What it Does:

Pizza stones are flat, heavy, unglazed stones that usually come in either round or rectangular shapes. Their main advantage is that they help to distribute the heat of the oven evenly to your pizza or other baked good, and their porous nature helps to absorb excess moisture creating a crisper crust.

Problem It Solves:

Like many people, I thought it would be fun to create my own pizzas at home.

I began my homemade pizza adventure using a cookie sheet to lay out the dough. But I found that the pizza cooked unevenly, leading to dried-out toppings with unevenly cooked crusts.

Why I Love It:

I'm happy that homemade pizza is more crispy, but I also love the many versatile uses I've found for it.

Best Kitchen Uses:

Baking stones have many uses. They're great for heating up frozen foods. They're also terrific for cooking puff pastry appetizers or desserts, croissants, baking bread, or even baking cookies. The heat is distributed so evenly that your puff pastry and cookies never burn on the bottom while the top is still cooking. A preheated stone is even useful for keeping a purchased pizza warm once you've brought it home! If you decide to use your stone to cook frozen food, make sure the food is very evenly distributed across the surface to prevent cracking.