Hey folks.
I'm a newbie to the world of pizza as well, Ebony, so I'll just share a bit of my own learning experience with shaping/transferring pizza dough to the stone. I work with a New York style pizza formulation so my advice will deal strictly with that sort of pizza dough. The basic idea behind what works for my dough is continual checking and adjusting during the shaping to ensure that I don't trap myself later with an under floured/"lubricated" dough that will stick to my preparation surface rather than glide off when it comes time to go to the oven.
1. I use a steel mixing bowl as a "flour bowl", which I put my dough into before beginning to shape. I give the dough ball a good coating and then lightly shake off the excess before moving onto my shaping surface(wooden cutting board in my case), which is lightly dusted with flour. The dough does feel relatively "dry" at this point but as the shaping progresses, it will become tacky. I then use the tips of my fingers to flatten out the dough ball, working from the center outwards, turning as I go in order to maintain a relatively circular shape for the dough.
2. Once it has been flattened out into a disc, I then take the dough disc and drape it over the back of my hands, using the back of my fingers and knuckles to stretch the disc. My dough is usually at 64% hydration, a bit higher than normal New York style doughs, so it's a bit tricky to work with it without it sticking but all I can say is that it takes practice and I second derbow's advice to take a few practice tries at first. Also due to the higher hydration of my dough, gravity does a lot of the stretching work for me as I "shuffle" the dough over the back of my fingers/knuckles.
3. Now as the dough stretches out to the size I want the pizza to be, the dough becomes somewhat tacky so I put the dough back down on the cutting board, which still has a bit of flour on it, and apply a little more flour. The dough takes up the flour and keeps the dough from sticking to the board. I give the board a light shake, keeping the motion horizontal, and make sure the dough slides over the surface with no problem.
4. So now that the dough is at the desired size, I add the sauce and toppings, shaking again after layering the sauce, and then again after the toppings to make sure the dough hasn't become tacky during this time of adding toppings. I find it saves headache if I find out the dough is too tacky with just sauce on top than with sauce AND toppings.
5. I then transfer the pizza to the pre-heated oven and do the "shake/slide" technique to get the pizza from the cutting board to the stone.
I'm sure my approach isn't perfect but it works for my current set up of type of dough I make as well as the tools I have available. I prefer not to use corn meal and I don't want a lot of flour on the surface of my dough so this method works great for my desired results.
Your dough will require its own handling procedure, Ebony, but hopefully my approach gives you some reference point to guide you towards your dough's needs. When I first started out, I found that I either had too tacky dough or I had way too much flour on my dough even though it finally would slide easily off my prep surface. I've had to work with my dough, take note of its characteristics, and treat it like a living thing(Yeast is in it, afterall!
) that isn't always going to behave exactly the same, in order to arrive at a point where I have a decent method for shaping and transferring my dough. It may sound cryptic but I suggest "Getting to know your dough." in order to find out the best way to get your pizza from your prep surface to your stone. Good luck!
