transfer pizza onto stone without sticking

Question

After I have made my pizza and put the toppings onto it, I find that I am unable to transfer the pizza on to the pizza stone in the oven.

When I try to do it the pizza goes out of shape, gets folded, the toppings get messed up and sometimes it sticks or rips. I have tried putting lots of flour under the pizza before I add the toppings but it didn't really help.

I am having to make the pizza on a metal tray and then put the tray onto the stone. Put I think that doing this prevents my pizza base from crisping properly.

What am I doing wrong? Is there some technique I should use, or am making the dough to wet, or to thin or something?

Answer 1

I've worked as a pizza cook, so I can give you a hard-earned answer. Cornmeal, and plenty of it. If you aren't putting cornmeal (or flour, but cornmeal works better) on the peel before you put the pizza on it, start. If you are putting it on, use more. Then put the pizza on it and give it a shake and make sure the pizza is loose before you try to shove it in the oven. If it isn't, lift up the edge that is stuck and sprinkle more cornmeal under it, then try again. The pizza should be completely free-moving on the peel before you try to transfer it to the oven.

Answer 2

A neat trick I learned from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook is to make your pizza on parchment paper. Do this on the metal tray as you are doing now, which works as a pizza peel. Your metal tray should not be a jelly roll pan, but should be one without a lip. Slide the parchment paper and pizza off the metal tray onto your stone for cooking. Once cooked, use the tray to get the parchment paper and pizza off the stone and onto your rack.

You can also use cornmeal or flour under your pizza. The trick is to use that metal tray like a pizza peel. The parchment paper will make this process a lot easier, and also eases removal.

Answer 3

I have had this problem in the past myself. There are 4 main factors involved:

Technique - You have to use a very fast and smooth movement. Sliding the edge of the pizza off the peel onto the stone, allowing the pizza to catch the hot surface as you slide the peel out from underneath.

Dough - The dough needs to have enough gluten developed to keep from ripping easily. You can make a really thin dough, as long as it has enough gluten, it shouldn't rip. There are 2 ways to develop gluten, working the dough or time. So take a tip from the pros and let the dough rest overnight, most pizza places do. Also make sure to use a good high gluten flour to begin with.

Time - The amount of time the pizza is on the peel with give the moisture extra time to soak into whatever you have underneath the pizza. If it's flour, it will soak up pretty quickly and cause it to stick, also depending on the moisture content of the dough. Work quickly and shake the peel often to make sure there is no sticking.

Peel - There are many different times of peels out there, but wooden is the way to go. With a porous structure there is less contact with the pizza dough as the surface isn't completely smooth. Metal tends to stick more. You can use just about anything to dust the peel, traditionally flour, but if that doesn't seem to work, you may want to try cornmeal or even rice flour.

I used to have a tough time with the dough myself, and though I still haven't found the right recipe or ingredients to make that pizzeria style pizza, I'm enjoying all the practice!

Answer 4

One element not emphasized enough in previous answers is frequent shaking of the peel while making the pizza, especially with wet dough. Using more cornmeal or semolina (or flour) is important, but if it's not spread evenly, wet dough will eventually start to stick in places.

With a relatively dry dough, this may not be necessary. But if you're using a high hydration (wet) dough, such as for a Neapolitan style pizza, it's often useful to shake periodically. Personally, I shake at least after every addition to the crust. So, it's something like: stretch crust, place on peel, shake immediately to be sure no initial sticking, put on sauce, shake, put on cheese, shake, put on other toppings, shake, then final shake check right before opening oven just to be sure you don't have anything sticking before you begin the final slide.

Besides allowing you to use high hydration doughs, the periodic shaking has two other benefits: (1) you can detect sticking in a small area early, and potentially get it to release just by shaking before it becomes really stuck (or detach with a spatula and add extra semolina/cornmeal under that spot while allowing the crust to be more mobile without ripping under the weight of more toppings), and (2) you'll require less semolina/cornmeal/flour, which means less effect on the flavor of the pizza (most people don't like the flavor of a lot of raw flour or cornmeal stuck to the bottom of their pizza).

