend has a wood burning pizza oven and I use it quite often, never needing to use cornmeal or sprays or anything. When I make pizza at home, I just throw it on a lightly sprayed sheet.

[whinendine]

We used to use cornmeal, but it makes a big mess. We are now just using plain all-purpose flour.

[ipsedixit]

Rice

[murphlaw152]

I do heat my oven to 550 and let the stone sit on the lowest rack for about 45 minutes. Supposedly this brand of pizza stone is "cheap" and made in China and Williams-Sonoma reports that many customers have had issues with dough sticking even with cornmeal. I'll try semolina (don't know why I didn't think of that) and if I'm still having issues, I think I'm going to purchase a better quality stone from King Arthur Flour or perhaps look into the Emile Henry stone. Thank you so much for the suggestions!

Does the parchment paper not interfere at all with the pizza's crispness or flavor? Again, I'm not used to working with a pizza stone but I know pizza dough certainly benefits from that direct cooking. That's the only reason I thought I shouldn't use a barrier like parchment paper. But I can certainly give it a try. Thank you, again!

[sandylc]

As mentioned above, you can pull out the parchment paper once the dough is set.

Two expensive stones cracked for me before I discovered a really thick one for about 10 bucks in a strange little cooking store we discovered while driving through Green Bay, Wisconsin.

[Puffin3]

I've had my third pizza stone for a few years. (Others have broken the first two). I leave it in the oven. Now the stone has a black shiny surface and nothing sticks to it. If you want to make this happen quickly just rub some olive oil and salt on the stone, crank up the heat to max. Do this a few times and you'll have a 'non-stick' stone that never needs any corn whatever etc. I could write a book on tips for making excellent pizzas but not today.

[lcool]

Allergic to corn here.
Semolina works as does using the stone to bake tostadas and biscuits for "seasoning",which you shouldn't need if the stone is hot enough.

[twyst]

Semolina flour

[MonMauler]

Agreed. Semolina flour and cornmeal are the best and most authentic for keeping pizza dough from sticking. I use them to keep the dough from sticking to my pizza peel. I've only rarely tried to transfer the dough to the stone without semolina or cornmeal, but even then I've never had an issue with the pizza sticking to the stone after cooking.

A lot of pizza making friends go the parchment paper route, as mentioned upthread, and I can attest to the ease with which you can transfer the pizza to the stone and remove the pizza from the stone. Plus, cleanup is a breeze.

If you are having the cooked pizza stick to the stone, though, I think you probably aren't cooking at a high enough temperature or preheating the stone long enough. I always cook pizza in my traditional oven at maximum temperature, which, for me, is 500F. Also, I preheat the stone for an hour or longer before baking the pie. Please note that you should put the cold stone in the cold oven and then start the oven. Also, once finished, the stone needs to cool to manageable temp in the oven before you remove it to rinse or cool it further. Otherwise, you could risk cracking the stone.

[sandylc]

Everythinng that MonMauler said. Semolina, cornmeal, and parchment are all acceptable for pizza-making with a stone. I have been using parchment more lately just for expediency; you can slip the parchment out a few minutes into the baking time if you like, after the crust has begun to cook.

I keep my stone in the oven all of the time. I preheat it at 550 degrees for one hour to bake pizza.

Spray grease can be a lovely thing, but never use it on your pizza stone. Additionally, it will mess up your baking sheets if it gets sprayed on a area that gets baked without any food on it, such as in cookie-baking. Oils or parchment are better for baking sheets.

[cheesecake17]

Bake something with fat in it, like cookies on the stone. Then use it for pizza and the pizza won't stick

[juliejulez]

Can you put a sheet of parchment paper between the stone and the pizza?

[pikawicca]

That's what I do. Put the pizza on a piece of parchment on top of your peel. Slide the pie, paper and all onto the stone. Works great.