who needs a pizza peel when you've got one of these babies?
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
Rather than putting plastic, which might melt, into your oven, try an upside down baking sheet and parchment paper.
No, I don't put the plastic cutting sheet into the oven; rather, I just use it as a peel. It's in and out so quickly I don't see a danger in it melting.
Karen
That's very ingenious! Sunday I made pizza and I don't have a peel either but I had an unfolded pizza box. The tricky part was transfering the pizza from my work surface via two large spatulas onto the pizza box sprinkled with corn meal. Then it was a cinch.. I think I'd still like to have a peel though ;-) What we won't come up with to have pizza!
But I was afraid the plastic would melt. Glad to hear it does not.
I use the thin plastic cutting boards from Crate and Barrel for peels when I'm baking bread in addition to my one wooden one. I find that their coarse texture is really good for keeping the dough from sticking (after adding semolina, of course) - even better than the backside of baking sheets which are smooth and tend to catch the odd bit of dough. Plus the semolina spreads out more evenly on them. Thanks for the pizza tip though, I hadn't thought of using them for that!
Summer