Cornmeal vs. Flour - Sticking to Stone / Pan - Multiple Pies

[alpinegroove]

I use a cast iron pan.
The first pie I made, I floured the peel heavily, being very concerned that the dough would stick. I clearly used too much flour, and I could taste its powdery texture on the bottom of the crust.
The next time, I used coarse, stone-ground cornmeal. I loved the texture and flavor it added to the crust. However, some of it stuck to the pan and burned to the extent that it was difficult to get it off the pan. This is a problem when I want to make bake multiple pies in a row, since they would be baking over burned cornmeal, not directly over the pan.

Perhaps the secret is using less flour to avoid the first problem. But how much is necessary?

I use a metal peel. Will the pie stick if I don't use any flour?
How heavily do you flour your peel?

I have the following options here: rice flour, semolina, cornmeal, bread flour, AP flour.

Also, do you assemble your pie on the pie or do you do it on the counter and then scoop it up with peel?

[atom]

Metal peels are generally for removing pies from the oven or just moving them around. Wooden peels are for launching. Making that switch alone should allow you to use less flour. Do you coat your dough balls with oil? If you do then you may get too much flour stuck. If you don't, its actually hard to make "too much flour" stick to the dough IMO. Shape your skin then slap it around and the excess flour will fall off.

[alpinegroove]

Thank you. I think that the flour that stuck was from the peel, not the counter, so I am not sure what you mean by slapping the skin,
The dough is coated with oil.
Perhaps I need to try a wooden peel.

[atom]

I am not sure what you mean by slapping the skin

What I mean is, if you physically take your shaped skin off the counter onto your knuckles and toss it from hand to hand a few times the excess flour will fall off if your dough isn't wet on it's exterior from oil. I now understand you must be pouring loose flour directly onto your peel, and it is certainly the source of the problem.

[alpinegroove]

Is it not necessary to flour the peel itself?

[Jet_deck]

A half a tsp of flour should be enough for the wooden peel.  Just keep making dough, they get much easier to handle with practice and precise measurements/ fermentation.

[MightyPizzaOven]

alpinegroove, I switched to a birch wood pizza peel, I found it requires less flour.  Assemble your pies on the peel right before you are ready to launch it in your oven. When you place your pizza skin on the peel shake it a bit to make sure it is not sticking to the peel. After assembling your pizza, try to shake it to make sure it is not sticking. If it is, lift one side of the skin and blow air under it. Make to keep your peel leveled, otherwise your pizza will slide right off your peel.

You probably know this, never cut your finished pizza on you wood peel.

Best of luck.

[alpinegroove]

Thanks, all.
I used much less flour last night, and it worked just fine.

[slybarman]

I use 50/50 semolina and fllour. I rub it into the wood peel and then tap the peel a few times on the counter to shake off any excess.

[alpinegroove]

I used 50/50 rice/bread flour. Shaking off the excess is a good idea.

[Garvey]

I switched to foil instead of cornmeal.  Love it.  After a few minutes, I'll reach inside the oven and pull the foil out from under the pizza.

[zelichan]

I'm a noobie to all of this. I use cornmeal on the peel instead of flour. It's like little ball bearings. Those pizza will shoot of the end of it if you ain't careful. 

[Steve]

A half a tsp of flour should be enough for the wooden peel.  Just keep making dough, they get much easier to handle with practice and precise measurements/ fermentation.

That's what I use... just a light dusting of flour and the pie slides right off.

[ct4640]

another option is to use parchment paper. we had a hard time with sticking. we make the pie on the parchment then leave it on the paper in  the oven for a couple minutes then pull the paper out.  it slides out easily.

[DannyG]

This is from Tom Lehmann...

"We use wood prep peels all the time, and never really experience any problems with the dough sticking. The secret is in using a good peel dust. My own personal favorite is equal parts of flour, fine cornmeal, and semolina flour. I don't like straight flour because if it gets damp it will cause the dough skin to stick like glue. Both the corn meal and semolina flour act like little ball bearings under the dough skin to help it slide off of the peel. If you're into it, try using wheat bran as a peel dust too. It works great since it doesn't absorb moisture well at all and is just the ticket if you're going to be letting the dressed pizza sit around for any length of time on the prep peel."
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Since reading this I have made my own small container of peel dust and it works like a charm.