Cookaholics Bulletin Board

As many of you know by now, I like pizza(I guess who doesn't), I like working with the dough and I like making pizza.

I had already had bricks for my charcoal outside but only recently bought a pizza stone, which is great. But it caused me problems, getting the pizza (thin crust makes it harder) on to the stone in a 475 degree oven is not exactly easy. I was taking a really nice looking pizza and making mush of it by the time I got it on the stone. Next step had to be a pizza paddle so I could just slide it right off on to the stone, I can't believe it took me this long to get it. I thought I was buying a metal one, but when Barbara checked my order she said it was the usual not reading it right. I thought it would slide better off the metal and I still think it would, but I flour up the paddle nicely and it does slide off and getting it out of the oven was easier as well. Mechanically that seems to be the last piece of the puzzle. Now if I could figure the sauce out, I am still working on it.

Dom Pepeno was recommended on another site and I did find it at Shaws in Waterville. Pretty good, it taste like you may have made it yourself with vine ripened tomatoes. So far it is the best commercial brand for my taste, not exactly what I want but still very good. Barbara said it had to much of a tomato taste, that one myifed me, it is tomato sauce how is it suppose to taste. I though it was quite good. Tuesday which is pizza night, I will try adding some fennel seed as someone here suggested.

Barry.

I love my pizza paddle. Mine is the traditional wood. The dough slides right off and onto the stone. I usually use tongs and grab it and slide out of the oven onto a pizza pan to cut.

In a pinch I have just opened a can of good tomato sauce and added some herbs and a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper along with some red pepper flakes. Not gourmet, but quick and not half bad. I also love pesto on my pizza instead of the standard tomato sauce. Topp with shrimp, feta or goat cheese and a little fresh spinach and you have dinner.

Ah the pizza peel. Simplicity and function. There are, for me, three approaches. The traditional wooden peel, the metal peel, and the EXO Super Peel. Wooden peels are thicker, but nice for building a pizza on. To ensure the pizza slides off, the use of corn meal or semolina flour is often used. The metal peel is durable, thinner, and my choice for "retrieving" a pizza from a hot oven. A smaller, offset metal "spatula" style is great for heating slices. The one I show has a rotating handle, which is a horrible idea (imho) but a smaller peel, offset, will protect the hand from the hot oven and allow you to add or remove a slice you want to reheat.

If I was making a number of pizzas at one go, say for a family or small party, I'd have one wooden peel to build on and a metal peel to pull hot pizza with (along with some sort of metal rod to help hold the pizza in place as I slid the metal peel beneath it. ) However, there is a more deluxe, expensive and useful answer if your pizza has a very moist dough. The Exo Super Peel.

The Exo Peel is a cloth over wood setup that allows you to build your pizza on a table, pick it up, and lay it down precisely. I admire its ingenuity and if you are making pizzas that are close to the size of your stone, it can be a very handy way to put that pizza exactly where you want it.


Wooden Peel - Bamboo


Metal Peel - great for retrieving the pizza from a hot oven


Offset Metal Peel: for heating slices, and good to protect knuckles from heat.


Exo Super Peel, the Cadillac of peels.

I am setting up a pizza oven based on a Weber charcoal grill with a specialized Pizza add-on. The oven temperatures reportedly exceed 700F. I will produce 3 pizzas per session (based on the manufacturers guidelines). Logistics will be part of determining which peel to buy and use. I will, for sure, get a metal peel. But if I have to build the pizzas in the kitchen and transport outside to the Weber, I will likely go for standard wood peels to build on. However, if the size of the pizza is close to the size of the stone (15" or 16") then I may opt for the Exo so I can lay my pizza down exactly where it needs to be.

I have both a wooden and a metal peel like Tatoosh does. I use the wooden peel to put pizza in the oven, and the metal peel to take it out.

You're lucky, Barry, that you didn't get the metal peel. Pizza doesn't slide off it, no matter how much flour you use.

I learned from CI to prepare the Thin Crust Pizza on parchment paper and just slide the parchment right on the stone. Would the pizza be better without cooking on the parchment paper?

I'd love a pizza peel but cannot justify the purchase since the parchment technique has worked well for me.

When using our traditional gas oven to make pizza, we use the parchment paper approach too. We sit it on an upside down jelly roll pan and slide off that onto our homemade pizza stone. It works like a charm and makes retrieving the finished pizza easier too. If I only made pizza occasionally in my oven, I wouldn't buy a paddle. Okay, let me amend that. I'm a bit of a gadget freak, so I might buy an Exo Super Peel, but not because it is necessary for a oven pizza.

We double bake (pre-bake or blind bake for 5 to 8 minutes) our thin crust pizza. We often do 6 or more and freeze them for future use. When we top the partially cooked crust and finish in the oven, it only takes a few minutes, maybe 8 to 10 minutes. We generally end up with a superbly crispy crust.

hmm... Corn meal, that is genius. The corn meal is more granular so the crust would ride above the paddle and slide right off. I will use that hint.

Hi,

Parchment burns at 451F sometimes providing a nice smoky flavor. Some recipes specify parchment for 5 minutes and then removal.

Tim

When I'm using the oven, I'm a bit hit or miss about whether I bother to take the parchment out. On the BBQ though, I set it on fire once (yes, on a stone...it was a blackened mess that stuck to the bottom of my pizza and messed up my stone), so now I'm careful to take it out as long as the crust firms up. Works beautifully.

Fran,

Well, when I used to do parchment with pizza, I went through a lot of parchment. The other drawback to it is that, since the dough isn't in direct contact with the stone, you lose some of the charring you otherwise would get. Neither of these is what I would call a severe drawback.

And for some very-sticky doughs (like sourdough pizza crust, or chickpea flour crust), I still have to use the parchment, because those won't slide off a peel no matter what.

Anyway, I make homemade pizza about once every 2 weeks, so it makes sense for me to have some special equipment. If the weather every gets better, I'm taking another crack at making a grill pizza oven!

Oh, you know what else really helps rolling out pizza? A French rolling pin, the curved, tapered kind.