Hi all,

Can someone pls inform  me why it is suggested that we use cornflour or cornmeal on the peel, transfer paddle or the couche cloth instead of AP flour or regular bread flour? What's the difference?

Hi,

I've recently purchased a ceramic pizza baking stone. What's the best way to transfer the bread dough (like a boule) to the baking stone while it is pre-heating inside the oven. I don't have a peel.

At the moment, I proof my dough on a thin silicon mat. Prior to baking, I'll remove the baking stone from the oven, and slide the whole thing (silicon mat and dough) onto the baking stone, before putting it back in the oven again for baking. I do not remove my silicon mat until the baking is complete.

Will i lose significant oven spring by using a thin silicon mat on top of a pre-heated baking stone the whole time? Am I rendering the baking stone ineffective by doing so? Let me emphasis the silicon mats I'm using are pretty thin (similar to parchment paper), and definitely not as thick as SILPAT.

As always, any advice and help is welcome. Thanks.

Sue

Help! I'm just learning to use my new peel and stone. Trying to break away from putting all my breads on or in a pan. So, today I had a beautiful loaf of Multi-flour miche ready to load into the oven. Thought I did everything right. I put cornmeal on the peel. Had the stone blazing hot. Went to load it and the darn thing stuck to the peel. I used my pastry cutter to push it off the peel and it ends up as a squished up mound at the front of the stone, stuck to the stone and the door of the oven.

Is this a normal newbie problem? More cornmeal, put loaf on peel at the very last second? How do you keep a fairly wet dough from sticking to the stone?What should I do different next time? I will learn how to do this, even if I have to throw a hundred loaves away in the process!

I just hope I didn't ruin my multi-flour miche, it was looking and smelling so nice. I'm thinking this is going to be my very favorite formula to start working with. (from Hamelman's Bread)

Hello,

Iv'e graduated from a culinary school and started to do some workshops.

My next one is breads. At home I'm using parchment papaer- to put the shaped and pre-shaped doughs

After that I transfer them to a sheet pan that has been already heated in the oven (otherwise the bottom will burn).

I had success moving the parchment with breads to the oven, and using the sheet pans.

I don't use cloth nor special baskets....but I want this workshop to look more professional.

What would you advise me to get?

Pizza peel? stone? (very expenssive), canvas? (I believe it's more usefull for loafs), bannentons?

I never used those at home, I don't know how easy it to transfer the bread from the peel to the oven...do u proof the shaped

bread on the peel?? if not- how do you transfer it?

Thanks so much!

Hi everyone,

I've have a 14" metal peel with wood handle, an old weed cutter I've modified for a moving hot coals, a commercial cotton mop with wood hanle, metal snow shovel for scooping coals and a five foot long fishing gaff I've modified for a bubble popper.  I'd reallu like to have a 8" utility peel but i'm having a hard time justifying paying $70.00 plus dollars for one.  Does anyone know of a utility peel out there with a little more reasonable price tag?

DOC Opa

I am not very advanced: as my question will indicate. I have two types of cornmeal at home usually: the coarse ground, and the flour. Can I use either one when sprinkling on the peel?  And if the coarse is okay, then are grits okay?  Thank you. 

To begin with, let me say that I'm relatively new at baking.   I worked in commercial food venues for a long time, then left that for a string of factory jobs.  These days, I am self-employed and work out of my home.  (www.sandraydesigns.com) I do high-end embroidery and graphic design for many clients, but food has always been my first hobby.  

And now, open the curtain upon the wonderful world of baking! 

When I started researching baking, it was with the simple motive that my family could barely afford bread at the local supermarket.  I needed to find ways to not just make ends meet, but bend them like pretzels and make them taste good too.   So, I've kind of gone back to my foodservice roots, making the simple, wholesome fare that... errr, generations of college students relied on... like deep fried everything, gourmet burgers, and delicious pizza.

You need certain tools to create the right taste, whether it is an outdoor grill, good cooking oil, or hmm, a peel, a baking "stone", and some specialty cutlery. 

Let's just say I'm oppurtunistic when it comes to finding the right tools.  If it can be cannabalized for my latest obsession, I'll strip it down and use it in a heartbeat.  My wife just rolls her eyes and sighs when I get into something, but she also knows the end result will be good.

Heres a picture of my peel, made from an aluminum cookie sheet and a 2" dowel piece.  On it is another dowel piece, that I use for a roller, and my nifty little mezzaluna-onna-stick that I made from an alaskan snow knife ("Ulu") and another 1/2" dowel.  I put a 15" ruler next to it for scale.

And here is the finished product, with crust showing...

Recipe to follow, in the next post.

I'm really still very new at this bread-baking thing, so I hesitate to say it, but I may have discovered a tolerably good and low-cost alternative to a pizza peel! 

Today I tried making pizza for the first time.  I realized last-minute that even my rather large spatula (roughly 6"x6") was just not going to transfer these little babies onto my baking stone.   Silly of me. 

Still, I have a bunch of those wafer thin "cutting boards".  They're actually more like sheets -- probably about a millimetre thick.  They sell them at Ikea and also at dollar stores.  Very very cheap. 

Anyway, I sprinkled some cornmeal on one and very gently slid the cutting sheet under my pizza.  My crusts were really thin, but it slid fairly well -- with some of the pizzas I had to lift the last little bit on and slide it down, but it really wasn't any trouble to do that.  With some of them I lifted the bit of crust nearest the edge and just sprinkled a little bit more cornmeal underneath.  They slid off the cutting sheet and onto the baking stone beautifully! No fuss, no muss, no rough stuff.

Next time I'll place the finished disks of pizza dough directly onto a bed of cornmeal -- I think that might even make things easier. Glee!  I'm so happy with this little trick that I may not even buy a peel!  We'll see...  

Karen

re: an older post on thrifty hints for gear:

I've gotten good results using a cookie sheet (no sides) heavily dusted with flour or cornmeal as a substitute for a peel.