13 Surprising Alternative Uses for Your Pizza Stone

Pizza stones are a must-have kitchen tool for the home pizza maker. Designed to help you achieve the perfect crust, the pizza stone is incredible at mimicking a classic brick-oven environment. Even if you’re not making pizza every day though, a pizza stone is very versatile and can be a valuable and unexpected tool in the kitchen for more than just pizza.

Pizza stones are flat, heavy heat-retaining slabs typically made of ceramic, stone, or cordierite. They are great for both pizzas and other baking projects, because of their ability to absorb and retain heat. Pizza stones are affordable and pretty easy to use, but there are a few helpful tips you should know to get started. Always preheat the stone in a cold oven, allowing both the oven and stone to warm up together to prevent cracking. Pizza stones must be properly preheated to be effective, so allow them to sit in the hot oven for 30 minutes to an hour for the best results. It is important to clean your pizza stone properly for sustained usage. Because the stone is porous, it can absorb odors, so avoid using soap on it. Instead, remove any residue and wipe clean with water. Whether you’re considering investing in a stone of your own or looking for inspiration for one that’s been collecting dust in your pantry, we’re here to prove the pizza stone is an incredibly versatile tool that can be used in myriad unexpected ways.

Pizza pies aren’t the only pie you can make on your pizza stone. Sweet pies, especially ones with juicy, fruity fillings, also benefit from the magic of the stone. One common issue with fruit pies is that their delicious, syrupy interior can get absorbed by the crust, resulting in a soggy bottom. Baking the pie on top of a pizza stone helps to solve that problem by concentrating and evenly distributing heat to the bottom of your pie. You can also help prevent a soggy filling by par-cooking your fruit first.

This technique also works if the recipe calls for par-baking the crust. Follow the instructions as normal, placing the baking pan on the pizza stone instead of the oven rack, and watch as your crust is made even crispier, more sturdy, and delicious. If you even have any leftovers, the pizza stone can also be useful for evenly reheating your pie. Simply heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and place the cooked pie on the preheated stone until heated through. Heating the pie up on your pizza stone will ensure an extra crispy crust even on the second day.

Have you ever considered making your own chips or crackers at home? If you have, you’ll know it can be challenging to get a consistent crunch, with some crackers burning and others ending up undercooked. The pizza stone helps to solve this problem by retaining and evenly distributing heat to ensure crispy and consistently uniform cracker results every time.

To use this cracker technique, preheat your pizza stone for 30 to 45 minutes at the temperature specified in your cracker recipe. Right before baking, place a sheet of parchment paper on the stone to ensure the crackers don’t stick. Then, roll out your cracker dough and arrange the crackers on the stone. Bake according to the recipe instructions, and enjoy your delicious, crunchy, and perfectly cooked homemade crackers! This technique also works for homemade potato chips. Simply arrange the potato slices on parchment paper atop the preheated pizza stone and cook until crispy and golden.You’ll never make crackers or chips any other way again!

We likely all should be eating more vegetables, and roasting them is one of the best ways to improve their texture and add an extra depth of flavor. There are many mistakes keeping you from perfectly roasted vegetables, and one common pitfall is struggling to get an even cook. If you have ever struggled with this — constantly needing to stir veggies around the baking sheet or shifting the trays to different oven racks — you’re not alone. The pizza stone helps solve this problem by providing a more steady, heat distribution. By maintaining a high-temperature surface, it helps the vegetables develop a crispy exterior, while still staying tender inside.

Try this method by preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit with the stone inside. Allow the stone to sit in the oven for around 30 minutes total, then place a piece of parchment paper on the stone, and spread your oiled and seasoned vegetables on top. Allow them to cook for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown, flipping or tossing once about halfway through. You should be left with evenly roasted, tender vegetables attained with minimal effort.

Cooking steak in the oven is often paired with a preliminary stovetop sear to help achieve that caramelized exterior. Pizza stones let you eliminate that extra step and can help achieve that perfect sear in the oven. Cooking your steak on a pizza stone not only cooks your steak evenly, but will give it an incredible crust that rivals the best stovetop methods.

