I invented the Baking Steel in 2012. Five years later I wrote a cookbook about it. I've sold over 12,000 copies and I still cringe every time I see the cover.
There. I said it.
The Baking Steel cookbook came out in 2017 through Little, Brown and Company. Real publisher, real advance, real book deal. And I'm proud of most of it. But the cover, I want to hide from it.
Here's the honest story.
I shot all the photos in the book myself. No professional photographer, no food stylist, just me in the kitchen making pizzas and figuring it out as I went. When it came time for the cover shot I had no real plan. I remember that day clearly, April 7th, 2017, a Friday. I was hungover. City of Stars (one of my favorite movies) was playing in the background. I made a kale pizza mostly as a filler frame, left some empty space at the top for the title. A throwaway shot on a throwaway morning.
Little Brown loved it. They wanted to use it for the cover. What the $%#!
April 7th, 2017. The full session. One of these ended up on the cover.
The pizza wasn't even cooked great. I knew it. But I didn't push back hard enough. I said yes when I should have said no. And I've had to live with that decision on every single copy sold.
I should have held the line.
The Vision for Book 1
Here's something most people don't know about the Baking Steel, my wife Leslie named it. Not Pizza Steel. Not Oven Steel. Baking Steel. Because we knew from day one that this thing could do more than pizza. Bread, English muffins, cookies, roasting, searing — the Baking Steel Original was always a heat management tool for the whole kitchen.
So when it came time to write the book, I had a decision to make. Do I write about everything the steel can do, or do I stay laser focused?
I chose focus. Book 1 was going to be pure pizza and bread. That was the vision. The rest, the roasting, the searing, the full kitchen story, that was Book 2.
The publisher had other ideas. They wanted more recipes. Broader appeal. So the book has other things in it, things that work on the steel, things I can make, but not the pure focused book I set out to write. I gave ground when I should have held the line.
Same lesson as the cover. Different compromise. Same feeling when I look back at it.
But Here's the Thing — The Book Is Really Good
I've been carrying this for eight years and I need to set the record straight: the content inside is outstanding.
The dough recipe alone is worth it. It's the foundation we've built everything on — the 72-hour cold ferment that develops flavor and texture you simply can't rush. We've tweaked it over the years but the core has never changed. That recipe is now available as our 72-Hour Dough Pack, pre-measured, organic flour from Central Milling, just add water. But the original recipe lives in this book.
The bar pizza dough is in there. The country boule. Bagels. Baguettes. The English muffin recipe that people still message me about years later. These are the foundation recipes every serious home baker needs in their repertoire, the ones you come back to over and over.
I also got to work with Chef Craig on this book and we had a blast. The photography, despite the cover, I'm genuinely proud of. Real kitchens, real food, no tricks.
If you own a Baking Steel and you don't have this book, you're leaving a lot on the table.
What the Cringe Taught Me
Here's where I've landed after eight years of looking at that cover.
Every time I cringe I'm reminded of something important, trust your gut and hold the line. When you know something isn't right, say so. The discomfort of pushing back in the moment is nothing compared to living with a decision you knew was wrong.
That lesson has shaped everything since. The weight stays in the steel because the weight is the product. The dough takes 72 hours because that's where the flavor lives. The brand stays founder-led because that's what makes it real.
And the community that's built up around Baking Steel, hundreds of thousands of home cooks who make pizza on Friday nights, who message me about their first successful bake, who come to the Wednesday classes and share their results, that community is built on trust. Trust that what we make is real, that what we say is honest, that we haven't cut corners.
You can't build that by saying yes when you mean no.
The cover still makes me cringe. But I'm a better founder because of it.
And Book 2? It's still coming. Pure pizza and bread. The book I always wanted to write. Leslie already has a name for it.
Get the Book
Still ranking, still selling, still finding its way into kitchens eight years later.
Grab it on Amazon, Baking with Steel, the recipes are solid, the method is all there, and it pairs perfectly with your Baking Steel. Think of it as the manual that should have shipped in the box.
About Andris
Andris Lagsdin is the inventor of the Baking Steel and founder of Baking Steel Inc. He launched on Kickstarter in 2012, got picked up by Serious Eats, and has been making pizza almost every day since. Everything he builds, he tests in his own kitchen first.
