Pizza dough sticking to the peel

[Marlene]

So, ever since my blog, I've learned how to make pizza from scratch using a pizza stone etc. I've managed to do this successfully everytime since then until tonight.

Normally, I make the dough in my bread maker, roll it out, wrap my splatter screen with parchment paper and build my pizza on that, and then slide it onto the stone that has been preheating in the oven.

Works great. Until tonight. Today I bought pre made dough from the bakery around the corner.

Rolled the dough out on a floured surface. Wrapped my splatter screen in parchment paper and sprinkled it with cornmeal. Build the pizza, and went to slide it onto the stone.

Disaster. It stuck to the parchment paper. By the time I got it off my "peel" and onto the stone, it was a misshapen, mass of sauce, dough and toppings, looking raher lopsided, while half of the stuff ended up on the oven floor.

I have no clue why it stuck. It never has before. The only variable in this time as opposed to the last 4 times I've done this is that I didn't make my own dough. Oh and also, just because that's the kind of day I've been having. Which may mean the gods were just annoyed with me over all and decided to curse my pizza.

So now I'm wondering if one of those pizza trays with the holes in them, would work on a pizza stone? I could build a nice little pizza in the tray, stick it on the stone and not have to worry about tranferring from peel to stone.

I suppose though, that I should really figure out why it stuck in the first place.

[McDuff]

I had a pizza stick a little bit on me tonight too. A little more cornmeal, plenty of flolur on the bench when you push out the dough, and fast fast with the sauce and the toppings. I think the longer the dough sits on the peel the more chance there is of a section of dough that may be a little moist with not enough cornmeal sticking. Food Unwrapped was inside Domino's tonight and I saw a guy just absolutely cover both sides of a dough round with cornmeal.

[carswell]

Marlene, excuse my confusion, but are you using a splatter screen instead of a peel?

Anyway, it sounds like either you didn't have enough cornmeal on the "peel" or the pizza sat on the peel too long. One thing you might try next time is sliding the parchment paper onto your stone with the pizza. The paper will turn black but it won't adhere to the stone or the cooked pizza or prevent the crust from crisping.

[Marlene]

Marlene, excuse my confusion, but are you using a splatter screen instead of a peel?

Anyway, it sounds like either you didn't have enough cornmeal on the "peel" or the pizza sat on the peel too long. One thing you might try next time is sliding the parchment paper onto your stone with the pizza. The paper will turn black but it won't adhere to the stone or the cooked pizza or prevent the crust from crisping.

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Oh that sounds like a good idea! I am using a splatter screen wrapped in parchment paper (based on a golden tip by Anna N) and it's worked well for me every time until tonight.

[Andrew Fenton]

One thing you might try next time is sliding the parchment paper onto your stone with the pizza. The paper will turn black but it won't adhere to the stone or the cooked pizza or prevent the crust from crisping.

I'll second this advice. It's part of my standard pizza operating procedure: just parchment, no cornmeal. I like it because there's no stick, no cornmeal on the floor or caked on the bottom of the pizza, and I get excellent crust texture.

[Malawry]

I usually build pizzas on my large wooden cutting board and then slide them onto my preheated pizza stone, on the oven rack. I use lots of cornmeal and never have any problem. If the dough is at all sticky, I stop trying to slide it and return the board to the counter. I use a dough scraper to loosen all the edges. If I lift the scraper gently I can throw more cornmeal under the dough. This usually works and then I can slide it onto the stone easily. Key is to stop as soon as I realize the dough is sticking--trying to force it never works!

[scott123]

I've seen crusts cooked with parchment paper on a stone and crusts without the paper and they certainly look different to the naked eye. I'm guessing if they look different, they must taste different. Wood is a very powerful insulator. Even in the fraction of an inch of the paper, that's still delaying the heat getting to your pizza.

The dough from the bakery was probably a day or two old and/or it could have contained more moisture than the dough you usually make.

As dough ages, the enzymes continue to break down the starch and it gets sticky. Slacker doughs are sticky as well. Slack doughs generally make better pizzas though (better crumb, better oven spring, etc.) so if your regular dough is that easy to work with, you might want to increase the water a little bit. It's kind of a tradeoff - manageability vs. improved taste. In my experience a dough that is slightly tricky to get off the peel usually makes the best pizza.

[RETREVR]

You need a peel

[chef koo]

another problem might be timing. how long are you leaving the doung on the parchment for? if it's for too long the cornmeal or flour or whatever you're using will soak up the moisture and become sticky again.

also i don't like to use cormeal. i don't like the texture. i find semolina is a lot finer so you don't feel grains of cornmeal in your teeth. but that's beside the point.

hope your next pizza is less troublesome

[Marlene]

You need a peel

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yes do, but I haven't been able to find one as of yet!

[jackal10]

One of these

[Marlene]

One of these

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Exactly, although I suspect the shipping charges from the UK to Canada might be a touch prohibitive

[jackal10]

Aga dealers in Canada

[deltadoc]

I've been doing this for years, so here is my technique.

I use the bread machine to make the dough, but then I take it out of the machine and flour dust the countertop (corian), and knead the dough adding more flour dusting to get just the right dough feel. I use a marble rolling pin and continue to dust lightly the dough if it seems to stick to the marble rolling pin. I constantly turn the dough over, and continue to roll it out, dusting it lightly as needed.

I use a wooden peel which has been dusted with Quaker brand corn meal. I find if the meal is too "fine" it doesn't act like ball bearings as well.

Anyway, once the dough is just right I lift it off the countertop and place it on the peel. Just the fact that I can lift it off the countertop reinforces that it has the right moisture content.

