Using a Pizza Peel with your dough???

[TomN]

Putting this under, ask the dough doctor, since it is related directly to dough.

I got to bake my Beer Pizza Dough Recipe in a commercial oven yesterday for the first time. No pizza screens, just a metal pizza peel. I used flour under the dough and a little on the peel to get it in oven. My question is about picking up a pressed out ready to go Pizza with the peel. Do most Pizzerias prepare the pressed out pizza dough directly on the peel or do they prepare it on a table and then pick up the uncooked pizza with the peel?

I prepared my pizza on the table and then picked it up with the peel. The first pizza went onto the peel just fine, no problem. However, my second pizza, which had more toppings on it, than just cheese, had problems getting onto the peel. In fact, I end up turning the second pizza into a Calzone because it was sticking to the peel.

What is the correct way to use the peel? What is the norm, preparing the pizza on the peel or on the table? Also, I welcome any suggestions from those that use a peel on a regular basis. Thank you

TomN

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,17415.440.html

(scroll down towards the bottom of the page in this thread)

[Giggliato]

There is no correct way to use a peel.

From my experience I would have to say that for pizzas upwards of 12 inches in diameter, preparing the pizza directly on the peel/board is the norm. More flour and a cold peel will help with sliding.

[sb 44 champs]

I have a metal peel that I use and dress the pizza directly on the peel. For me, this leads to a rush job assembling the toppings and hoping the dough doesn't stick. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I've also used dental floss to release the dough but IMO it doesn't really work when you have a ton of toppings. My wife and granddaughter want toppings so usually make a deep dish in a cast iron skillet for them and the less is best approach for me.
I've never actually dressed the pizza then scooped it up on a peel but have seen it on you tube.
I've also heard that wood peels are better to launch the pizza vs metal so I will see about getting a wood peel.
I always use either semolina or a little flour on the peel but I find too much of it sticks to the underside of the dough causing it to burn.

[waltertore]

wooden peels launch much better when a tad of flour (what I use) and or semolinia, or mixture of the 2, are used.  Metal is great for getting out, rotating, rearranging, in the oven.  Metal also can scrape most of a topping that gets on the deck all in one shot when removing a pie.  That is how I do it in the 2 blodgett 1000 ovens we use.   Walter  

[mkevenson]

I open and dress my pizza right on my work surface. I then "scoop" onto my peel and launch onto my stone ,in my oven. Very little clearance and it works great.
It does matter tho which peel you use. IMHO
I use this one: Costs a bit, but I love the way it handles a pie!

PERFORATED PIZZA PEEL 15" RECTANGULAR 20" HANDLE - GI METAL - MADE IN ITALY

Mark

[mp233069]

The first pizza that I made I used a metal peel and that didn't work too well. Pizza stuck to the peel. I now prep and place the pizza in the oven using a wood peel. I remove the pizza using my metal peel.

[ridr44]

For a long time I have used a wooden peal and have dressed the pie on the peal, rarely ever having a problem releasing onto the stone.  Recently I purchased a metal peal and have tried dressing the pie on the work surface then tranferring onto the peal.  Two problems...transferring onto the peal does not happen easily.  If the dough is too light and the toppings are too substantial then the pie tears or sticks to the surface.  Secondly, it seems that unless I really have a very dry dough or I load up the metal with flour or corn meal, the dough sticks to the metal and will not release well or at all...I see it done on you tube but not yet for me...

[slybarman]

I am a big fan of the  'blowing air under the skin' trick for getting pies to slide off the peel -especially when loaded up with toppings. It has really saved my bacon both literally and figuratively.  I would think it would also work to slide the pie off a counter and onto a peel.

[Pete-zza]

The professionals who use metal peels on which to build their pizzas or to drag dressed pizzas onto metal peels seem to be those who specialize in the Neapolitan style pizzas. Those pizzas tend to be on the small side and with few toppings. You almost never see metal peels being used for large size pizzas or where a lot of toppings are used.