Begin by wrapping your pizza stone in aluminum foil. This will prevent the juices from the steak from seeping into the porous stone, which can cause cracking over time. Next, preheat the stone in a very hot oven — 450 degrees Fahrenheit — for 45 minutes to an hour. In the meantime, prepare your steak as you normally would, coating it in oil, seasoning it, and letting it rest for at least 10 minutes before cooking. Once the pizza stone is fully preheated, cook the steak for 5 minutes on each side to get it medium-well done; this timing can be adjusted for your preferences. You should be left with the most delicious, well-seared steak. Because of the high heat and delicious steak juices, be aware that this technique can cause your kitchen to get smokey, so make sure you have a window open or extra ventilation just in case.

S’mores are one of those classic, nostalgic treats that for many of us bring back memories of summers huddling around the campfire. Sometimes when the s’mores craving hits, though, starting up the bonfire or grill isn’t an option. Baking your s’mores on the pizza stone is an easy way to make this delicious and classic dessert for a crowd, even when you’re all cooped up indoors.

To use this technique, first make sure to wrap your pizza stone in a layer of aluminum foil to prevent it from getting covered with melted marshmallows and chocolate. Next, preheat your pizza stone and the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing the pizza stone to preheat for around 30 minutes. Once the stone is preheated, assemble your s’mores on it (if you’re feeling adventurous, try adding some secret ingredients for ridiculously good s’mores). You can crowd as many s’mores as you can fit on your pizza stone without worrying about it losing heat. Cook the s’mores for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on your desired doneness. These s’mores should cook quickly, and will even give your graham cracker a little extra crunch! You’ll be left with a delicious treat — no campfire needed!

Pizza stones are perfect for baking flatbreads, because the stone helps your oven mimic the high heat of traditional hearth ovens. Pita especially is traditionally made in a very hot oven. Making pita bread requires a preheated surface, as the pocket in the pita is created by the steam generated when the raw dough hits the heated surface. As you can probably guess, a pizza stone is perfect for this.

To bake pita bread on your pizza stone, prepare the dough according to your favorite recipe. Then, preheat the oven and the stone to 550 degrees Fahrenheit (or if the oven can’t get that hot, then just as hot as it will go) for 45 minutes to an hour to get it very hot. Once fully heated, simply place the rolled out dough directly onto the stone and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the pita puffs up and turns golden. If you’ve had issues with dough sticking to your stone in the past, you can also put down a sheet of high-heat-resistant parchment paper. Be sure to check the packaging though, as some standard parchment papers may burn at extreme temperatures.

There are many potential mistakes you can make when baking bread. If you’re still struggling to achieve that perfect, artisanal loaf, one technique you can try is baking it on a pizza stone. Cooking your bread on a pizza stone has been shown to create a better rise, creating a more delicious and holier bread structure.

For this technique, it is very important that your pizza stone is preheated well. Preheat it for 45 minutes to an hour at the temperature specified in your bread recipe. To help speed up this process, or just to get your stone even hotter, you can turn your oven higher than the eventual bread-baking temperature and then turn it back down once you add the bread.

While the oven and stone are preheating, place the dough on a piece of parchment paper and then place it on the stone. This will allow for easier transfer onto the stone, minimizing the amount of time your oven door stays open, keeping the oven as hot as possible. After baking, you should be left with a better rise, springier bread, and a delicious crunchy outer coating!

Who doesn’t love a quesadilla? Simple, customizable, and deliciously cheesy, the quesadilla might be one of the quickest and most versatile lunch or dinner options out there. The most unexpected way to cook a quesadilla might be on the pizza stone. Pizza stone quesadillas end up evenly toasted and incredibly melty. Plus, once the pizza stone is preheated, they come together pretty quickly.

First, preheat your oven and your pizza stone to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. While the stone is preheating, assemble your quesadilla with all of your favorite fillings. Once the stone is hot, place the open quesadilla directly on it and cook until the cheese is melted, about 2 minutes. After you’ve taken it out, simply fold the quesadilla closed and you should be left with a delicious, crispy, and melty meal — no flipping required! This is an especially great technique to use for feeding a crowd. Your guests can customize the quesadillas however they’d like, and since they cook so quickly, no one needs to wait too long for their food. This pizza stone hack is a win!

