American METALCRAFT, Inc. "3512 35.5"" Aluminum Pizza Peel with 19"" Wood Handle, 12"" x 14"" Medium Blade", Silver

I imagine there are a surprising number of points of failure for a simple item like this. The metal and wood can come loose, the metal bolts can come out and fall apart, the wood could be bad quality and snap... lots of stuff can go wrong! Not so with this pizza paddle. It's a good size and has served us well for something like a year at this point, and we have been doing pizza just about weekly. There's not much more to say about it, so I will give you all my recipe for pizza dough that I think I may have perfected over the past year with tweaking here and there. Either use mass OR volume, don't use both.In a mixing bowl, mix up: 2 1/2 cups (or 10 oz) of bread flour (BREAD FLOUR DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!), 1/2 cup (or 2 oz) of semolina flour, 2 tbsp of oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, and 1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) of yeast. If it's too dry, add a VERY SMALL amount of water, if it's too wet/sticky, don't be afraid to add too much flour. Give it a light coating of oil in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for at least an hour. When you roll it out, roll it out on a sheet of parchment paper (which will go into the oven with the pizza), and be sure to put down cornmeal instead of flour to de-stick, I think the texture is way better. Add your sauce/cheese/toppings (for toppings, less is more in my opinion). I highly recommend using a pizza stone and letting it get hot for at least 45 minutes in a 500 degree oven - really crank that sucker as hot as it goes. Use your pizza paddle to get under the parchment and slide 'er on top of the stone. Lots of ovens vary, we do ours for 12 minutes but start with 10 minutes and check on it. You want the cheese and crust to be nice and browned.

The media could not be loaded. It’s all about the peel if you make homemade pizza! It’s the one item when bigger is not better. This is the perfect size peel to fit my small Amana conventional oven, leave me with a little wiggle space to maneuver around & land perfectly on the baking steel, PLUS... enough area space to make decent sized New York pizzas! Definitely measure your oven interior space first to make sure this will fit! This peel is exactly what I wanted: a long wooden solid handle (not a foldable/removable) that is comfortable to use, with a good size aluminum paddle for stretching & topping dough, as well as sturdy blade that is easy to slide under & lift without any trouble. Period. This peel has performed perfectly each and every time and not only for pizza! It’s comfortable to use and maneuver. I have had perfect slides with no issues of dough sticking to the paddle. To date, I have made 8 pizzas, 4 italian loaves, 16 baquettes, and 2 sandwich loaves using King Arthur bread & neapolitan ‘00’ flour & semolina flour on bench/peel. One trick to avoid sticking is to work fast and not allow your dough to rest too long on the paddle. The overall length of the peel is 26 inches which translates to it not fitting in any of my kitchen cabinets (unless the pantry counts). A quick solution and way to ‘wow’ your friends as a pizzaiolo, is to drill a hole in the handle so it can be “stored” on your wall. Overall, this is a simple, efficient, well constructed (American made), middle range pizza peel with the blade rivet solid in place making it extremely durable and a lifetime investment. It’s also easy to clean by hand washing. 5 Stars! Seriously, you can’t beat the price for the size and quality! *P.S. The peel comes covered in blue film that must be peeled off prior to use.

Very high quality. Made in the USA!

It's a pizza peel and it slid the pizza into the oven and extracted it flawlessly. Seems sturdy and well put together. It should last longer than I will.

I've used this now for a few pies in a 16" oven and it's just fine. Lightweight but not flimsy. I do have trouble "launching" but put that down to my lack of talent. Perhaps the edge could be slightly thinner but I think not and anyway I bring the spread out dough onto the palette by hand, then apply toppings so the edge is not a factor. It's the launch that fails me. I just can't keep a thinly pressed put pie from sticking even with 65% hydration and on the palette for just minutes. Even so, perhaps it's the nature of a metal palette even well floured. Certainly the palette slides under a cooked pie just fine and seems true to size. Far quality goes, I think it's deserving of 5 star.

This thing is huge and sturdy. The material and finish are high quality.

Well made. Heavy duty.

We purchased an 18” pizza oven with a 16” pizza stone and this peel works perfectly. We wanted a peel large enough to hold an XL pizza and this works perfectly. It’s a great peel at the best price that I could find.