There are two types of peels that are used. One is the metal peel, this is used for removing the pizzas from the oven, and the other is the wood peel. Wood peels are the best for use as prep peels (perp the pizza on the peel and peel the dressed pizza into the oven). You can buy wood peels from American Metalcraft<
www.amnow.com> or you can get them from Mr. Peel, Inc. at 888-994-4664. As for release agents for use on the peels, while some will use flour, I really don’t like to use it due to potential flavor issues and an increased probability of the dough skin sticking to the peel if the dressed dough skin is left on the peel too long. I like to use corn meal, or even better, a 50/50 blend of semolina flour and corn meal. Semolina flour is a lot coarser than regular flour so it works quite well either by itself or with corn meal. For some artisan pizzas I will use one of the coarser grades of rye flour. This will give the finished crust sort of a dusty appearance. In a pinch, I’ve also used stone ground (coarse) whole-wheat flour too. What ever you opt to use, just make sure you have an oven broom handy to sweep out the debris from the oven. You don’t want to have all that stuff accumulating on the deck surface.
Tip: Metal peels are best with a longer handle (long enough so that when held in the normal manner, the end of the handle reaches your elbow) and square handles are better than round handles, however most of ours have round handles, go figure. Prep peels are best with short handles as they are easier to work with, but if you have a Marsall oven (not necvessary to rotate pizzas during baking) you should also get a few long handled wood peels too, as these will allow you to slip a pizza into the back of the oven without moving those in the front. Real wood peels are a bit more forgiving than the composite peels if you leave the prepped dough on the peel too long as the dough will exhibit a greater tendency to stick to the composite peel. Also, just before you take the prepped dough skin to the oven, give it a shake or twjust to make sure the dough is free to slide off of the peel. Better to know you’ve got a problem before the oven. If the dough sticks to the peel when you are peeling it into the oven you will only end up with a pile of toppings on the deck, and the dough skin still attached to the peel. Did you say you wanted a crust under your pizza? I guess I’ll have to make that one again.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
