We’ve had our fair share of boxed frozen pizza on lazy nights, but it just doesn’t compare to the real deal. Stone or convection oven-baked pizza is far more delicious and a lot easier to make than you’d think with the help of a few useful pizza-making tools.
Do you want to make stone-baked pizza a reality at home?
An outdoor pizza oven makes some of the best pizza we’ve ever tasted. The wood-fired oven reaches very high temperatures, giving you a crispy, bubbly pizza crust that is enough to make anyone drool. If you don’t have a pizza oven at home or lack outdoor space, you can also use a handy convection oven.
Outdoor ovens are pretty easy to use and maintain, but you’ll need a little help. A few handy pizza oven tools make the job a lot easier and the evening much more enjoyable – pizza night should be fun, not a ton of extra work!
Look below for all the pizza-making tools you’ll need to elevate your pizza parties to the next level!
10 Best Pizza Oven Accessories & Tools
#1 Pizza Peel
One of the first pizza tools you need is a pizza peel.
- The pizza peel is a long, wooden-handled paddle,like this,that slides the pizza in and out of the super-hot wood oven without burning your fingers.
- The surface is very flat and smooth so that a raw pizza slips off easily without tugging and sticking – and without sending your ingredients flying!
#2 Heat-Resistant Oven Gloves
A wood-fired pizza oven reaches up to 800°F, enough to make anyone nearby feel like their face is melting off!
Choose a pair of gloves that will cover both your hands and forearms for ample heat and fire protection, with grips on the hands for ultimate control of the pizza peel as you use it to transfer the pizza. One slip can ruin an entire pizza in record time!
#3 Ash Rake
Heating an outdoor pizza oven is a little more complicated than turning on your oven with the push of a button – you have to take the time to build a wood fire inside the oven and let it heat to prepare for each pizza-baking session.
- An ash rake is a handy tool to push the cinders and ash and clear an area on the bottom of the oven once heated for the pizza to cook.
- An ash rake provides double duty and can help make clean-up afterward much more manageable.
#4 Cutting Board
You’ll want a large cutting board with your pizza supplies for easy cutting of each cheesy pizza pie.
We prefer using a large wood-slab board, as it fits pizzas of almost every size and won’t melt under the hot heat of the fresh-from-the-oven pizza.
#5 Pizza Cutter
One of the most crucial pizza utensils is the pizza cutter!
- Try a stainless steel wheel cutter to roll through the crispy dough with ease.
- For the best cutting results, let your pizza sit for a few minutes on your cutting board to cool.
- Waiting makes the cutting process less messy and keeps more of your toppings on top of the pizza, not the cutting board.
#6 Pizza Dough Roller
Rolling out dough can be challenging work that’s made much easier with the help of one pizza accessory: the pizza dough roller.
Using a dedicated pizza roller over a regular rolling pin will save your wrists and make rolling out uneven parts of the dough a breeze.
Bonus: You can use this roller to roll out all sorts of other dough, too!
#7: Oven Brush
An ash rake helps to push ashes out of the way as you cook and clean up your oven, but cleaning is even more straightforward with a long-handled pizza oven brush that can get all of the tiny particles of ash and stuck-on pizza grime off the stone base.
Get a brush with brass or copper bristles, which get the job done without scratching the stone, brick, or ceramic.
#8 Ash Can
Find a can to hold your pizza oven ash that you can easily access as you cook and clean up.
The potential for ash burning in a can is all too real, so stay away from anything flammable – we use a galvanized metal trash can with a lid so that the ash can’t float away, causing a mess or potential fire elsewhere.
Once cooled, try using this naturally mineral-rich ash as fertilizer!
#9 Pizza Stone
If you’re making pizza in a conventional oven, you can use a pizza stone to get a similar effect to that of a wood-burning one.
Simply place your pizza stone in the oven as it preheats, as the stone needs to heat up slowly to prevent cracking.
A pizza stone makes clean-up much easier afterward, too.
#10 Pizza Bubble Popper
If you’re not a fan of some of the monster pizza bubbles common in wood-fired pizza, you can get a pizza bubble popper, which pops the air bubbles as they form during the cooking process.
Using a bubble popper will improve a pizza’s consistency, appearance and help it cook more evenly.
What Is the Best Thing to Cook a Pizza on?
You don’t need a massive yard to enjoy wood-fired pizza. There are plenty of small, portable pizza ovens on the market that don’t take up much space while they get the job done.
- You can find outdoor pizza ovens that are both gas and wood-fire powered, and both give great results! We love the smokiness and sky-high temperatures of a wood-fired option, but gas provides a little more convenience – no need to build a fire in a gas oven!
- For indoor pizza baking options, opt for an electric pizza maker that you can place right on the countertop, or try a pizza stone in your oven – switch to the convection setting if your oven has the option.
- A convection toaster oven can make a dynamite pizza too, and some even come with their own pizza stone accessories for just that purpose!
Final Note: How to Make Pizza in a Pizza Oven
Now that you have all the pizza stuff you’ll need, we have a few tips to make wood-fired pizza-making a breeze.
- Once you finish making your dough, let it rise as you heat your oven.
- Build a fire in the center of the oven, and watch white soot form patches on the inside of the oven – the oven is ready when the soot burns off.
- Use your ash rake to push the ashes out of the way, then lift the prepared pizza with your pizza peel.
- Carefully and evenly walk the pizza on the peel over to the oven, then place your prepared pizza in the center of the oven, adding sticks to the fire every 10 minutes or so. The crust cooks immediately, so slip the peel under the pie and rotate it 180° after 45 seconds.
- The pizza will be ready in 60-90 seconds, so be prepared to eat your fresh, hot from the oven, classic pizza pie in just a few short minutes!