About two years ago (2005) when I wanted to buy new pizza pans I made the decision to buy two Pampered Chef large pizza stones. At first I was hesitant as to how, exactly to season and then later clean them as I knew I wasn't to use soap and water on them, but I forged ahead and?
Never regretted it for a moment!
I love my pans and they are used almost daily.
Now, I will admit that about once every 2 months I do use a little tiny bit of soap and hot water to wash it or if I've cooked something that left it heavily greased or dirty or I just feel the need to give it a little scrub; but other than that I use the scraper that came with it and it's scraped clean, followed with a
hot water scrub and put back in the oven to dry.
So! After a year or two of heavy use, what does a Pampered Chef stone look like?
Dark brown!
'Well seasoned' pans mean they have acquired a natural non-stick surface so you can cook anything on them and it will not stick, even without any extra oils or sprays. (You never want to use sprays on your stoneware!!!!! It is not the same as using canola, vegetable or olive oil! Only use real oils. The sprays like Pam leave a baked on sticky dark mess that is not going to achieve a non-stick surface!).
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appetizers on very dark brown Pampered Chef stones
I don't even remember where I heard it, but I remember a woman saying she accidentally left her Pampered Chef stoneware in her oven when she put it on a self-clean cycle and when it finished they were completely back to looking like new!
I was impressed but dubious. The next couple times I cleaned my oven, I didn't have the guts to try it.
What if they cracked? Those pans are expensive! I didn't want to take the chance. However, you can guess what might have happened.
Last Thursday I realized I was going to be home for 2 hours at a time (not an easy feat in this busy household of teens and pre-teens) so I quickly locked the oven door and hit 'clean'. Only about 20 minutes later did I realize I left the racks and pampered chef pans inside. I decided it was now time to try.
About an hour into the cycle the oven was hot enough to start the spilled grease on the bottom on fire to burn off. It was directly under one of my pans and I was scared the heat would crack my pan. I panicked. I turned the oven off. I let it cool down and removed the pans only to find them covered in thick black soot.
Oh... what to do!?
I put them back in.
I turned the oven back on.
I left my husband in charge of staying home while the oven cleaned, and I left the house to run errands.
When I returned hours later I waited for the oven to cool down so I could unlock the door.
What did I find?
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Perfect Pampered Chef pans - almost exactly like new!
It worked! The photo above isn't a great one but it's one I snapped quickly and the sun is shining on them. I simply removed the pans from the oven, wiped them down with water and wash cloth to remove any ash from the cleaning process and they are beautiful. Back to their original 'light' color and perfectly clean.
I do have to season them again, but I found the easiest way to do that is to make veggie squares using canned crescent rolls and the fat from the pastry coupled with the high heat seasons the pans quickly and easily.
UPDATE: It's now November, 2009 and I wanted to take a moment to update my readers to say I still own these same two Pampered Chef Pizza Stones and yes... I still clean them this way. They are 'washed' with hot water in between uses if they need it, and then, roughly every 4-6 months I will leave them in the oven as I run a self-cleaning cycle.
UPDATE: It's now October of 2015 and I STILL HAVE AND USE THESE SAME PANS.
Yes. Same pans. They are now almost 11 years old - used often - and cleaned in the self-cleaning oven about once or twice a year. I never need to 'season' them - even when they come out of the self-clean process and are back to clear gray stone - I can bake on them immediately and nothing sticks as they've been used for so many years.
UPDATE: 2017 and yes... I still have these same two pans. Still used. Still cleaned by leaving them in during a cleaning cycle.
**Note - if YOU are not comfortable cleaning your stones this way, please don't do so.
This is just how I do it - and have cleaned them this way at least twice a year for over a decade and will continue to do so as long as I own them. But I'm telling anyone else to do it this way. Just sharing what works for me and I'm glad that years and years (and years) ago I got this tip from someone else.
April 2021 and yes, I still have the same stoneware and - yes I still clean them this way and - yes, they are still just as awesome as they were 16 years ago. Usually they are just scraped clean with the little plastic scraper, but if I've made something on them that I need to do a light washing, I do. But normally they are just scraped, put back in the oven where they 'live' full time and still are cleaned in the self-cleaning cycle about twice a year.
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