Answer 5

All good suggestions. One thing I would add is that you can use semolina flour instead of cornmeal--then at least you're not adding another flavor, as it's wheat, but it behaves more like cornmeal than regular flour.

I personally like the parchment trick. My sister, who built a brick oven in her backyard and makes a lot of pizza, just says it's a knack and you learn to handle the dough properly, work quickly, and eventually hardly need any flour.

Answer 6

I believe that the tool you want is one of these. It's kind of like a conveyor belt attached to the peel, so you can just roll it off onto the stone, without ever having to slide the pizza across the peel.

This video shows a pizza being moved.

I've never tried one but the videos make them look like they are pretty good.

Answer 7

You can get perfectly crisp pizza bases in an domestic oven without using a stone. Use a thin steel tray. A flat cookie sheet works fine

Clear all non required trays and racks out of your oven. Turn you oven onto bake and MAX heat and make sure it has reached max temperature before you put the pizza in. This can take more than 20 minutes on a domestic electric oven

Make the base thin and use olive oil where the base hits the tray. Build the pizza on the tray

Place the tray in the middle of the oven, not top or bottom

If the pizza takes more than ten minutes to cook, your oven is not hot enough

Ideally it's done in five to seven minutes

A peel and a stone is better, but there is usually not enough room to maneuver in a domestic kitchen, and it make a lot of mess for not much gain

The secret is the really hot oven, and olive oil

Answer 8

What I've been doing lately is putting a long piece of parchment paper on the peel, assembling the pizza on it, then transferring it to the stone using the parchment paper as sort of a conveyor belt.

Basically, the piece of parchment paper is long enough to hang several inches off of the front of the peel. I hold the handle with my right hand and use my left hand to grab the paper underneath the front end of the peel. I then hold the front of the peel close to the back of the stone and pull slowly on the parchment paper. This moves the pizza forwards onto the stone. Once an inch or so of the pizza is touching the stone, I pull a little more quickly on the parchment paper and pull the peel back at the same time.

If done correctly, the pizza will transfer perfectly onto the stone. I do flour up the parchment paper, but not as much as I would flour up the pizza peel since there is less friction.

As for serving, I serve directly off the stone (good pot holders are essential here, obviously).

Answer 9

This probably won't be terribly popular, but I've had good success using a two-stage process. First, I roll out and bake the crust on a metal sheet, then I pull out the mostly-baked crust and separate it from the metal sheet so it slides freely. Add toppings and sauce, then slide onto pizza stone for an additional ten minutes. Take the pizza off by quickly sliding a baking tray under it. The crust is nice and crisp, and the sauce doesn't dog out the top off the crust. The great part is that you can prepare your crusts ahead of time, so when you have lots of people over, you can crank out a pizza with a homemade, crispy crust every ten minutes!

Answer 10

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Using three pizza stones of the same size works. But they really do need to be of the same size. One goes into the oven. The other two are used to set up the transfer.

The general methodology is as follows. It is assumed that the fresh dough is prepared but has not been removed from its work surface. It is also assumed that the first pizza stone is already in the oven.

STEP 1: On a separate work surface place the second pizza stone. Apply a thin film of grapeseed oil to the stone and then dust it very well (and very uniformly) with cornmeal or grits. Carefully lay the fresh dough across it, being sure not to slide it around. (Folding good, sliding bad.) Now, assuming there's an overlap, here's a great opportunity to easily complete two common tasks. First, go round and gently push in a bit of the dough so that the border becomes just a bit puffier than the rest of the pizza. The height and firmness of the stone makes it easy to get this just right. (You can even fill a fold with thin strips of fontina or fresh basil.) Second, use your pizza wheel to trim off all the excess dough. The stone makes the perfect border for that task, especially if placed on a turntable.