There are many pro-baker tricks to make your cookies taste more exciting. But let’s be honest, cookies are really never bad anyway. The pizza stone offers yet another hack, though, to level up your cookie recipe once it hits the oven. A hot pizza stone will help you achieve the cookie texture sweet spot, giving them a crisp bottom and exterior, while allowing the center to stay soft and get extra gooey.

Begin by preheating your oven and stone to the temperature on your recipe, allowing your stone at least 30 to 45 minutes to come up to temperature. Right before you put your cookies in, place a sheet of parchment paper onto the stone so none of the grease or toppings from your cookies seep into the porous material. Make sure to keep a careful eye on your first batch, because cooking them on the pizza stone will likely shave a couple minutes off your bake time, because the stone is hot. We want a crispy bottom, not a burnt one! When the cookies come out, give them some time to cool and set. Then, prepare to eat one of the most delicious cookies you’ve ever tried!

Bagels have to be among some of the best baked goods; somehow both chewy and firm at the same time — and a fun shape? What more could you want for breakfast? These days, making bagels yourself is easier than ever before, especially since the simplest bagels you’ll ever make only have two ingredients. Even with a great recipe, though, one difficult issue to overcome is that conventional home ovens can’t get as hot as the wood fire ones at professional bakeries. This is where the pizza stone comes in. Because pizza stones get preheated and retain heat, they not only give the bagels a hotter surface to bake on, but also raise the overall temperature of the oven. Similar to when you’re baking bread with a pizza stone, a hotter surface assists with a better rise and can lead to a crispier exterior.

Whip up your bagel recipe while preheating your oven and the stone to the temperature specified, allowing the stone to heat for at least 30 to 45 minutes. Before placing the bagels on the stone, lay a piece of parchment paper so they don’t stick.Cook the bagels for 3 to 5 minutes less than the baking time on the recipe, because the stone will be hotter than a standard baking pan. When you take them out, you’ll be left with an elevated homemade bagel! Top with classic cream cheese, or other bagel toppings you need to try ASAP and enjoy.

Roasting chicken in the oven is one of the simplest and most delicious ways to cook this healthy protein. Unfortunately, sometimes cooking it in the oven can take longer than the stove top, and the uneven heat from the oven can cause the chicken to cook inconsistently, leading to dryness. A pizza stone helps solve this issue by maintaining a steady surface temperature and distributing heat more evenly.

To use the pizza stone technique, preheat the oven and stone to 450 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 45 minutes to an hour.Once fully preheated, adjust the oven to whatever temperature the recipe you’re using calls for. Then, place the sheet pan with the chicken on top of the pizza stone and cook as normal, reducing the cooking time by 5 to 10 minutes. Preheating just the sheet pan isn’t as effective as using the stone, because it is made from a thinner material and will have more trouble retaining heat. Using this method, the chicken should not only get a crispy exterior skin, but also crisp on the bottom. Plus, with the chicken cooking quicker, the juices will be maintained. This technique works especially well with skin-on dark meat.

When reheating leftovers, most of us immediately turn to our trusty microwaves to get the job done. Some foods aren’t as conducive to the microwave though. Previously crispy or fried foods will get soggy or lose their texture if not reheated properly. The pizza stone is an unexpected tool for this job, but is, in fact, very effective at reheating foods and restoring crispiness and texture.

To reheat foods on your pizza stone, begin by preheating your stone for at least 30 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, place whatever food you want reheated on some parchment paper, so it doesn’t stick or leak oil into your stone. Once it’s on the stone, keep it in the oven until you reach the desired result, flipping if necessary. When you take them out, your leftovers should taste almost as good as they were when fresh!

Pizza stones are not just useful inside the oven. They also work well at keeping dishes warm at the table. We know by now that the pizza stone is amazing at retaining heat, and even when not in a hot oven, pizza stones will stay warm for a long period of time, making them the ideal tool for serving foods hot.

This hack is very straightforward — simply heat the pizza stone in the oven, then place it on a trivet or heat-resistant surface, with your foods in an oven safe dish on top. Whether you’re serving a family-style meal or putting out appetizers for a gathering, the stone will help maintain the food’s warmth. This is a great hack to use for longer parties where people are mingling around and helping themselves to snacks throughout the night. Just be sure to let your guests know the stone is hot to avoid accidental burns. Pizza stones are truly versatile and useful tools both inside and out of the oven.