The Peel Pizza

*Store unbaked pizza in the refrigerator until you are ready to heat. Pizza may be stored unbaked for up to three hours.

The purpose of a peel is to place the pizza onto a hot surface, so a pizza stone is a MUST!

Put baking stone into the middle rack of cold oven and preheat oven to 550 degrees, or as hot as your oven will go. (Use the convection setting if you have it.)

Allow stone to heat in oven about 20 minutes, or at least until oven is through preheating.

Unwrap pizza and gently lift the edges of the pizza up to ensure they are loose and ready to slide.

Using oven mitts, open oven and pull rack with baking stone out a few inches. Using a rack that is close to the middle of your oven will result in the most evenly baked crust.

Using a back and forth slight shaking motion, slide (shimmy-style) the uncooked pizza from the peel onto the preheated stone.

For Convection Oven:
Slide the rack back into the oven and bake pizza for approx. 5 minutes. (Because of the temperature of the oven and the stone the pizza will bake very quickly). If you like a crisper crust you may continue baking the pizza for about 1 more minute, but watch very closely so it does not become overcooked.

For Conventional Oven:
Slide the rack back into the oven and bake pizza for approx. 7-8 minutes. (Because of the temperature of the oven and the stone the pizza will bake very quickly). If you like a crisper crust you may continue baking the pizza for about 1 more minute, but watch very closely so it does not become overcooked.

Remove entire stone from oven with good oven mitts. Slide pizza from the stone back on the cardboard peel to slice and serve.

*For a crispier crust you can slice and serve pizza directly on the stone, but the stone will continue to cook the pizza and if served from the stone the bottom of the pizza crust will become cracker like. (This is my personal favorite way to enjoy the pizza, but my family prefers to eat it from the cardboard peel with a softer crust.)

If you are cooking multiple pizzas, tilt the stone over the sink to remove the excess corn meal from the stone before returning it to the oven to cook additional pizza(s).