Pampered Chef Stoneware Pizza Pan Review #kissinthecook

I love to bake, but hate traditional pans.  I refuse to use anything plastic or silicone if it's going to get hot or go in the oven.  I also am not a fan of aluminum.  So the question remained of what do you use for baking then!?

The only options I had found were glass, cast iron, or stoneware.  I use glass routinely for casserole dishes and loaf pans, but have never seen a glass pizza pan before.  I love cast iron for cooking on the stove or over an open fire, but yet again have never seen a cast iron pizza pan.  I had heard of stoneware but actually did not own any. . . until now!

I recently received to review a stoneware size medium pizza pan from Pampered Chef.  This is actually my first item that I've ever owned that is Pampered Chef as well!  Yes I'm a little excited if you couldn't tell!  Must add here that Pampered Chef is having a sale this month for some of their stoneware including these pans!  20% off!!

The medium round stone with handles(love these curved handles) retails at $25.00 and is a 13 inch pan so it worked perfectly with my new Core Bamboo pizza cutting board.  The stone is easy to care for as you just have to wipe it off.  It seasons easily.  For the first use a light coat of oil, and afterwards nothing is needed.  The darker the pan the better the season.  Instead of scrubbing the stone it comes with a small scraper(like a spatula but with no handle) that you can use to get any excess food off and then wipe clean with a warm cloth.

I had looked into other stoneware pizza pans, but they required preheating which to me was too time consuming.  I cook for a family of 10 and we eat a lot.  When I made our "pizza party" we went through 4 pizzas with no leftovers.  With each pizza baking for 20 minutes and that not including the prep time you can imagine how long it takes to feed everyone.  I don't have the extra time to make sure the pan reaches a certain temperature before putting the pizza on it to bake.

I loved cooking with this pan.  I would use it, it would cool slightly while I made another crust and then wallah!  New pizza in the oven.  The pizzas were wonderful!  No burnt, no overdone, perfect hand done crust everytime!  There is no learning curve with this pan which I found wonderful.  It cleans easily and is low maintenance.  You do need to be careful with it as it could break.  I really loved the handles for helping me get it in and out of the oven.

I highly recommend the Pampered Chef pan and think you should check them out!  Oh and don't forget to enter my giveaway where you can enter to win one of you own plus other goodies to make your own pizza party!

Pin It Now!

Core Bamboo Ultimate Pizza Set Review #kissinthecook

I love to make pizza and my kids love to eat it!  I was super excited with one of my latest review items from Core Bamboo!  It's called the Ultimate Pizza Set and includes a bamboo pizza cutting board with pizza cutter and server!

Core Bamboo creates wonderful pieces of art that are usable in the kitchen.  Yes kitchen tools, to me, are forms of artwork.  Someone crafted them to make them not only functional but appealing to the eye which makes them art.  These pieces are created from 100% organic bamboo.  I found it interesting that the lacquer used on these pieces comes from natural cashew trees!  How wonderful is that?!  All of their seals, adhesives, and oils are food safe so you don't have to worry about what horrible chemicals you are putting in your mouth from the cutting board.  You'll find a vast array of fine products on their website.

We decided to have a pizza night at our house and try it out!  We made four pizzas total and all were cut on this neat new cutting board!  It has grooves to help you cut even slices every time as well.  This is a good thing for me because I couldn't cute  a straight line if my life depended on it!  The grooves cut rather large pieces so I used them and then cut each piece in half.  It is supposed to make 6 slices per pizza, but we did 12 as we cut them in half.  With 8 little kids eating ravenously it helps to have at least one piece per child per pizza.

This has got to be my favorite pizza board ever!  Great quality, sturdy, and I love that it sets up a bit from the table or counter you have it on.  It does not tip or try to move while cutting pizza which again is awesome!  I am in love.  It wipes clean very easily as well which makes using it repeatedly(as we do with having to make more than one pizza for a meal) easier without leaving a lot of leftover pieces on the board.

As you can see the pizza above looks good and cut wonderfully!  I'm in love with the server as well.  I must confess I will most likely steal it to help serve pie too. It's the perfect size!

The Ultimate pizza set retails for $42.00 on the Core Bamboo site and was featured in the September 2012 issue of EveryDay with Rachel Ray.  It is made of 100% organic bamboo.  Due to this it of course should not be allowed to soak in water or run through the dishwasher.  The 14.2 inch diameter makes it perfect for a medium sized pizza.  My pampered chef medium stoneware worked perfectly on this cutting board.  Almost as if they were made for each other!

I can see pizza becoming more of a staple in our household.  It is definitely much easier to cut and serve now and who doesn't like using pretty and practical things?  I love the color and soft feel(can you describe wood as soft, well it feels that way) as well as how smooth this board is.  The pizza cutter is sharp and as such you don't feel like you're tearing the pizza instead of cutting.  It follows the groove wonderfully and hardly needed any guidance from my hand.  The server worked well for me and was the perfect size for our half a large piece sizes.  

Make sure to hop over and enter my giveaway where you could win your own Ultimate Pizza Set as well as several other great prizes!  

Pin It Now!