Wooden Pizza Peel Question

[david s]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I use semolina flour it acts like mimi ball-bearings and the pizza slides of really easily. Be careful not to get anything liquid, like olive oil or pineapple juice, on the wooden peel, it will make your dough stick.

[MapMaker]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I use corn meal - liberally. It acts like little ball bearings. Good luck.

[david s]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I use semolina flour, it works the same as corn meal, like little ball bearings. A thicker base will slide easier too. A thin base with lots of toppings is the hardest to slide. Also be very careful not to get any liquids (tomato sauce, pineapplle juice etc) onto the wooden peel as this will also make it stick.

[nissanneill]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Another option that I got from the forum wheen I posted my first pizza was to dust the peel with a little table salt.
This works a treat and I use it continuously. I normally don't like salt in my food but it is not transferred nor ingrained into it.
Roll the dough ball on a lightly floured granite slab, lift it off and place it on a dusted aluminium pan or a 3mm sheet of customwood. Tomatoe paste the base, assemble your preferred toppings and then slide it onto the salted peel into the oven. My wife simply does her pizza on aluminium foil which he removes once cooked.

Neill

[Rivernook]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Try Polenta. My local school has a WFO and they were taught to use polenta to stop the bases sticking. The tiny balls make the pizza base slide off very easily. I used it in my trial run of first pizzas last weekend and it works really well.

[BrianShaw]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Polenta comes in different grades. Coarse polenta is no better than regular (cheap) cornmeal in my experience. Fine polenta is better, but still pricy. I like Semolina flour but I'm ready to start experimenting with masa harina (corn flour for tortilla making) because it is incredibly cheap, available, and might just work good.

[sarah h]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I was reading recently about a different approach used by one WFO owner - I don't know how well it works but if my pizzas keep sticking, I may give it a try: cooking on a screen.

That would slid off a peel but still allow for contact with the oven floor - OK, so it's probably considered cheating but I figure whatever works to avert disaster!
Well, unless the screen gets stuck in the crust ...

Any thoughts?

[nissanneill]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Hi Sarah, I don't have a problem wityh the pizza sliding off my aluminium peel, but my othr half will not cook directly on the herth but puts hers on aluminium foil to cook.
They take a little longer than mine to cook but she also has her base around double thickness of mine. The foils simply peels off prior to slicing the pizza without sticking.
What do you mean when you say you might use a screen?

Neill

[sarah h]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I mean the stuff they use in the windows to keep the bugs out - the aluminum kind, not the new fibreglass stuff . Doesn't the foil change the texture of the crust or the taste of the pizza?

[david s]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

We used to do ours on metal pizza trays, but it left the base too soft in the middle. I think it is moisture getting tapped between the base and the metal tray. We then tried removing the pizza from the tray and cooking it some more directly on the oven floor to crisp up the base. We've now graduated to sliding the pizza off the wooden peel straight onto the oven floor, it's the best method, but takes a little practice.

[nissanneill]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Sarah,
My other half maked some of the tastiest pizzas I have tasted, even the ones I make (but don't tell her that).
No it does not seem to change the tast at all, it just takes a little longer to cook but not as long as if they were on a tray or pan. When the pans get hot, they buckle and lift the pizza off the hearth a little and that is what takes the extra time to cook. Using the foil avaids the pizzas sticking and does not lift or distort when cooking on the hot hearth.
The foil simply peels off as the base is cooked and becomes a little more rigid than when uncooked.
If I do have guests who have trouble getting their pizzas off the pans, I let them partially cook on ther base ansd when turning them, lift them off and place them on the hearth bricks, but mI use a stainless peel for turning, (the 8" hole that I cut out of my chimney void).

Neill

[christo]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I bought some pizza screens to try out in case some of my guests are wary of the oven floor.

Tried it once and it worked pretty well. May pull them back out if I have lots of folks making pies at one time as i won't have to worry about sticking to the peel.

Not sure why, but that bottle opener makes it in to way too many pictures.

Christo

[david s]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Recently I was pulled over by the constabulary and asked to blow into a little tube. I told the police officer that I was shy and asked if I could take it home ?
He didn't seem amused.

[david s]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

I've never tried blowing under my pizzas !

[CajunKnight]

Re: Wooden Pizza Peel Question

Not sure why, but that bottle opener makes it in to way too many pictures.

Christo

Try twist top bottles or just bite the tops off.