The 10 Best Pizza Peels
Special Honors
Williams Sonoma Bread & Pizza Peel Great for placing pizzas, flatbreads, and calzones into a hot oven, this tool is crafted from blond alder and can accommodate a pie of up to 14 inches. Its smooth, beveled edges make it a cinch to slide beneath cooked foods for easy removal without any damage or spills. It can double as a cutting board and as a means for serving your baked pizza. It’s recommended that you hand-wash it, and lightly dust it with semolina or cornmeal before use. williams-sonoma.com
Editor's Notes
May 20, 2021:
The Exo Super Pro has been discontinued for now, but the same folks make the Super Peel Composite Pro, which is made from dependable Richlite and uses a convenient fabric conveyor for easy baking. While it's somewhat pricey, its dependable and slim construction make it an especially good choice.
Otherwise, no changes have been made to the Wiki this round. We still recommend the Honey-Can-Do Aluminum for most users because its ultra-thin design it a breeze to slide under a cooked pizza and the handle is built to last for years. The Weber 6691 offers a slightly more classy appearance, as does the Pizza Royale, one of our favorite wooden models.
March 02, 2020:
In this update, we added the Weber 6691, which features a durable stainless steel paddle and is great for use with either a grill or an oven. It can support pizzas of up to 2-1/2 pounds and that are up to 12 inches in diameter. It features a sturdy, nonslip grip and a handle that rotates and folds conveniently over the paddle for compact storage, with a hanging loop that fits on the peg hooks of your Weber grill. You can buy it with confidence, thanks to its two-year warranty. It replaces the New Star Foodservice on our list; its large size can make it difficult to store, and food tends to stick to it easily.
The American-made Honey-Can-Do Aluminum retains its top spot on the list. It’s available in a width of either 12 or 16 inches, and ensures you’ll transfer your pizzas, breads, and pastries successfully and neatly to and from the oven. The Exo Super Pro is another highly rated model, and this one is made with a patented conveyor belt feature. It turns the cloth over the wooden surface to help move your pizza onto it and off of it. It’s been endorsed by “America’s test Kitchen,” and helpful videos are available online to demonstrate how it works.
Many owners of pizza peels use them in conjunction with a pizza stone, which distributes heat evenly to help you create gourmet pizzas, calzones, pastries, desserts, and more. Some pizza peels are dishwasher safe, whereas others need to be washed by hand. Some require periodic oil treatments, while others are virtually maintenance free. When you read the user manual to ensure you’re caring for yours properly, you should get years of use out of it.
Why You Need A Pizza Peel
Their elongated handles make it easy to flip, turn, and move food around during baking without having to remove the tray from the oven.
Most people probably wouldn't guess what a pizza peel does just based on the name, which is presumed to come from the French word pelle, roughly translating to "peel" or "shovel." And while its name may make the pizza peel sound like a single-use tool, it's anything but. The main purpose for this humble and underutilized utensil is removing hot pizzas from the oven, but it's good for much more than that.
A pizza peel is an excellent tool for moving around delicate doughs that would easily break or become misshapen from being transported by hand, like pastries and loaves of homemade bread. Plus, wooden peels, particularly those made from acacia and other visually-appealing woods, can double as serving boards for baguettes, cheeses, and charcuterie, making them very useful when you're throwing a dinner party.
Pizza peels also allow you to position food closer to the back of the oven without burning your hands or forearms. Their elongated handles make it easy to flip, turn, and move food around during baking without having to remove the tray from the oven. Plus, if you use a pizza stone for your homemade pies, a peel makes it significantly easier to slide them on and off without having to worry about taking the stone out of the oven and burning yourself.
Tips For Choosing And Using Your Pizza Peel
There are a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials to consider when choosing your ideal pizza peel. For professional use, you want the longest handle possible, as pizza ovens get much hotter than regular household models. But for home use, you should be more concerned with how it's shaped and what it's made of.
But sometimes, your perfect, hot-out-of-the-oven crust can get stuck too, which is, arguably, even worse.
Rounded edges are great for getting into the corners of your oven, but if you only ever bake one or two pies at a time, a square or rectangular peel will do the trick. And when it comes to materials, consider how you'll be using it — wooden peels are aesthetically pleasing, but they're considerably thicker and more difficult to maintain than metal ones, and not nearly as resistant to high temperatures.
You may think that your pizza is only in danger of sticking to the peel when the dough is raw. But sometimes, your perfect, hot-out-of-the-oven crust can get stuck too, which is, arguably, even worse. There are a few things you can do to prevent sticking, both before and after cooking, that will save you a lot of frustration and have you eating your dinner sooner.
When transferring raw dough to the oven, make sure to coat your pizza peel in flour or cornmeal, which will essentially act as a lubricant to allow the dough to slide across the surface of the peel. If you choose to use cornmeal, though, apply it with a light hand, as it can easily burn on top of your pizza stone or baking sheet. It also helps to move as fast as possible — use a quick back and forth motion to transfer the pie from the peel to the oven in order to loosen it up and prevent it from sticking.
After you've removed your piping hot creation from the oven, time is of the essence. You don't want to let it sit on the peel for any longer than absolutely necessary, as the heat can cause it to stick. Plus, the heat trapped between your pie's perfectly crisp exterior and the peel will cause steam to build up, which will make the crust start to soften, and no one likes a soggy crust.
Making Your Own Homemade Pies
The idea of making pizza at home may sound intimidating, and unless you get really lucky, there's a good chance that your first pie (or three) won't turn out perfect. But, with a little bit of trial and error, you'll find that the effort is well worth your while.
First off, know that making your own dough from scratch, while very rewarding, is not your only choice. There are plenty of decent store-bought options out there, both fresh and frozen, but if you want to step it up a notch, look no further than your neighborhood pizza shop. Most people don't know this, but a lot of pizzerias will sell you a ball of house-made dough if you ask.
Most people don't know this, but a lot of pizzerias will sell you a ball of house-made dough if you ask.
However, if you do want to make your own dough, start by choosing the right flour. You can use all-purpose flour if it's the only thing you have lying around, but a high-protein blend will produce a chewier crust, so you're better off going with a bread flour, and there are even special, extra-fine flours made specifically for pizza dough. And you don't need a fancy stand mixer to make homemade dough — you can also use a food processor, but if you don't have that either, you can simply use your hands, and there are even some no-knead methods out there to make the process even easier.
When it comes to toppings, less is often more. Choose a few of your favorites that complement one another, and try not to be too heavy-handed — you don't want to overwhelm the flavors of the sauce and crust. There are plenty of traditional options, like pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and olives. But if you want to go for something a little more avant-garde, try some unusual flavors, like figs, prosciutto, buffalo chicken, goat cheese, or even greens, like spinach, arugula, and broccoli.
Once your pie is assembled and ready to go into the oven, the simplest thing you can do to improve the final result is to crank up the heat as high as it will go. If the idea makes you skittish, keep in mind that when pizza is cooked in a commercial or wood-fired oven, the temperature can reach as high as 800-1,000°F. This not only helps it to bake faster, but also makes the crust lighter and crispier and creates deliciously charred bits that add a depth of flavor you won't get at lower temperatures.