Pizza Sticking to Oven Floor Heat Management Discuss Pizza Sticking to Oven Floor in the Oven Management forums; i missed the progressive worsening of the problem from first to last pizza in your first post. I'm baffled. i ...

[proprio italiano]

i missed the progressive worsening of the problem from first to last pizza in your first post. I'm baffled. i look forward to hearing more from you as you solve it.

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

have you tried cooking a white pizza (without sauce) if it doesnt stick its your sauce bleeding thru the dough..... or just for experimenting, just cook a plain dough to see if it sticks...

[james]

Hey jdc,

You should not have to move the coals while you are baking pizzas. The principle is that the heat radiating from the fire will bounce off the dome onto the floor, and the heat of the fire will migrate across the cooking floor. Between the two, you just have to keep feeding the fire -- you do not have to move the coals from side to side.

I have never seen an Italian pizzaiolo move a fire; they just keep feeding it -- and these guys bake hundreds of pizzas for dinner every evening.

James

[jdc]

Success! I was, in fact, trying to turn the pizza too fast. Kinda reminds me of cooking meat on a grill -- if it sticks, it's not ready to flip over yet. Checking my stopwatch, it took at least a minute and sometimes up to two minutes before I could turn them -- with eventual bake times of 2-3:30. The only real problem was one pizza that got really burnt on the side positioned near the coals to start. The flames were probably too high and I had an unusually large amount of coals in there. It wasn't by best dough either since I made the "quick" version and didn't refrigerate overnight. Thanks so much for all your help! I feel like this huge weight is finally off my shoulders...

[asudavew]

Are you sure about your temperatures... because that's a long time to cook a pizza at 800+
You should be able to turn your pie in about 30 seconds and have a cooked by in about 90.

Oh and the quick version is fine. Some people at my house prefer it. Are you adding more yeast to shorten the rise time.
If I make dough to retard overnight, I usually use 2 grams of yeast. But if I want to use it in a few hours, I go with 6 grams.

[jdc]

Are you sure about your temperatures... because that's a long time to cook a pizza at 800+
You should be able to turn your pie in about 30 seconds and have a cooked by in about 90.

My temps were a little lower last night -- in the 700s mostly. It was a rush job all around. Bottom line for me though was that I realized what I was doing wrong... I have a lot more practice and experimentation to do before I can deliver a consistent experience, but I'm very happy to have gotten over this hurdle with everyone's help.

[asudavew]

At least you figured it out.
It is a learning process after all.

A fun one at that!

[tgm]

jdc,

Even at 700+ you shouldn't be cooking them that long. With a good floor temp after 30 sec. or so you should be good to go. Souds like you are just cooking them too long.

Hope it all works now,

Good Luck,

Tom in PA

[texassourdough]

I agree with Tom. How are you measuring temperatures? Something is definitely wrong. Sounds like your hearth is closer to 600 - maybe even less. I would suggest you try heating your oven longer. And keeping a bigger fire in it.

Good luck!
Jay