STEP 2: Add your fresh toppings (as soon as possible). Sprinkle a trail of cornmeal all round the very top edge of the crust. Then place the third pizza stone on top. Either side is fine. Just line it up. Now grab the whole thing with both hands and flip it over. Set it on a round cutting board, like the ones used for cheese, the diameter of which is less than that of the pizza stone. Room enough for your hands is the idea. Now remove the first pizza stone, thus exposing the pizza's underbelly.

STEP 3: Open the oven, pull out the rack, and leave it that way. This won't take long. Using two pot holders, remove the heated pizza stone from the rack and flip it over so that the cooking surface is facing downward. Place it squarely onto the bottom side of the pizza which, of course, is the side now facing up. Now immediately grab the whole thing with both hands, flip it all back over again, and place it onto the center of the oven rack. All that's left is to remove the cool pizza stone from the top of the pizza and close things back up.

Of course it may seem excessive to own three pizza stones. But there are other considerations. Take this same process for example and apply it to making a pair of calzones. For STEP 1 you would have to avoid puffing or trimming the crust, at least at first. And in STEP 2 you would be placing another layer of dough on top and then stuffing/folding/primping/trimming to your own personal specs. However, in the part of STEP 2 where normally you would utilize a cool second pizza stone, instead you will be using a second heated one. Just be sure first to lightly dust the top of the dough with cornmeal too.

This time there's no need to flip the thing before placing it onto the oven rack. You just put it there and leave it that way. In other words, the second heated stone stays right there on top of the calzones, at least for awhile. Then, not long before midway through the baking process, you open the oven door, pull out the rack, flip over the whole thing, and remove the topmost pizza stone before closing things back up. (So you're removing the stone that was on the bottom.) In this way you have ensured of evenly cooked calzones with a nice crust on both sides.

You will possess therefore only one extra pizza stone, not two. And even here, there's something to be said for having a cool one out and ready when the calzones are done. Transferring them to a cool stone stops the cooking process (prevents overcooking) and, obviously, promptly promotes the cooling process while at the same time providing a good cutting surface. Plus, honestly, you don't want to gunk up a pizza stone. It's good for that spare to be used just for slicing and serving, as it still possesses that touch of authenticity. The other two should never see aught but dough, and should be stored facing each other.

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Answer 11

If you make the pizza on a stainless pizza circle with a lip, just use butter, unfold the wrapper and coat the pan- then lay and form the dough to the pan. Once the za is ready to rock toss it in the oven. Wait about 7- 10 min then grab the pizza circle with a glove or cloth shake left and right to make sure it has baked enough and loose then slide it off the pan onto the stone. Using corneal is good when making on a pizza board. Just make sure to roll the dough out then cut it to fit the board lay flour and cornmeal down on the board then the dough. Enjoy that Za with a crispy crust!!

Answer 12

My answer for my home use is probably not the "professional" way but It works great. and for my home microwave oven gives me actually an even better crust.

First I put my pizza stone(mine's just thick steel, no flour) on top of my stove. set it on high heat. then after I make my dough circular and make a crust I transfer it to it. then you can put the toppings or let it bubble a bit and then do that. and transfer the hot plate to oven at 220c-200c (convection oven, the microwave has one). for 8m or something until the topping are golden, since we're using a very hot bottom and giving the crust an advantage I use a lower oven temp then the transfer method (250c for transfering)

Answer 13

I struggled with this too and had all but given up on making pizza at home. I have a pizza peel and a pizza stone, but somehow flour and cornmeal were never enough to guarantee the pizza would slide onto the stone easily. Especially if I'd loaded the pizza with toppings.

Finally I found a video of a guy using parchment paper; I wish I still had a link or remembered his name so I could give him credit. Anyway, this method requires no flour or cornmeal on the peel:

1. After the dough is shaped and just before you put sauce on it, place a piece of parchment paper on the peel.

2. Place the dough on the parchment and adjust the shape if you need to.

3. Add toppings.

4. Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, which has been preheating.

5. After 5 or 10 minutes of cooking, lift the front edge of the pizza with tongs or whatever (cuz it will be hot) and gently pull the parchment out.

I've used this method several times so far, and it's worked perfectly every time. If it's cheating, I don't care.