The growth of handmade pizza dough and at-home pizza ovens has resulted in the development of at-home pizza accessories.
If you’ve spent time developing your recipe and fine-tuning your at-home pizzeria setup to produce exquisite Neapolitan-style pies, the next step is to discover the best pizza peel. Knowing which pizza peel to use and when to use it will make your pizza better and more consistent almost instantly.
What precisely is a pizza peel? A pizza peel resembles a cross between a shovel and a spatula and is used to slip the pizza into (and retrieve it from) the heat source, which might be your wood-fired outdoor oven or your countertop pizza maker.
The pizza peel is the paintbrush for the painter. It is the primary tool used by the Master Pizzaiolos to enter the pizza into the oven and then manage the pizza’s voyage within the oven until it comes out.” Without a peel, pizza is virtually hard to turn in the oven and does not hold its form when transferred.
Peels are available in a variety of forms and materials, with foldable handles, short and long handles, and a variety of pricing points. Choosing the finest peel for your at-home pizza may be a simple question of taste.
We’ve gathered the finest peels available to ensure consistently excellent pizzas.
How to Choose a Good Pizza Peel
As a lifelong pizza fan and cook with a family history of crafting restaurant-style pies, I seriously take the equipment and materials required to create delectable pies.
While pizza is a simple and attractive dish, a lot may go wrong during the preparation process. Having the correct tools is a simple approach to eliminating some of the possible pitfalls.
Shape
Professional peels have rounder heads for a reason: a professional must be able to work with pizzas in all corners of a huge oven from a single little doorway. Because of the angle of insertion, a square-headed peel makes it much more difficult to manipulate pies near the sides of the oven.
As a result, the asymmetric peel is required for them, regardless of the angle it is placed (i.e., round). On the other hand, a home cook works in a single little oven or grill. You should always attack your pizza from the front. As a result, a square-headed peel simplifies the process of insertion and retrieving. It’s a square.
Materials
Wooden peels are quite beautiful. Wood is also the ideal material for preventing raw pizza dough from sticking, which is necessary for placing a raw pizza into the oven without upsetting the toppings. You can also cut and serve your pizza right from the peel without risking breaking your knife or pizza wheel. However, there are some significant drawbacks. Maintenance is a chore.
To avoid warping, the peel must be gently dried after washing. To protect it from absorbing smells or stains, massage it with mineral oil regularly. Furthermore, wooden peels are not fireproof.
Even with extreme caution, if used on a grill or in a wood-burning oven, it will acquire burn scars. Finally, the peels of wood are thick. There’s no getting around it. Thick peels make slipping beneath a half-baked pie to rotate it, or even a completely cooked pie to retrieve it, exceedingly difficult. To move it up onto the peel, you must go inside the oven with a tiny spatula or tongs.
Composite peels are easier to maintain than wood and slightly thinner, but they still have the same fundamental flaw: they are excessively thick. Furthermore, I have yet to see a mixed peel with a long enough handle to reach the rear of a really hot oven without singing the hairs from your palm.
The material of choice is used to create metal peeling. Metal blades are super-thin and simple to slip beneath a pie, whether it’s on a stone or on the grill. They’re also easy to clean and last a long time.
The only disadvantage? Raw dough sticks to it more than it does to a wooden peel. This can readily be remedied by lightly dusting the peel with flour or cornmeal before adding the dough and working fast or coating the peel with parchment paper.
The pizza can be built on paper and then placed onto the stone, parchment, and all (this will not work for grilled pizza).So, where do we go from here? Choose a hardwood peel for launching and a metal peel for retrieval.
Handle Length
Peels should have long handles to allow you to reach the back of your oven while maintaining 4-5 inches of space between your hand and the opening.
Versatility
Casella points out that pizza peels are useful for more than just cooking pizza. “Of course, wooden peels are fantastic for serving pizza, but they’re also great for presenting cheese boards and other party items.” All peels may be used to bake bread and anything else that requires the use of a baking stone or steel.” Brohner adds that vintage peels. “Can be utilised to beautify kitchens, pantries, and outdoor patios with pizza ovens as dramatic wall decorations
Top 7 Pizza Peels
The pizza peels mentioned below have been hand-picked for home chefs based on product testing, research, and user feedback to help you discover the right peel for your next pizza party and beyond.
Pizza Peel with Detachable Wood Handle for Easy Storage
Pros
- Easily turn pizzas with this tool
- as well as small pastries and baked goods
- Nonstick surface
- Multiple handle options
Cons
- Pizzas of average size cannot be loaded
Adjustable Handle The overall size Pizza Paddle
This 14 x 16-inch rectangular peel is constructed of strong aluminum and comes with a pair of removable, rounded wood handles that may be used in various culinary circumstances.
The shortest handle, at 16 inches, is suitable for a home oven, grill, or small pizza oven, and it also works for deep outdoor ovens when completely completed.
We discovered that this was fairly front-heavy in testing. Therefore it was best utilized two-handed.
It also flexed a little when we took our pizza out of the oven, so we had to make sure the pizza was correctly situated, or we’d drop it.
