Give Your Frozen Pizza A Restaurant-Quality Crunch With This Tool

A frozen pizza is almost always an easy, delicious treat when we're not feeling up to cooking. And yet, it rarely stacks up to restaurant pizza, especially when it comes to the crust. In our experience, it seems like it's always either rock hard or soggy. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to upgrade your frozen pizza's crust, and you don't even need a fancy new oven or specialty ingredient to do it.

For restaurant-quality pizza crust, what you really need is a pizza stone. A pizza stone is a large, flat item made from different materials, ranging from ceramic to cast iron. After it's heated up — refer to the instructions, but most take between 30 to 60 minutes to heat — simply lay the pizza on the stone in the oven. During the cooking process, the stone absorbs heat and distributes it evenly across the surface. Since it's porous, moisture beneath evaporates instead of getting trapped and making the pizza soggy. Your pizza also cooks more evenly, giving you that perfect restaurant-worthy crunchy crust even with a frozen specimen.

The pizza stone in its modern form was invented in the 1970s by the late Chicago restaurant critic Pat Bruno, who was inspired by watching celebrity chef Julia Child. Apparently, while making a pizza, Child noted that it might cook better on a stone surface, an offhand remark that intrigued Bruno and led him to create the pizza stone. It was a success; by the 1980s, pizza stones were increasingly available in stores and catalogues nationwide.

Using a pizza stone is relatively simple, but that doesn't mean there aren't mistakes you can make if you aren't careful. For starters, a pizza can stick to the stone, which can lead to it breaking apart when you try to take it out of the oven. There are different ways to prevent this, but we recommend you avoid using parchment paper under your pizza since it can make the crust soggy. Instead, dust a bit of cornmeal or flour onto the stone before sliding the frozen pizza on top (if the pizza doesn't come with that addition already).

Before you start cooking, the pizza stone must be preheated. If you put a cold pizza stone straight into a hot oven, it can crack. Instead, place the stone in the oven when you start preheating and let it come up to temperature with the appliance.

Once you're done using your pizza stone, be sure to clean it correctly (once it's cooled down, of course). Since it's porous, soap can get trapped inside the stone and affect the flavor of future pizzas. To avoid soapy pizza, clean your stone with baking soda. Simply make a baking soda paste by mixing it with water and scrub your pizza stone with a soft brush. Then, wipe it clean and let the stone air dry. It's true that you'll never get some stains out of a pizza stone, but baking soda is still the best way to keep your stone clean without ruining it or your future frozen pizzas.