First, thank you all so much for your awesome feedback on my “Lonely Struggles” post. So many of you have either been in my position or still are now, and I appreciated each and every comment and email I received this morning. Keep ‘em coming!
For those of you in the same position as I am, several people suggested the website meetup.com to find events and groups of people who share your interests! I know I’m definitely going to check it out.
And finally, don’t forget to check out Tina’s bake sale, where Savvy Scones and other yummy treats are up for grabs!
Pizza for dinner seemed like a great idea. I mixed up a huge batch of pumpkin pizza dough, and gathered up a bunch of veggies from the Farmer’s Market.
Everything seemed to be going well. The dough rose beautifully, and the toppings were gorgeous. I mean, just look at these peppers:
Yes, apparently I am into purple produce this week. Happily, the vendor with the most colorful and best-looking peppers at the Farmer’s Market this week also had the lowest prices. Score!
Speaking of which, did you know that purple bell peppers are green on the inside? I didn’t!
Some baby sweet onions, a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil sealed the deal.
The toppings were fragrant and slightly caramelized, and so delicious that cheese wasn’t even needed. I rolled out the dough and spread the toppings in a thick layer on top. It was beautiful and held such promise.
Until I tried to transfer the pizza from the pizza peel to my pizza stone. It wouldn’t budge!
I tried using a spatula to slide some flour under the crust so that it would slide more easily.
It looked like all was well, with the pizza sliding off onto the stone. Until I realized that only a small section was sliding off, and had separated itself from the rest of the crust. In the end, we had a misshapen pizza, with the crust bunched up in some areas and nonexistent in others. The middle of the pizza was purely toppings, with no crust underneath.
Clearly, my pizza and bread baking skills need some work. At least it tasted good!
Any advice for avoiding this major sticking problem in the future? I put some flour down before rolling out the dough, but it clearly didn’t work!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Sprinkling your peel with cornmeal before you put the dough on it helps a ton. Unlike flour, it kids of rolls right off (imagine a million tiny wheels underneath your dough).
Misshapen or not, it looks delicious!
the same thing happened to me the first (and last) time I used a pizza stone! I use round pizza sheets now, and they work wonders! The crust cooks perfectly.
For some reason, I have problems with pizza stones. I just use a baking sheet and it works great! Your pizza looks delicious with all those toppings! Cheers!
I think someone else beat me to it, but I use cornmeal on my peel before putting the dough on it. Then I build the pizza with whatever toppings, while it’s sitting on the cornmeal’d peel. It slides off perfectly every time!
The pizza might be slightly misshapen, but looks delish!
i second (or third?) the cornmeal recommendation. just make sure that it goes on the peel (or whatever surface you’re rolling your dough out on), NOT the stone as you pre-heat it…somehow i didn’t think that through the first time, and ended up with the fire alarm going of as i scorched the cornmeal on my pre-heating stone. FYI – burnt cornmeal smells terrible, and makes a HUGE mess if you tip your stone at all taking it out of the oven. =)
As someone who used to “slap” dough for a living (translation: I worked in a pizza place. . . not one of the more glamorous jobs I’ve had, but hands down the most fun) I 4th the cornmeal solution. Using it on your dough as you’re shaping it (as well as under whatever surface you’re doing this on) will help keep the dough from sticking to your hands as well.
Cornmeal on the pizza brick works like a charm!