How can I get my defrosted pizza dough to transfer from peel to oven?

Question

My defrosted dough hard to handle once I put stuff on it. I make a horrible mess getting onto the pizza stone. I wind up with at least part of the pizza dough folded over on itself. I never used to have quite so much trouble. I was using a wooden pizza peel; I just tried a metal one for the first time and still have the same problems. what am I doing wrong

Answer 1

Keeping a pizza from sticking is a process; the spot that sticks on the peel probably developed before it was on the peel. Use plenty of flour on the counter while forming the crust. Make sure to move the crust around frequently, and work fast when assembling the pizza. While stretching the dough and between pizzas, occasionally feel the counter. If flour is sticking to it, scrub it away with your fingers and sprinkle on more flour.

Once the pizza is on the peel, shake it frequently to test it and to keep redistributing the dry flour underneath it. If you see a spot sticking and shaking doesn’t dislodge it, don’t be shy about lifting it up and sprinkling flour underneath: if it sticks a little bit when you shake it, it will stick, and more severely, when you transfer the pizza.

Answer 2

Build your pizza on a square of parchment paper. When you transfer it to the oven, transfer the parchment paper with it. Heat will travel right through the parchment and you'll still get the same browning on the bottom of the pizza.

If you are worried about the parchment burning in a very hot oven, you can remove the parchment paper shortly after the pizza is in the oven. After minute or so on a hot pizza stone, the bottom crust of the pizza will set, and it will release from the parchment. Then, you can wiggle the parchment out from between the pizza and stone--the same way you'd wiggle the peel out, except this time with the benefit of a firmer, partially cooked pizza.

The parchment paper may scorch at high heat, but there's no danger.

Answer 3

The previous two answers were good ones. There's another option: sprinkle the peel with semolina before placing the dough on it. And yes, do remember to shake the peel from time to time as you're loading it up, and shake it one last time before approaching the oven with it, to make sure the pizza won't stick as you slide it off onto the stone.