Peter

[Don K]

The hydration of the dough definitely plays a factor too. I have had trouble launching with doughs at 64% and above. They absorb the bench flour so quickly that if you spend any time at all dressing the pie, you end up making a calzone.

The one and only time I ever used beer instead of water in my dough, I remember it seeming a little more sticky than with water at the same hydration. Did you notice this Tom? I was planning to experiment with lower hydration with beer but I never got around to it.

[spacelooper]

the guy at my fave pizzeria uses a string.... it hangs from his pizza bench and when it is time he runs it under his pizza, thus freeing the dough from the peel... the pizzas just slide right into the oven.

[tinroofrusted]

I am a big fan of the  'blowing air under the skin' trick for getting pies to slide off the peel -especially when loaded up with toppings. It has really saved my bacon both literally and figuratively.  I would think it would also work to slide the pie off a counter and onto a peel.

Sly, I'm not familiar with that trick. Could you describe it?  I'm always interested in learning new tricks, especially when it comes to dough sticking on a peel, which I really don't like!

Regards,

TinRoof

[slybarman]

You lift the edge of the dough and blow air under it. The pizza lifts and floats like a big air hockey puck. It is quite amazing. Be careful though, it almost floats too well and if you are not prepared it can float right off the peel onto your shoe - ask me how I know.

[Pete-zza]

I don't mind blowing under my own pizza but I don't think I would do it for a pizza that someone else will eat or in a commercial establishment. In fact, Tom Lehmann, perhaps speaking  from the professional side of pizza making, frowns upon the practice as coming across as unsanitary to customers: http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7874&p=53957&hilit=#p53957. I once saw a pizza maker at LaGuardia airport do it and when he saw that I saw him do it he looked quite embarrassed. I know some people who would never eat a pizza where the pizza maker blew under the dough.

Peter

[slybarman]

Good point. I did not think germs would survive the oven though.


Edit:  The more I think about it, the less probable it seems. The bottom of the pie is coming in direct contact with a 500-600 degree oven deck.

[tinroofrusted]

Good point. I did not think germs would survive the oven though.


Edit:  The more I think about it, the less probable it seems. The bottom of the pie is coming in direct contact with a 500-600 degree oven deck.

I don't see how a germ could survive the baking process. I think it's more of an optics thing (i.e., it might make people queasy).  Maybe a bellows instead. 

[slybarman]

I don't see how a germ could survive the baking process. I think it's more of an optics thing (i.e., it might make people queasy).  Maybe a bellows instead.

I could see where it might be unappealing in a commercial setting. I think my family can deal just fine.

[waltertore]

My question is - why use a metal peel that is difficult to launch  when a wooden one makes it so easy?  Walter

[TomN]

I found an 10 year old pizza stone that was made by Kitchen Aid that was in my garage. It comes with a wooden peel, so after pressing our the pizza dough, I placed it on the peel and finished topping it. I covered the peel with corn meal and that seemed to work just fine. i must say that the stone for the home oven, still does not compare with the commercial oven, as expected. I did have fun using it though. Thank you all for advice. The wood seems the way to go.

The pizza in the photos is one of my favorite Garlic Sauce, Basil, White pizzas.

[The Dough Doctor]

With reference to blowing under the dressed pizza skin to help release it from the peal, it has more to do with perception than food safety. How would you feel if you were at a restaurant where some snotty nosed kid was blowing, or coughing on your pizza? Don't worry, it will be sterilized in the oven. You might have a hard time selling that to your customers whose only comment might be "GROSS!". Then too, there might be a hard sell to your health department inspector. One old trick that I've used with very soft doughs is to open the dough into a pizza skin and place it onto a pizza screen for dressing, I then put the dressed skin (still on the screen) in the oven to bake for a couple minutes, then slip a peal under the now forming crust, remove the screen and continue baking on the stone. This is similar to a procedure called "decking" the pizza, but when decking the pizza, it is typically removed from the screen and placed on the stone/deck during the last couple minutes of baking to achieve a crispier crust than can be had by baking only on the screen.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor