Originally Posted by
lili
This is undoubtedly okay, but I'm a wimp about spraying a water gun into my electric oven Just seems wrong and makes my hands shake thinking about it.
The internet, where everything is true, also has lots of "advice" about never washing your pizza/bread stone because it will absorb the water then crack/explode when heated. Bad science probably, but I'm not taking chances. Scrubbed and scraped the stone for a long time yesterday after a failed pizza attempt and it's now set aside to dry for a week or so. Just in case.
The pizza stone improves as it conditions. It is absorbant. It is the debris on it that is a part of it's conditioning process. High heat makes it safe. Washing it simply starts the conditioning process from start again, presuming - and hoping - retained water doesn't cause it to split / break. Pizza stones should never be washed.
I'm confused because you seem to want to use the stone to produce steam for pizza? You don't want this - you want dry very intense heat for pizza.
If you want a crisp base for your pizza and are having problems then roll it out on semolina. Ensure you heat the stone for a good hour - possibly using the grill which you can then revert to high oven for cooking the pizza.
If you want steam for bread then using a fine garden mist sprayer for injecting a small amount of steam is unlikely to cause you problems - but you will need a bit more steam for the first 5 to 10 minutes of baking, using the methods previously described.
Good luck.