Troubleshooting · symptom → cause → fix
The pizza sticks to the peel
The pizza is stuck to the peel and won't slide off – or slides halfway and folds over.
Most likely cause
Moisture has soaked through the dough
How you know: The pizza has been sitting on the peel for a long time, or the sauce has soaked through a thin middle.
Do this: Top quickly – aim for under a minute from the moment the dough goes on the peel until it's in the oven.
Other possible causes
-
Too little flour, or the wrong kind, on the peel
- How to tell
- The peel was almost bare, or dusted with ordinary plain flour that soaks up moisture and turns to paste.
- Fix
- Use semola (coarse durum wheat semolina) or a mix of semola and flour. It works like tiny ball bearings.
-
A hole or tear in the dough
- How to tell
- Sauce has leaked onto the peel through a thin spot.
- Fix
- Patch the hole before the sauce goes on.
Quick answer: moisture, time and the wrong type of flour. Top quickly, use semola on the peel and give the peel a shake before you head for the oven – if the pizza won’t slide on the worktop, it won’t slide into the oven either.
The nerdy explanation
A dough surface lying against a smooth peel starts drawing in moisture straight away. Fine flour turns into glue, while the coarse grains of semola roll. Time is the real enemy: the longer the pizza sits, the more moisture migrates down from the sauce.
See launching for the movement itself and stretching for avoiding thin spots. More problems are in the troubleshooting section.
Frequently asked questions
How do I rescue a pizza that has already stuck?
Lift the edge carefully and blow a little air underneath, or slide some semola under it with a knife. Give the peel a gentle shake – if the pizza moves freely, it's ready.
Wooden or metal peel?
Wood releases more easily when you're building the pizza on it. Metal is thinner and better for turning and retrieving pizzas. Plenty of people use both.