I take the peel in my hands and rock it back and forth to ensure the dough is moving freely. I do this several times as I build the pizza. If it sticks anywhere, which is unusual, I gently lift up that part and sprinkle a bit more corn meal.

Then, once it is resting on the corn meal dusted wooden peel, I use a boar brush to paint olive oil on the dough surface. This acts as a moisture barrier to protect the dough from the sauce which goes on next. Then I add usually Italian hot sausage that I was cooking on the stove. I usually drain it in a colander first to rid it of excess pork fat before putting it on the pizza.

Then I sprinkle with parmesan that I processed in the food processor.

Then on goes the low moisture part skim Stella brand mozzarella (about 1/2 lb) that was also processed in the food processor. It sprinkles on easier, leaving pathways for some of the moisture of the sauce to evaporate during baking better than whole slices which tend to act as a shroud trapping in excess moisture.

The 1/2" thick stone has been in the oven at 550 for at least an hour. The whole pie slides easily off the peel onto the pre-heated stone.

I don't turn the oven down, and it takes approximately 12 minutes to have what I consider a perfect pizza.

Hope this helps.

doc

[Marlene]

These are all helpful suggestions. It was pointed out to me via PM that the only reason my pizza stuck was because I am in the middle of trying to sell my house and now of course I have to clean the oven, which is exactly when the next showing will appear. Because it just works that way And there's no doubt that it was just another sign of the kind of day I had yesterday.

I think I'm going to go back to making my dough in the breadmaker. I'm at least familiar with that and it's always worked for me. (always as in 3 times). I am also going to find a pizza peel. In the meantime, I have an oven to clean.

[bobmac]

I use parchment paper and a peel, leaving the paper in the oven for three minutes, then sliding it out, a trick I learned from Nancy Silverton's foccacia recipe.

[slkinsey]

Since you're baking the pizza in an oven, you don't really need the long handle of a traditional peel. One option that offers you more versatility for your Looney is a large rimless cookie sheet, like this one. Used for pizza, it functions more or less like a metal peel with no handle.

As for the dough sticking to the peel, there are a few tricks. As others have pointed out, a sprinkling of cornmeal can help. But in my experience (I use a very wet dough) the most important thing is to have your mise all set up so you can get the pizza built and off the peel as quickly as possible. If you watch a professional pizzaiolo at someplace like the East Harlem Patsy's, the pizza is built in around 60 seconds once the dough hits the peel. If you're really stuck, try dragging a string between the dough and the peel just before you go to the oven.

[oraklet]

I use parchment paper and a peel, leaving the paper in the oven for three minutes, then sliding it out, a trick I learned from Nancy Silverton's foccacia recipe.

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that's what i do, too.

[oraklet]

Since you're baking the pizza in an oven, you don't really need the long handle of a traditional peel.  One option that offers you more versatility for your Looney is a large rimless cookie sheet, like this one.  Used for pizza, it functions more or less like a metal peel with no handle.

As for the dough sticking to the peel, there are a few tricks.  As others have pointed out, a sprinkling of cornmeal can help.  But in my experience (I use a very wet dough) the most important thing is to have your mise all set up so you can get the pizza built and off the peel as quickly as possible.  If you watch a professional pizzaiolo at someplace like the East Harlem Patsy's, the pizza is built in around 60 seconds once the dough hits the peel.  If you're really stuck, try dragging a string between the dough and the peel just before you go to the oven.

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actually i believe most pizzaioli build the pizza on their marble counter top, then push the peel under the pizza to slide it into the oven.

[DTBarton]

I agree with the post that said put the parchment paper in the oven. I flatten my dough on parchment, add the sauce and toppings, and pick the whole thing up by the corners of the parchment and put it on the stone. No peel or cornmeal required. As the previous poster said, the paper turns dark brown but doesn't impart any flavor to the pie or inhibit crust crisping even in a very hot oven. I turn the oven on 500 about 30 - 40 minutes before cooking pizza to get the oven and the stone as hot as possible and the parchment still works great.

[BettyK]

I use parchment paper and a peel, leaving the paper in the oven for three minutes, then sliding it out, a trick I learned from Nancy Silverton's foccacia recipe.

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that's what i do, too.

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Me too.

Marlene, use more bench flour. The trick is to let your dough move freely at all times.

[plk]

I use a peel and slide the pizza, loaded on parchment, in on the stone (oven preheated for an hour at 500F). I use the Pain a L'ancienne dough from Reinhard's BBA, and it's just too slack a dough for me to use only cornmeal or semiolina on the peel. So, the parchment works well for me. I'd never heard of removing it halfway through, though. Interesting. My concern would be that any benefit gained by removing the parchment would be diminished by the heat loss from opening the oven. My impression is that you would want the entire oven, not just the pizza stone, to be as hot as possible so that pizzas can finish in 8-10 mins. Sooner, if your oven gets hotter. Anyway, that's how I get around the sticky dough issue.

[RETREVR]

One of these

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Exactly, although I suspect the shipping charges from the UK to Canada might be a touch prohibitive

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You want wood. Metal is for removing a pizza. You can trick the pizza back onto the wood, or pull the stone out of the oven. A metal peel is sticky.

You can also draw a circle on a wood peel so you don't make a pie that is too big for your stone.

Edited January 31, 2005 by RETREVR (log)

[RETREVR]

http://www.instawares.com/pizza-peels.4-499-3.0.0.2.htm

This was the first page that came up on a search. I do not endorse, nor have I ever done business with this company. They have nice wood peels though

[s'kat]

I usually shake the peel as i'm building my pizza, just to make sure it hasn't begun to stick. If an area starts to glue down, a long spatula will neatly get it back up- shake, and get it into the oven as soon as possible!

(I hope you have a self-cleaning oven!)