Homemade pizza - stone vs mesh trays?

[BabySnarkDoDoo]

We're trying to avoid eating so many takeaways, but pizza is a firm favourite with my DH who is a fussy eater. He doesn't like frozen pizzas, so I've been looking at trying the northern dough company frozen dough and adding my own toppings. I feel like getting the oven temperature right is a big part of a decent homemade pizza and it's something I've struggled with in the past.

I've tried the baking trays with holes in them previously, but found the pizzas just stick to them. I do have one on those circular mesh flexible trays which works well for reheating frozen pizzas, but I suspect homemade dough will just stick to them? Has anyone tried inexpensive pizza stones and are they worth it? Do you coat them with a little olive oil before adding the pizza.

Any tips on upping my homemade pizza game are greatly appreciated!

I make my own dough - this recipe www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/bread/quick-pizza-dough is super easy and doesn't need proving.

I found those trays with the holes in didn't work great. My best success has been with our combi oven, where I put the pizza on greaseproof paper and then straight on to the plate at the bottom and use a setting that heats the bottom of the oven, as hot as possible.

Obviously no good if you don't have a combi oven though! You might well have an oven setting for pizzas or similar though, so worth checking out. With our old oven, I used to use a flat tray, heat in the oven til it's hot, add the pizza (I'd put it on a sheet of greaseproof paper to stop it sticking) and then cook in as hot an oven as you can get.

Other thing is not too many toppings as they tend to make the base soggy. And squeeze your mozzarella if you're using a ball to get the liquid out before adding to your pizza!

Even a cheap pizza stone makes a huge difference to the quality of a homemade pizza, we wouldn't be without ours! The other thing that really helps is having a peel to get the pizza onto the stone quickly, so everything stays really hot. I think DH dusts it with flour or semolina first to stop the pizza sticking.

I regularly make pizza at home. I bake it in a cast iron pizza pan/shallow skillet. I make it hot on the stove, put the dough in with the tomato sauce and then place it in the oven. It bakes super quickly and it's perfect both on bottom and on top.
I agree the perforated/mesh pizza trays are just for reheating ready-made pizza.

I don't have either, but I have heard pizza steels can be as good as pizza stones and are more lightweight and can be cheaper. This article might be of interest. https://www.seriouseats.com/baking-steel-vs-baking-stone-6891373

A general tip though is to really preheat your oven and steel/stone, like minimum 30 minutes preheating at highest heat, not just waiting for the oven light to indicate it is up to temperature.

Thanks everyone. I've ordered an inexpensive pizza stone, so will experiment with your suggestions once it arrives

Can anyone reccomend a pizza stone? Something not too pricey and does the job

I tried making my sourdough bread in a stainless steel as dont have dutch oven they abit on the pricey side, the bread taste was great, but the bread took nearly an hour and the crust was ... let's just say I'm glad I didn't chip a tooth!

Thanks🙂

I tried an experiment a few weeks ago. We bough an Ooni pizza oven in the summer and I'd made dough that day to make garlic bread to have with dinner. But it tipped with rain. I thought "bollocks" and then I wondered if I could try to replicate the garlic bread in the oven...
i turned my oven on to its hottest temperature, turned the baking tray in the oven upside down and rolled out my pizza dough when it was hot, just like I would do to put in the Ooni. I put it on thr peel as normal and when it was ready I slid it onto the upturned baking tray. Don't oil it, just make sure the pizza base has flour enough to slide off the peel and it won't stick. I've got a cheap wooden peel I bought from Amazon which is brilliant. Wood is thr best surface to prepare your pizza on to prevent it sticking.
it was extremely successful as an experiment and was the next best thing to pizza made in the Ooni.
so I'd highly recommend it, the basic Ooni dough on their website is dead easy if you use easyblend yeast, you don't need to buy expensive dough ready made.