trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

[hansvdb]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

I use the wood peel to make the pie, liberally dusted with flour. As I build it I give it a little shake ever once in a while to see if it is sticking. If it has toppings I sprinkle a little extra flour near the edge and slide a cake icing spatula with a sawing motion under the dough, until the dough is free again. I like the cheap cake spatulas since they have a thinner steel. I have one in the prep area and one by the oven, since I give it one last shake before it hits the oven floor.

[tusr18a]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

When I started this journey, I used parchment paper all the time. The pizzas came off the peel with no trouble at all. While the parchment paper turns a little dark, it never caught on fire for me. As you start to feel more comfortable with a peel, challenge yourself not to use the parchment. It is expensive and ultimately a step that is not needed. To ensure the pizza does not stick to the peel when not using parchment paper, these are the tricks that I use. First, I always lightly flour the peel. I then knock the edge of the peel against my work surface to remove any excess flour. After placing the stretched dough on the peel, you need to work fast. The longer your dough sits on the peel, the more likely it will stick. After you have built the pizza, shake the peel very fast with a forward and backward motion ensuring that the same amount of energy goes into the forward and back stroke. If done quick enough, you will see the pizza stay in the same location on the peel. After a few strokes, you will also see the pizza moving freely on the peel. Once you have that free movement, you are ready to head to the oven door. Using this method, my pizzas slide effortlessly off the peel. Practice makes perfect. The real pros do not build the pizza on the peel. They do the construction work on a granite surface. Then the move the pizza onto the floured peel for quick delivery to the oven. My confidence has not reached that level yet. There seems to be a real art to pulling the dough just right so it evenly moves from the granite work surface to the peel. Hope this helps!

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

I ALWAYS bake my hearth breads (wfo or kitchen oven on baking stone) on parchment paper. It only burns a tad at the tips by the time I remove the bread. I do my final proofing on floured parchment (the brown kind you spend way too much money for at Whole Foods ) usually cut to shape because my baking stone gets crowded with 3 loaves and I don't want a parchment edge poking a loaf. When the bread rises, I can pull the edge of it with the dough onto a small flat peel (or flat tray) and then use the parchment paper tip again to slide it onto the baking stone.

This way, I never jiggle and deflate my loaves . AND it gives me a way to 'spin' the loaf while its baking if a side gets too brown or they need re-arranging.

Also, I agree with everyone about rice flour: once I discovered it, I've never had ANY pizza stick to anything. And it doesn't burn or give off any flavor to the bottom of the pizza.

[whodatoven]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

If you use parchment paper, do you also send the paper into the oven? Would it burn?

I recently bought a aluminum screen and love it. By placing the pizza pie on top of the screen, it not only solves the problem of sticking to the peel but also avoids the charring of the bottom of the pizza pie. I usually burn the bottom while the top is hardly cooked. With screen, it takes almost twice as long to cook a pizza but it comes out perfect.

[lwood]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

Great tip for the innocent by-stander. I typically let guests open their own dough and put on their toppings (if they want), but don't let them load the oven. Parchment seems like a good solution for the novice, but it seems it would be a nuisance after a while.

There is nothing more satisfying than lifting up the pizza just after it has reached that magic moment when it is transformed from a jiggling pool of dough and toppings to a workable pizza. It's a miracle when it happens, you can see that at just the right moment, you can lift the edge of the pie and work with it in the oven. But don't touch it before that moment cause it will be a dripping mess of dough. Maybe I'm a purest, but the parchment paper takes away all that fun.

Don't get paranoid about getting the dough to release from the peel. I think wooden peels release a little better than metal. And the metal one with holes work really well. For bread, parchment is necessary sometimes.

