Looking for tips on launching high hydration pizza

[Rainier42]

Am starting to experiment with high hydration doughs (70+% hydration).  First one was last evening and I had a problem launching it into my oven (created a real mess).  I use a wooden peel with rice flour sprinkled on surface and have never had a problem before.  Any tips on launching a high hydration pizza would be most appreciated.

[jkb]

Toss the dough ball in 50/50 flour/semolina before opening.   A sprinkle of semolina on the board.

[wotavidone]

I usually build my pizzas straight on the peel, saves trying to transfer them from the bench to the peel.

This doesn't work too well for me when using high hydration dough.
(I usually stick to 60% hydration, but occasionally take a foray into Waterworld)

It's a 50/50 kinda situation but, for higher hydrations, it generally seems better to make the pizza on the bench and transfer it to the floured peel only when ready to go in the oven.
Also, trap some air under the pizza and give it a shake. You can see it "float".

[02ebz06]

There is always parchment paper...

[Rainier42]

There is always parchment paper...

Hmmm, I always build on my peel.  Can I launch off of the parchment paper - i.e., will it slide off or stick to the paper?

[02ebz06]

Hmmm, I always build on my peel.  Can I launch off of the parchment paper - i.e., will it slide off or stick to the paper?

Put the parchment paper on the peel, build pizza, on it,  and slide pizza and parchment paper into oven.

[Pizza_Not_War]

You can pull paper after crust sets a bit, or leave it. Trim paper close to pizza so it doesn't burn.

[RHawthorne]

I don't really mess around with hydration rates above 68% very often, at least not for round pies. But what I can tell you as a good rule of thumb in general is that the wetter the dough, the quicker you need to make the pizza before it starts sticking to the peel. This might seem like an obvious fact, but what I'm getting at is that making pies like this with a ton of toppings is asking for trouble. Keep the toppings on your high hydration pizzas minimal, no matter what people ask you to put on them. Stretch the dough, top it quickly, and get it in the oven. If people want a lot of toppings, I suggest par baking the crust for a minute just to firm it up and then pull it back out onto the peel and top it the rest of the way if you're using more than just sauce and cheese and one or two toppings. And I suggest trying some semolina flour for peel dust, too. Use it alone or in combination with regular flour. I hope this is useful info.

[Jersey Pie Boy]

Rainier, I'm beginning to use higher hydration and my peel approach and dusting are similar. My issue to work through is less- than- round pies..what are you finding to be your problem?

[Rainier42]

Rainier, I'm beginning to use higher hydration and my peel approach and dusting are similar. My issue to work through is less- than- round pies..what are you finding to be your problem?

My work flow typically is to dust my peel with rice flour, remove dough from container and drop it in some flour to reduce tackiness, open on bench, stretch, and then transfer to my peel where I add sauce, cheese, etc.  Followed the same for this dough and everything worked well, in particular opening and stretching the dough went real smooth.  Dough was fairly round when I transferred to peel and about 14 inches.  Topped with sauce and just cheese; it was during the transfer to my stone I realized I had an issue ... could feel the dough binding and then saw the massive pile-up  occurring on my stone.

Couple of things am going to try this week:  1. Working with higher hydration doughs are part of my experimental series so instead of making 14" pies, am going to reduce to 12" to make them more manageable.   2.  Will dust peel first with flour and then use a more generous amount of rice flour.  3.  Before launching, will make sure pie slides around on peel.  4.  If this doesn't work, will try parchment paper.

[texmex]

I stretch on bench, add sauce and cheese, then transfer to floured wood peel, adjust the inevitably further stretched dough, adjust the cheese, shake the peel, then add other toppings, shaking to keep the skin loose after each topping. if it's sticking, I blow underneath to loosen it and  shake again.

[Jersey Pie Boy]

Sounds like a good plan..

[thezu]

I have an EXO Superpeel and absolutely love it: https://superpeel.com/
ZERO failed "launches" since I've had it (several hundred pizzas).
I've done 68% hydration dough with no problems.

[scott r]

Something to try with wet doughs is more time in bulk and less time in balls, but most importantly do a lot more more stretch and folds.  You might find that your dough is a lot less sticky and more firm when you launch.    I am still always amazed at how much more mixing I need to do with wetter doughs to get it to where it should be.   

[amolapizza]

I don't have much experience with 70% dough, but when I do 80% dough, I'd liken the feel of the dough (when it's ready for bulk) as similar to a balloon filled with water..

[Rainier42]

Thanks to everyone who responded.  Successfully launched all my higher hydration doughs this past Friday, highest was 76%.  Didn't do anything special other than made sure I had a little extra rice flour on my peel.  Each launched beautifully.

[Samson]

Glad it worked, what an anticlimactic ending though haha.

I saw RHawthorne mentioned semolina which I've seen mentioned many times. I bought a bag of semolina but it was extremely fine and I didn't see any advantage over regular flour. I then bought this other extremely coarse semolina which says it is from Turkey which worked better but left big coarse flour on the bottom of the pizza.

Can anyone give any insight to which they mean when they say semolina? I saw a thread on different meanings of semolina and durum but still wasn't sure. Are they referring to one of these types or something in between?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CPCMTFJ/?tag=pmak-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y3JCMOQ/?tag=pmak-20

[scott r]

I find a mixture of fine semolina and flour to work better than straight flour for really wet doughs, and it doesnt change the bottom of the crust as much as the large semolina.

[Samson]

Thank you I'll give it a shot.

[RHawthorne]

Glad it worked, what an anticlimactic ending though haha.

I saw RHawthorne mentioned semolina which I've seen mentioned many times. I bought a bag of semolina but it was extremely fine and I didn't see any advantage over regular flour. I then bought this other extremely coarse semolina which says it is from Turkey which worked better but left big coarse flour on the bottom of the pizza.

Can anyone give any insight to which they mean when they say semolina? I saw a thread on different meanings of semolina and durum but still wasn't sure. Are they referring to one of these types or something in between?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CPCMTFJ/?tag=pmak-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y3JCMOQ/?tag=pmak-20

Sometimes the finely ground product is labeled as 'durum flour'- which is incidentally quite nice to use in pizza dough as well. Most of the time, the coarse ground product will just be labelled as 'semolina flour'. The Italian name for the finely ground product is 'semola rimacinata'. or 'semola di grano duro'. If you see either of those names, you know it's not the coarse ground product. The first product you linked appears to be finely ground, whereas the second one is coarse. There is nothing in between with that grain that I've ever heard of, although the first one seems to have a more coarse ground character than usual, possibly because it's from a Canadian producer (I guess).