June 22, 2009 - 9:55pm
Pizza supper
Made an SD dough for a pizza supper last night. Made 3, but one got eaten before the photo. I had a lot of trouble getting the wetter dough onto the preheated stone so they aren't pretty. I used the back of a cookie sheet, but even with cornmeal the transfer was difficult. I may have even swore a few times. In the end supper was served and it was quite edible. There were even a few SD onion rings left to join the photo op. ( Thanks Pamela ). Dave
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Nice pizzas and onion rings, Dave!!! Use some parchment paper for less swearing; it works like a charm.
--Pamela
Once again, I must sing the praises of parchment. Why suffer with malformed pizza when parchment can magically solve all your problems? :) Just shape the crust on the parchment, load the pizza up, slide the whole works onto the back of a sheet pan, then load it into the oven. Voila! No muss, no fuss.
I second and third and fourth the use of parchment paper......and.....I never have any trouble sliding my pizza to the stone using a little flour/cornmeal on my pizza peel.....but the parchment paper means there is no extra flour added to the bottom of the pizza dough, and also, the flour and cornmeal make a mess you have to brush out of the oven so it doesn't make a mess....parchment makes it easier and cleaner. Also.......I reach in and slide the paper from underneath the pizza after a few minutes.....I get a better bottom to my crust this way.
I forgot to add.....your pizzas look delicious! ! !
Wow... I read about folks using parchment paper to slide pizza onto the hot stone and it totally slipped my mind. It's a great suggestion and I will remember it next time for sure. Maybe. Thanks everyone. Dave
Sylvia wrote out some excellent instructions on how to get the pizza into the oven without using parchment paper. I haven't tried it yet, but will on my next pizza.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12342/thin-crispy-crust-pizza#comment-71909
--Pamela
Pizza Screen.
Type this into your favorite search engine and you will find loads of advice on using and buying them. They are inexpensive and you buy them once - unlike parchment paper.
I used mine for some time until I got the hang of transferring pizza from peel to stone.
I especially like my pizza screen for doing pizzas on the grill. Yes, you can put the dough directly on the grill, but there again, the screen is a confidence booster.
If you want to work with no net, try semolina on the peel instead of cornmeal. It is a little more "ball bearing" shaped and the pizza will slide more easily. One trick for using just the peel in addition to Sylvia's excellent write up is to make sure that just a little of the crust hangs ove the edge of the peel. If you catch this on the stone, it gives you a little anchor so that the peel pulls away better.
Hope this helps.
Once at a pizza party with Pizzaioli guys making the pizza's..they recommended the Pizza Screens and even offered to give the one's they had brought...I never saw them use them...but they said they can come in handy when the WFO are to hot on the floors and tend to make the crusts to charred on the bottoms. They must work very good! I forgot to get them...though I wouldn't mind having a couple to add to my pizza making tool collection!
Sylvia
Revised...added wfo to hot of floor advice!
I think you pizza's look very tasty...who says a pizza has to be round! The wfo homemade pizza's are often made with a 'free style' appealing rustic shape!
Sylvia
Thanks for more tips and compliments. The pizza's were vert good. I like the rustic look. My biggest problem was on 2 of the transfers the dough tore and that made a mess of my stone. So after all the advice from the group I hope that problem has been resolved. Dave
Cleaning your stone by leaving it in the oven on the self clean cycle works wonders!
is that a pesto and pepper/onion? they all look really good!
Pesto. pepper, onion, mozza and chicken. Dave
but you inspired me to make some homemade pesto soon (basil has to grow some more first though) and then make me some pizza!
Looks good Dave! I made a pizza tonight too but I'm too tire to write it up. Tomorrow though.
--Pamela