[SableSprings]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

Over the last year I've become really attached to the method of using parchment paper underneath pizza and bread headed for the oven. Yes, the parchment will brown/burn but pizza always slides easily off the peel. Oftentimes when I slide my banjo peel under the baked pizza, the paper pushes out the other side. It's kind of handy to have guests do their pizza making on a piece of parchment away from the oven opening. When they're done and the oven's ready it's only seconds between loading onto the peel and into the oven. The best part is that anyone can do the actual oven loading because the parchment paper is really forgiving. I usually clean up and reposition pizzas after they are loaded to give them the best positions possible on the hearth during the bake...no one seems to notice or care about that moving-all they want is to say that they made and put it in the oven themselves.

My neighbor comes down once a week and we bake about 20 loaves of bread also using parchment. I appreciate that I don't fret anymore about the "cleanliness" of the hearth stones or that I might accidentally pick up some brick grit in the baked items. Anyway, it's worth looking into this method if you are having troubles with the "topping toss". (Incidentally, I use the browned parchment for starting the next fire.)

[Rocko Bonaparte]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

I haven't really gotten my oven up to 900F yet, but previously at the lower temperatures I've used in it as well as my kitchen oven, I use semolina. The grain is a little bit finer than corn meal but they are clearly distinct and like to roll around. I shake a spoonful of semolina flour high over the peel so that it spreads around the peel fairly evenly. I put the pizza on right beforeI start to put on toppings, and occasionally shake the peel just a little to make sure it hasn't stuck yet.

[C5dad]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

RT Florida (#2, page 1)has it right - speed is of the essence. Also a very liberal dusting of rice flour helps as well. Lastly, how the toppings go on - lemme explain!

Over the past 4 firings, I have made a sacrifice to the fire gods of on pizza. It came to me as to why each of the past pizzas failed after working to avoid the failure.

What happens is that there is one person who takes way too much time to put the sauce on - it has to be an exact thickness across the skin, followed by making a masterpiece on the top. In last nights case, it was 2 young women sharing a pizza. The pizza also had a mounding effect from the pile o toppings as well. So, it did not slide off - except for the toppings. Then, when I got it on the stone, it stuck in the middle where the mound of toppings was the greatest, thus tearing. The fire gods were pleased with the sacrifice - and so was the dogs!

Interestingly, when they did the replacement, no rice flour was used on the peel. I was able to salvage the pizza with a hand full of rice flour and an additional pair of hands. This one also was mounded, so I kept the direct fire off the pizza to allow the bottom to catch up with the top and it worked great! Plus I knew where the cooler section of the floor was.

Hope this ramble helps!

[jas.]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

I tried just using flour on my metal peel and it just frustrated me so I now use only rice flour on the peel and if I use a pizza tray,again I dust it with rice flour then I can finish the crusty base on the oven floor , I got this advice from here on the forum.
You could stay a traditionalist , or you can experiment , I found this less frustrating and tasty,, mmmm!!

[Kings over Queens]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

Haven't read the whole thread and so my advice may have been offered already.

I've found a metal metal peel to be much more user friendly.

I keep flour for dusting in one of those grated cheese dispensers and use that to dust the peel before dressing the pie. It's also very handy when making bread too. Allows you to dispense just enough flour where you need it.

[Fairview WFO]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

Wow, I'm way late to this thread but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. We do the pizza prep right on the granite and then scoup it up with a metal peel with slots in it. FornoBravo sells these and I think they are by GIMetal. They have a great youtube video showing the pro's using them... You do have to place some flour on the granite, but it scoups right off and the flour drops out the slots so not a lot of flour in the oven. So when we have parties, we have several making pies and I'm scouping them up and pulling them back out.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/memb...pn-up-pie.html

[chewbacca]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

I have about 15 of these. Easy to make yourself and works perfect!

[That's Amore]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

I agree with serf, I too tried corn meal and it does burn the cooking surface and the pizza has the same burnt taste. Flour works for me to.

[mn8tr]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

Tried corn meal... bad idea it burns on the cooking surface. Flour works just fine for me

[jas.]

Re: trouble getting the pizza to slide off the peel

You could simply throw a dusting of what you may call "corn meal" on the peel, or even "semolina", bakers do this , and it's what we did when i was cooking.The base just slides off!...... same go's for bread.