Pizza on the Baking Stone

Set ovens. In a clean oven, set lower oven to 500 with baking stone on middle shelf. Set upper oven to Proof.

Prepare parchment. Cut parchment slightly larger than stone and place on pizza peel / wooden paddle. Sprinkle cornmeal over parchment in desired shape of pizza.

Shape the dough. With floured hands, in the air work dough into a flat circle about 3/4 the size of desired pizza. Keep dough as a whole. Only stretch the dough, do not tear, and do not fold. Lay pizza in center of parchment. With hands, work dough to widen into full shape and to flatten between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. Make sure no section is bigger than 1/4. Pinch a circle of finger dimples around for a margin to well sauce before crust.

Proof during remainder of preheat. Remove from proofing when baking stone is at 500. On a winter day this took 40 minutes starting at 11:30AM.

Place sauce on pizza, cheese, and add toppings.

Bake at 500° for 10 minutes with pizza on parchment on the pizza stone or until cheese just begins to brown. Large oven gloves will help when positioning pizza on baking stone.