Use a pizza peel with a baking stone for perfect pizza

How do you get the pizza ON and OFF the pizza stone?

A Pizza Peel…

The picture to the right is a large paddle...like your school principal had in their office. It is used to put the pizza into the oven, and to remove the pizza from the oven

Used in combination with cornmeal or a light dusting of flour, this allows you to easily slide the pizza onto the hot baking stone.

And…it will let you reach into the oven without burning yourself!

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. And are made with a variety of different materials; wood and aluminum are two of the more popular.

For the home pizza chef, a short handle is best. Our family uses a 6 inch handle.

A larger handle is difficult to store in the house, and is rather unwieldy to use in the kitchen…especially around kids.

How to use a pizza peel

There are 2 general schools of thought.

The first method is to build your pizza directly on the peel and then slide the pizza off the peel into the oven. The second method is to build the pizza on a flat surface, such as a kitchen counter, and then slide the peel under the pizza and then into the oven.

For the home pizza chef I think it makes sense to build your pizza directly on the peel. This reduces the mess, not having to spread flour or cornmeal all over your counter...and eliminates worrying about the pizza sticking to the counter.

This method also works great for the kids. Adding the step of trying to slide a peel under the pizza can be difficult for the little ones.

Flour or Cornmeal?

Choices, choices, choices...

Whether you choose to use cornmeal or flour is a personal preference. Cornmeal works great, acting as tiny marbles allowing the pizza to slide off easily, but adds the taste and texture of cornmeal.

Flour works just as well but does not add the corn taste or texture. We have used both, but the kids are not big fans of the cornmeal...and it seems to get everywhere.