Using a wooden pizza peel isn't extremely difficult, but there are a few tricks of the trade that I'd like to share with you.
To start you have to always remember to include some type of flour or cornmeal on the wooden pizza peal. The types of flour I've spotted applied are your standard every day bread flour, rice flour, or you'll hear a lot of the pizza specialists using semolina flour. Many people also use cornmeal if you want. I don't really like the taste or consistency of cornmeal and I haven't detected much of a improvement between the different flours so I just normally stick with whatever flour I'm using for the pizza dough.
If you skip this first step, your pizza dough will stick to the wooden peel and make a huge mess when you try to slide it into the oven. You also don't need a ton of flour or cornmeal on the pizza peel; just enough for a light dusting. All you have to do is sprinkle a little bit onto the wooden peel and rub it into the peel with your hands.
Once your wooden pizza peel is lightly dusted you want to add your dough to the peel and start building your pizza.
Once your pizza is built you want to make sure its not completely stuck to the peel. As we discussed above, if the pizza is stuck to the pizza peel, you're just asking for a huge disaster of a mess. When you try to move the pizza to the oven the dough will be folded over and your toppings will be all over the floor and oven. It's not fun.
Save yourself the trouble and after the pizza is built check it to make sure its not stuck. All you have to do is give the wooden pizza peel a little shake. Does the pizza slide around a little or does it not move at all? If it slides around, that's a great sign and you're ready for the next step. If it doesn't move at all, you've got a little work to do.
Sometimes getting your dough unstuck is as easy as just pulling up on the dough from the edge all around the circle of the pizza to get it unstuck. Sometimes you can shake the wooden pizza peel a little harder without the toppings falling off and the dough will detach itself from the peel. Some pros like to blow under the pizza to get it to unstick. I've never blown under my pizzas, but I have used the other methods with much success.
Once you know your pizza dough is not stuck to the wooden peel you are prepared to move it to the oven. Here all you do is put the peel above the pizza stone and begin to shake the peel some until eventually the pizza proceeds to move from the pizza peel to the cooking surface (usually a stone).
Now your pizza is cooking and you're a couple minutes away from heaven.
I hope this article helped you on your pizza making journey. Now all you need is a little practice, which is the fun part and you'll be an expert in no time.
To start you have to always remember to include some type of flour or cornmeal on the wooden pizza peal. The types of flour I've spotted applied are your standard every day bread flour, rice flour, or you'll hear a lot of the pizza specialists using semolina flour. Many people also use cornmeal if you want. I don't really like the taste or consistency of cornmeal and I haven't detected much of a improvement between the different flours so I just normally stick with whatever flour I'm using for the pizza dough.
If you skip this first step, your pizza dough will stick to the wooden peel and make a huge mess when you try to slide it into the oven. You also don't need a ton of flour or cornmeal on the pizza peel; just enough for a light dusting. All you have to do is sprinkle a little bit onto the wooden peel and rub it into the peel with your hands.
Once your wooden pizza peel is lightly dusted you want to add your dough to the peel and start building your pizza.
Once your pizza is built you want to make sure its not completely stuck to the peel. As we discussed above, if the pizza is stuck to the pizza peel, you're just asking for a huge disaster of a mess. When you try to move the pizza to the oven the dough will be folded over and your toppings will be all over the floor and oven. It's not fun.
Save yourself the trouble and after the pizza is built check it to make sure its not stuck. All you have to do is give the wooden pizza peel a little shake. Does the pizza slide around a little or does it not move at all? If it slides around, that's a great sign and you're ready for the next step. If it doesn't move at all, you've got a little work to do.
Sometimes getting your dough unstuck is as easy as just pulling up on the dough from the edge all around the circle of the pizza to get it unstuck. Sometimes you can shake the wooden pizza peel a little harder without the toppings falling off and the dough will detach itself from the peel. Some pros like to blow under the pizza to get it to unstick. I've never blown under my pizzas, but I have used the other methods with much success.
Once you know your pizza dough is not stuck to the wooden peel you are prepared to move it to the oven. Here all you do is put the peel above the pizza stone and begin to shake the peel some until eventually the pizza proceeds to move from the pizza peel to the cooking surface (usually a stone).
Now your pizza is cooking and you're a couple minutes away from heaven.
I hope this article helped you on your pizza making journey. Now all you need is a little practice, which is the fun part and you'll be an expert in no time.
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