In The Kitchen: Baking Steel Pro

Over the past few years, I've been getting into pizza-making at home. I'd started years ago with the occasional homemade pizza on a pizza stone in the oven, and it was OK, but never seemed worth the effort.

Then a few years ago, my family got me an Ooni Fyra wood pellet oven for Christmas, which got me further into the process. We'd have periodic pizza parties with friends, and I'd churn out a dozen pizzas for the group. Inevitably, one or two would fail in the process (either charred because I got distracted during the cook, since you have to turn it every 30 seconds, or doughy because I fell behind feeding the wood pellets to keep the temperature up), but I basically planned for that and it was still pretty easy. I still wasn't great at shaping the pizzas, but nobody in attendance really cared.

But given I'm in Pennsylvania, the Fyra is good for about 6 months of the year. So this past Christmas I asked for a Baking Steel Pro to try and fill that gap. And I have to say, even though it weighs more than many gym weights, it more than performs when making pizza.

While the cook times are more in the 7-8 minute range, rather than the 2-3 in the Fyra, my results have been much more consistent, even in my old electric oven. Granted, I've used the opportunity to refine my dough recipes by making pizzas almost weekly in 2026, but it really creates a nice, well-cooked NY-style pizza, like the below for example:

If you enjoy making homemade pizza, and want an indoor option that isn't overly expensive and still produces outstanding results, I highly recommend picking one up.