Gift for a pizza lover?

[suribear]

I have to buy a gift for a close friend who LOVES pizza. She was eyeing my pizza pan and cutter (believe it or not, she doesn't have one!) so I thought that was the perfect gift..
The only thing is, we have a $15 limit.
I found a pizza stone kit with a cutter. I was wondering if anyone has used a pizza stone before - it sounds like it might be high maintenance. I was originally going to get a nonstick pizza pan, but the stone looked interesting.

Any input?

Kris

[Rachels]

They're wonderful! :)

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02


"When you know better, you do better."
Maya Angelou

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_sapphire_24m.gif Two years and counting!

[August Mom]

We like ours. They aren't hard to maintain at all. Go for it!

[KrisM]

We have a stone, but prefer the metal pan instead. I don't remember the reasons, but we gave the stone a try for a while. We make pizza every Saturday for dinner.

[nwaddellr]

We LOVE our pizza stone. And there's really no maintenance to it at all. You just kind of brush/scrape off anything stuck to it after using and before you load it up again. As an extra added bonus, you should keep the pizza stone in the oven all the time, and it helps to regulate temperature changes in the oven (keeping them more steady throughout the oven and therefore baking items much more evenly). Then, just pull out the stone when you're ready to use it. Scrape off any burnt items, and pizza away. The stone won't necessarily look pretty after a while, but it makes a great pizza.

[babymama]

Pizza stones are great!!! I received a $15-$17 pizza stone set as a gift 3 years ago. It took me 2 years to actually use it, but now I really like it! There are a couple of downsides: the stone has to warm with the oven, otherwise it will break. So as the oven and stone pre-heat together, I prepare the pizza (roll out the dough, put on toppings) on a cutting board and try to transfer it onto the stone once the stone is hot. As you can imagine, it is very difficult getting the soggy pizza dough with all the toppings already on it from one place to another. It looks bad, but tastes SOOOOO yummy. I use a recipe from Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals cookbook (volume 2, I think). Her recipe says you may also use a perforated pizza pan. Maybe that;s an alternative to get you down to your gift giving limit?

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03

[brubeck]

This set is $15 at Target (and so within your limit).

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-7719331-9667850?asin=B0000VUWRA&AFID=Yahoo&ref=tgt_adv_XPYD0100

[suribear]

This is the one I saw:
http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1356042

It has something called a peel. Looks like a chopping board to me LOL but I'm wondering if that would help with the transfer of the dough to the stone. I'm not sure how it would help. Does anyone know?

It sounds a little tricky.

This is for a gift exchange, hence the price limit.

Kris

[babymama]

I think that cutting board/peel would work to helpwith the transfer, especially with a generous amount of cornmeal tossed onto it and added to the dough.

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03

[nwaddellr]

You can also preheat the stone, pull it out of the oven, and quickly build the pizza on the hot stone. Not as technically correct as using a peel to move the premade pizza onto the hot stone, but it still works and you don't need another gadget (unless you want one, and that's a different story.)

[houseof3boys]

I like my pizza stone, but don't love it. I will have to break it out and give it another shot after reading this thread. I do however think a good cutter is indispensable! I use mine all of the time for stuff other than pizza too. :)

What a nice gift idea, btw.