Spectacular fail. Not the fault of the oven. Could not get the pizza off the peel and into the oven. Thankfully i kinda saw it coming and stuck the pizza stone in the oven and was able to maneuver it onto that.
i was using a stainless peel and despite flouring it would not even come close to sliding off. Ive read a wooden one is better for raw dough.
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
The pizza still ended up tasty if somewhat misshapen, lol. Convection at 450 for 11 mins, perfect. Just bummed about not being able to get it into the ooni.
Cooking gadgets
Weber Summit Charcoal Grill Center
Weber Summit Platinum D6
Blue Rhino Razor
Dyna-Glo XL Premium Dual Chamber
Camp Chef Somerset IV along with their Artisan Pizza Oven 90
Anova WiFi
Thermometers
Thermapen Mk4 - ThermaQ High Temp Kit - ThermaQ Meathead Kit - ThermaQ WiFi - ThermoWorks IR-GUN-S - ThermoWorks Signals & Billows - ThermoPop -ThermoWorks ProNeedle - ThermoWorks TimeStick Trio x2 - and a Christopher Kimball timer - NO, I do not work for ThermoWorks...I just like their products.
Other useful bits...
KitchenAid 7-qt Pro Line stand mixer
A Black & Decker food processor that I can't seem to murder
A couple of immersion blenders, one a "consumer" model & the other a "high end" Italian thing. Yes, the Italian one is a bit better, but only marginally
Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 8-qt + accessories like egg-bite & egg holders
All-Clad pots & pans, along with some cast iron...everything from 7" Skookie pans to 8.5qt Dutch ovens
Weber GBS griddle, pizza stone, and wok
Knives range from Mercer to F. Dick to "You spent how much for one knife? One knife?!" LOL
Well, I’m certainly no expert when it comes to pizza but I was instructed a long time ago: wood for delivery, stainless for recovery. LOL
I have both...and generally have used wood for both...though I can see how getting the SS under the pizza could be quicker for spinning.
And as @barelfy suggests, cornmeal can help a lot.
Method 1: This is what I do. Stretch your dough and then lay it on a sheet of parchment paper. Then add sauce, cheese, toppings. Trim the parchment to be about 1/4" from the edge of the dough. Use a peel to launch the pizza into your oven. Rotate your pizza once and when it's half baked take it out and remove the parchment like a magician does with a table cloth. Then relaunch the pizza and finish cooking normally.
Method 2: This is what I used to do. Stretch your dough. Add cornmeal to your peel (a wooden peel works best). put your dough onto the peel and build the pizza. Then launch it into your oven and cook. After launching I liked to switch to a metal peel for the rest of the cook.
That parchment paper idea sounds solid, ill have to try it next time around, as I've had mucho troubles transferring pizza....thanks for the photos and tips!
had the same problem.....until I learned about dough hydration ratios. With my Ooni, after destroying a few pies and making pepperoni charcoal, I found Ken Forkish's book indispensable.....with the heat my Ooni rolls at the lower dough hydration also solved the stickiness problem. how hot was your Ooni?
A lower hydration dough helps as does parchment. But you also need to work quickly once you place the dough on the peel. You don't want the moisture in the dough to soak the parchment or cornmeal.
Attjack - Maybe. If I leave it on the parchment too long before placing in the oven, it sometimes sticks to the parchment. If I dress the 'za quickly, it doesn't happen.
Attjack - I actually don't remember, but I know it has happened in the past - no release. I may have changed dough recipes since then, but I still dress the 'za as quickly as possible to prevent sticking and have not had it happen recently, and for the most part, I am making Detroit Style in the oven now anyway. I would do it in the kettle, but I don't want to ruin one of my new Detroit Style pans by smokin' it...
You'll get a feel for how much flour to put on the peel. Give it the shake test to make sure it's moving. If it's stuck lift it up and toss more flour under. Blow a little air. I have an ooni koda but personally wouldn't use parchment with that. It's so tight in there space wise you'd really have to have the parchment trimmed close or it could burn up. Plus spinning is required so much with the koda. I caught some on fire heating a stone right up against the broiler in the regular oven. The first one always sticks with experience you'll be launching then in like it's nothing. I did replace the stone it came with with a baking steel to help with recovery when cooking multiple pies, worked great.
Yeah, before I switched to parchment I would get it it shaking back and forth too. If it is sliding back and forth it's a good sign your launch will go smoothly.
I use a Blackstone and there is more room in the oven and it spins itself. But it's 900f and the 1/4" of parchment does burn up but that's not an issue for me.
Plenty of ideas to work with above, just one other thing. I absolutely detest the mouth feel of cornmeal on a pizza, and AP absorbs moisture too quickly. I find a dusting of semolina flour works well as long as you follow the advice from RonB to work quickly. Also another vote to get an IR, they're not that expensive anymore, and oh so handy,
Agreed on cornmeal. Before I switched to parchment I did find that not all cornmeal was equal. So some was softer but I'll never go back to cornmeal or flour.
2nd attempt was better but still not great. I used parchment and solved the previous issue, but man, this thing is a fine line between cooked dough and burnt top. I think the dough was just a tad too thick and hence was a little undercooked.
I use store-bought too including Trader Joes. I prefer Whole Foods dough over TJs but mostly I buy from a local chain. WF is a big dough you might want to split it in 2 if you try it. Anyway, I think you just need to run your oven a little cooler and you will start nailing it.
if the top is done faster than your crust, is is usually the stone is not as hot as the ambient air. Try running hotter than you intend to bake at, then drop the temp just before launching. Or have a longer warm up period.
Good advice. I get my oven up to 900f and then launch my pizza and immediately turn down my heat. Easy to do with my propane-fired oven but not possible with Grant's Ooni.
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