Because the handle is smooth and spherical, it might be used as a rolling pin to layout pizza dough, albeit the length may be uncomfortable for chefs used to shorter conventional pins.
This may be dismantled for storage to conserve space.
Pros
- Handles can be removed for a variety of lengths
- Doubles as a rolling pin
- Comfy handle
Cons
- Peel is front-heavy
Lightweight Pizza Turning Peel – Ooni Outdoor Pizza Oven
Ooni is a well-known maker of high-end home pizza ovens, and its anodized aluminum paddle is no exception.
This paddle has rows of thin slots that minimize surface area and simplify moving pizzas into and out of the oven.
We usually put cornmeal on a peel to keep pizzas from sticking, but the slits made us reconsider when we tested this peel.
Instead, we generously covered the bottom of the dough with flour.
The nonstick surface of the peel took care of the rest, and the pizza slithered off with ease.
It was just as simple to remove the pizza from the oven.
The handle is glass-reinforced nylon, which is cool to the touch and long enough to keep hands away from the heat.
These peels were created for use with Ooni’s pizza ovens, but they also work well with a home oven or outdoor barbecue.
It’s easy to pick the proper size for your desired pie and suit your pizza oven’s opening because it comes in two sizes (12 and 14 inches wide).
Pros
- Nonstick is extremely nonsticky
- and easy to handle
- handle
- handle.
Cons
- Dishwasher-safe
Chef Pomodoro Acacia Wood Pizza Peel
This well-made yet reasonably priced wood peel is the perfect option for anybody searching for a peel that will not break the bank.
This peel’s small handle suits it with countertop pizza makers and grills rather than wood-fired ovens (which will benefit from longer-handled peels).
The peel’s tapered edge is made of sturdy acacia wood and is designed to assist dough to glide straight off into the oven and raise the pizza when it’s done.
With its short handle, this peel takes up little more room than a cutting board, allowing it to be stored in even the tiniest of kitchens.
New Star Foodservice 50196 Aluminum Pizza Peel
This well-made pizza peel will make any home cook appear like an expert.
It includes a thin, smooth metal blade for quickly transporting hot pies into and out of the oven.
The hardwood handle is heat-resistant and detachable for simple storage.
The peel is available in six sizes, including extra-long handles, to accommodate big and small pizzas and ovens.
Pros
- Despite its lightweight, the peel can hold up to 10 pounds
Cons
- Unfinished but smooth wooden handle
American Metalcraft 4016 39.5″ Aluminum Pizza Peel
The Super Peel: There has been some controversy regarding the Super Peel, a wooden pizza peel with a fabric conveyor belt that makes it much easier to move the pizza to a stone than a standard peel.
I haven’t had the chance to test one, so I’m not equipped to comment on how well it works.
From observing it in operation, it appears that the length of the handle and the proximity of your hand to the stone when moving the conveyor belt might be a concern if you were using a really hot oven.
While you may transfer the pizza to the stone, it also appears that you’d need a second peel to spin and remove the pie since the super peel is rather thick, and the cloth would not allow it to slide beneath a baked pizza.
Because the material comprises a cotton/polyester combination, it should not be used near an open flame. Grilling pizza necessitates continual monitoring of the underside and rotation of the dough as needed for even charring. I’d hate for my peel to catch fire while I’m doing this.
American Metalcraft 2616 Wood Pizza Peel
If you go to a professional pizzeria, the pizza will be assembled on a marble or hardwood surface, then dragged onto a perforated aluminum pizza peel.
This is a procedure intended for restaurants since they operate faster than you would at home.
If you stretch the dough at home on a solid metal peel or a perforated metal peel, it will cling when you transfer it to the oven.
That is why, at home, I recommend using a wooden peel.
A well-dusted wooden peel with semolina or cornmeal offers you a lot more time to work with the dough.
FAQ
What is the best way to keep pizza from sticking to the peel?
Uncooked pizza is generally coated with flour, cornmeal, or semolina to absorb some moisture from the dough and give itty tiny ball bearings for the pizza to glide on. The product used to dust is a personal preference.
Because flour is used in the crust, it makes it logical, yet it can burn at the high temperatures of a pizza oven. Cornmeal and semolina are chunky and offer flavor and crunch, which many people prefer.
For gluten-free pizzas, which may be quite sticky, set the pizza on parchment paper on the peel, and then place the parchment in the oven for a minute or two (depending on the oven temperature) until the bottom of the pizza has firmed up enough to slide the parchment out.
Can you cut pizza on a pizza peel?
Some peels can be used to cut and serve pizza, although this relies on the material of the peel and if the peel will be used again soon. When cutting pizza on a wooden peel, the toppings can accumulate on the peel, making it sticky when it’s time to put another pizza in the oven.
Those same liquids can discolor the peel if it hasn’t been coated with oil (similar to how cutting boards are seasoned) (similar to how cutting boards are seasoned.) It’s ideal to use the peel to transfer pizzas and a cutting board for cutting.
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