Have you started to get really into making pizza as of late? It can be a lot of fun to hone your craft and there’s nothing quite like a homemade pizza.
However, many people have noted that it isn’t so simple to get things perfect if you don’t have a pizza stone. You might love making pizzas, but that doesn’t mean that you want to have to invest in a pizza stone to get the best results.
If your desire is to get crispy pizza crust, then you might need to look at some important tips. It isn’t always easy to achieve crispy pizza crust without a pizza stone, but there are ways to make it happen.
Keep reading to get the best advice for making pizza with a crispy crust that will really be satisfying. You’ll learn how to go about things and should be able to proceed with confidence.
1 – Use a Baking Sheet Inverted
Do you have some normal baking sheets in your kitchen somewhere? Typically, these baking sheets are going to have a rim and you don’t want that.
Thankfully, there is a way to get around this that will allow you to make your pizza how you want. Just flip the baking sheet upside down and place it on the lowest rack of your oven that you can.
You’re going to bake the pizza on top of the baking sheet that has been inverted. This is going to allow the pizza to get the necessary heat that you are looking for. If you want to enjoy crispy pizza crust that will taste delicious, then this method should work nicely.
You’ll want to be careful trying to get it out of the oven, but it should be fine so long as you approach things carefully.
2 – Try a Cast Iron Pan
One option that you might not have thought of is to use a cast iron pan. Many people have cast iron pans that they use to make various things such as roasts in the oven. You can also use a large enough cast iron pan to make a pizza very effectively.
The best thing about using a cast iron pan to bake a pizza is that it gets nice and hot so that you can enjoy the crispy pizza crust that you’ve been dreaming of.
For the best results, you’re going to want to flip this one upside down, too. If the surface area is large enough, then you’ll have no problem baking a pizza on top of your cast iron pan.
It might be easier to get this out of the oven in some ways as well, since your pan likely has a handle that you’ll be able to pull out to safely grab your pizza once things are good to go.
Try this method if you know that you have a cast iron pan that is large enough to make this practical.
3 – Use Your Grill
Outside-the-box thinking will sometimes be rewarded with fantastic results. Grilling a pizza might seem like a strange idea when you first start to think about it, but it’s a great option when you don’t have an oven.
However, it’s very logical that a grill would be perfect for making a pizza with crispy crust. You can get the temperature up very high using your grill and it’ll make it simple to get that crispy crust that you’re going for.
Another good reason to consider using a grill is that you can make pizzas pretty fast this way. It doesn’t take that long to get your crust to become nice and crispy on the grill.
If you have a decent grill, then you should try this out for yourself. It should work fine whether you’re using propane or charcoal.
4 – Heavy Aluminum Pizza Pans
You could just invest in some good pizza pans instead of buying an expensive pizza stone. There are aluminum pizza pans that are heavier than baking sheets. They work well for making pizzas and some of them even have vents that will allow the crust to get hotter.
Try to find a good heavy aluminum pizza pan if you can and use that to make pizza with the right type of crispy crust.
If you are shopping for pizza pans, the big thing to remember is to try to avoid the nonstick pans. They aren’t going to work as good for getting the crispy crust that you want.
As long as you buy one with the air vents or one with a ridged design that helps airflow, you’ll be good to go. Making pizzas will be more fun than ever and your results will be superb.
5 – Baking Steel Is an Option
One final alternative to a pizza stone is to make use of baking steel. This is a sturdy type of steel that is meant for baking in ovens specifically. It actually has a large surface area and this might make it more convenient to use than a pizza stone in some ways.
For example, the surface area might be large enough for you to fit multiple pizzas on it at once.
If you’re going to want to bake two pizzas at once, then this is certainly worth a shot. These are so strong and rugged that you won’t have to worry about them breaking on you. The only problem with this idea is that you almost certainly don’t have one in your kitchen.
If you’re looking for a practical solution that you can use right now and you don’t want to spend much (if any) money, then turn to the other four ideas above.
Enjoy Your Pizza
Now that you have learned about the alternatives to using a pizza stone, it should be obvious that you’re going to be just fine. There are plenty of ways to bake or grill pizzas with crispy crusts. You just need to take the time to get it right and you’ll be enjoying some amazing dinners soon enough.
Try out whichever method you think is going to be the easiest and most fun for you to do so that you can have a good experience.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.