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My defrosted dough hard to handle once I put stuff on it. I make a horrible mess getting onto the pizza stone. I wind up with at least part of the pizza dough folded over on itself. I never used to have quite so much trouble. I was using a wooden pizza peel; I just tried a metal one for the first time and still have the same problems. what am I doing wrong

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    Random comment: the use of the word "peel" as a noun this way is unknown in BrE, and I am having difficulty working out what it means in AmE. I think it's (per M-W): "a usually long-handled spade-shaped instrument that is used chiefly by bakers for getting something (such as bread or pies) into or out of the oven" - is that what is meant here?
    – abligh
    Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 19:18
  • @abligh as a fellow speaker of British English, there's no common equivalent word, so the American term has started to be used (very rarely you'll see "pizza paddle")
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 19:58
  • @ChrisH Fascinating. I would assume that's called a pizza paddle or pizza shovel. But there must be a word (in BrE) that British bakers used to insert and remove their loaves from the oven. I remember them using a long shovel like thing when I was a kid. I wonder what it's called.
    – abligh
    Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 20:14
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    @ChrisH two or three other sources I found agree with etymonline.com/word/peel that was in use in Middle English centuries before southern Europeans reached the Americas.
    – Pete Kirkham
    Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 21:11
  • @PeteKirkham I'm not surprised. It wouldn't be the first or the most common word to have faded away in British but be preserved in American English (e.g. "gotten"). Also I (and many sellers) disagree with M-W as quoted by abligh - the handle doesn't have to be long for it to be a peel, but with commercial sized pizza oven you'd burn your hand with a short handle. The one I made a few months ago is short-handled for a domestic oven
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 12, 2020 at 8:00

3 Answers 3

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Keeping a pizza from sticking is a process; the spot that sticks on the peel probably developed before it was on the peel. Use plenty of flour on the counter while forming the crust. Make sure to move the crust around frequently, and work fast when assembling the pizza. While stretching the dough and between pizzas, occasionally feel the counter. If flour is sticking to it, scrub it away with your fingers and sprinkle on more flour.

Once the pizza is on the peel, shake it frequently to test it and to keep redistributing the dry flour underneath it. If you see a spot sticking and shaking doesn’t dislodge it, don’t be shy about lifting it up and sprinkling flour underneath: if it sticks a little bit when you shake it, it will stick, and more severely, when you transfer the pizza.

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Build your pizza on a square of parchment paper. When you transfer it to the oven, transfer the parchment paper with it. Heat will travel right through the parchment and you'll still get the same browning on the bottom of the pizza.

If you are worried about the parchment burning in a very hot oven, you can remove the parchment paper shortly after the pizza is in the oven. After minute or so on a hot pizza stone, the bottom crust of the pizza will set, and it will release from the parchment. Then, you can wiggle the parchment out from between the pizza and stone--the same way you'd wiggle the peel out, except this time with the benefit of a firmer, partially cooked pizza.

The parchment paper may scorch at high heat, but there's no danger.

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  • Have you done this? Because in my experience it sticks to paper just as happily as to anything else. And at pizza temperature the paper will burn or even burst into flames.
    – RedSonja
    Commented Oct 12, 2020 at 8:51
  • I do this all the time. The dough does stick to the parchment paper when the dough is raw, but releases after about a minute in the oven once the bottom of the dough begins to cook. The parchment will scorch, but I've never had it burst into flames. Rest assured, it's safe.
    – AMtwo
    Commented Oct 12, 2020 at 12:30
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The previous two answers were good ones. There's another option: sprinkle the peel with semolina before placing the dough on it. And yes, do remember to shake the peel from time to time as you're loading it up, and shake it one last time before approaching the oven with it, to make sure the pizza won't stick as you slide it off onto the stone.

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    You have to be both generous and even with the semolina; I struggle to get enough on when working with very sticky (e.g. defrosted) dough.
    – Chris H
    Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 19:57
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    In my experience with fresh, homemade sourdough pizza dough, a mixture of bread flour and semolina works best. I use a flour dredger to her a light even coating of flour then sprinkle some semolina on that. The flour, being more powdery, acts as a matrix that stops the semolina bouncing, rolling or sliding away. I had to use just semolina the other day and it took a ridiculous amount without the flour.
    – Spagirl
    Commented Oct 11, 2020 at 22:57

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