So you’ve got the equipment, made the bases, tomato sauce and you’ve got the pizza stone in the oven. Did I mention the oven? Well you need to put the pizza stone into the top of the oven and have it on full blast for a minimum of 30 minutes, preferably more like 45 mins before you cook your first pizza. Put the stone in first, don’t get the oven hot then put the stone in as you stand a chance of it cracking. It needs to heat up gently or it’ll be like pouring boiling water on a frozen windscreen (insert Family Fortunes ‘X’ noise here). Tip: if you do forget to put the stone in when the oven’s up to temperature, just open the oven door for 30 seconds, put the stone in at the bottom and leave it there for 2 minutes with the door ajar – then, using some good oven gloves or roasted fingers, pick it up and put it into the top, it should be ok, you’re just avoiding thermal shock.
Don’t attempt to cook 2 pizzas at once, a regular domestic oven can’t reach a very high temperature as it is, so trying to cook more than one at once just goes wrong. Anyway, it takes long enough to get the next base sorted along with tidying up – plus you can make it so you share pizzas out… cooking them one at a time is actually quite good even with a few people waiting as you can churn a garlic bread out early on to stop any arguments. You also need time to prepare to receive their praise.
Time to get creative; load your toppings…it’s oven time!
It is at this point that I reveal you now have a short period of time in which to get the toppings on and get that sucker onto the peel and into the oven. Hence it’s a good idea, no, scrub that, it’s essential that you have all your toppings and peel ready to go. As a guide we’re talking 2 minutes max here from the last movement on the flour to picking it up with the peel. This is because the base is quite a loose mix and is wanting to attach itself to your work surface below. Think pancake Tuesday and ceilings…but with inverted gravity. On goes the tomato base and with this sort of size pizza you need between 1 and 3 tablespoons of tomato base in the centre and move outwards in a spiral spreading evenly. Don’t press down or you run the risk of sticking the base to the surface even more. Quickly now, and then on with the cheese topping… mozzarella of course and buffalo if you can get it… one ball to 2 to 3 pizzas is about right. Grated mozzarella is ok and much easier for your first attempt. Shake over some oregano and you’ve got your basic margherita pizza ready to go into the oven. Toppings are up to you but I’ll be honest… if this is your first go at getting the pizza from the work surface to the oven, you’ll be wise to back off on the toppings because if it’s overloaded, and you’ve not been quick or haven’t floured it just right (and even when you have it can be tricky) then all those toppings are going to make the job twice as hard.
Here comes the fun part but stick with me as I’ve made all the mistakes so you don’t have to. If you’ve been quick in the above steps and have a reasonable amount of flour underneath the pizza then you should be ok (don’t over-flour the bases, you’ll get used to how little you can get away with over time).
Transfer the pizza to the oven with the peel
Ready the peel. Dry it off with a clean tea-towel, even if it’s already dry, you’re getting the surface smooth, free of any water marks that add drag and with the motion you’re getting it warmed up if it’s been sat somewhere cold. Cold is bad because when it hits the heat of the oven it causes condensation. I’ve had pizzas stuck to the peel more times than I care to remember but it’s a rare thing these days. If you have trouble at any point in your transferring your pizza to the oven then this section of the blog should improve your chances. So, peel is all shiny and smooth and you just want a light coating of flour on it. Yes, more flour but once again, you’ll get used to how little you can get away with as you get more practice and you’ll get less of a floury taste going on. I just take a pinch of flour with my fingers, drop it onto the peel and pat it all around – that’s all you need.
Get the peel up to the edge of the pizza, keep it pretty much horizontal and using a quick left-right motion gradually move it underneath the pizza – it’s almost like an oval motion you’d see an industrial floor cleaner doing (sorry, I can’t explain it any better than that, watch our video above). You know you’re onto a winner when you can see the base moving on the work surface – when you’re about half way you can jab it and you’re done. If it sticks a tiny bit then you should be ok, the left-right motion stops it ‘caterpillaring’ up and usually breaks any adhesion to the work surface. If it sticks and is offering more than a tiny bit of resistance then you’re better off backing out of it now – scroll down for what to do if this happens. Otherwise, get that thing into the oven quick smart! Just remember to clean the peel between pizzas – after that one comes out because 1) the base of the cooked pizza will easily allow you to remove it from the oven and 2) when you do remove it from the oven, you’ll likely get some topping / oil on the peel anyway.
Into the oven. Whatever oven you’ve got you want to be rapid with this bit, while of course being careful. Opening the oven, and this won’t be on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper, drops the temperature; and that’s a bad thing. Now unless this blog survives a few hundred years and by now you have mini non-organic teleporters that can transport items in and out of the oven you’ll need to open the oven door but don’t fart about. Door open / pizza in / door shut / timer on. You’ll need to use a jabbing-motion to get the pizza off onto the pizza stone, there’s no fantastically-clever method here I’m afraid, it’s just a case of being quick from work surface to oven. Assuming all that went well, cook for approx 5 minutes and have a look. This depends on your oven, ours is getting on a bit and is gas. A regular not-much-topping pizza takes about 5 minutes, 6 at the most. A decent amount of toppings takes 6 minutes, maybe 7 or 8 if you’ve loaded it. Try to avoid loading it up, less is more. I’ve seen quotes of 15 minutes on some sites, I used to think I was going about it all wrong. No, get that oven red hot with the stone as high as you can (remember to allow room to manoeuvre) and cook it as fast as you can. A commercial electric or garden pizza oven will churn out a pizza in under 2 minutes with a crispy base – you’ll not get that with a conventional domestic oven but that’s your holy grail, not 15 minutes shrivelling the toppings on a low heat. I can’t stress that bit enough – heat upon heat upon heat… 45 minutes of the oven on max with the stone in as high as you can get it.
What if the pizza sticks?
As mentioned before, and probably a few times to come, this isn’t uncommon when you’re starting out. If it’s stuck to the work surface then you need to get some flour between the base and the work surface. It’s quite tricky and it involves holding the pizza base up at an edge and throwing flour under, move around to the next bit, don’t try to do it in one go, keep calm and you’ll be ok. Yes you’re going to over-flour it, but you can knock some excess off later and it’s better than losing a pizza unless you’ve got a spare. Re-flour the peel, not just the edge, all of it and try again, get that left-right motion going and you should be ok.
If it sticks when you go to transfer it to the oven, now you’ve got a bit of work to do but it’s not a disaster. This is where you’ll be thankful of having not overloaded the toppings otherwise they’ll be sizzling nicely on the stone while the topping-free limpet refuses to budge. 2 things you can do here; 1) take it out and try to free it off from the peel in the same way chucking flour underneath as described in the paragraph above or 2) fold it over and create a calzone. Pizza stones are resilient things so anything now turning into a charred mess will be ok.