How to Cook Pizza on a Parchment Paper?
Cooking pizza is really fun and the experience while doing so adds to the loveliness of the finished products.
Nowadays, there have been a lot of ways to cook pizza meaning you are not hindered by the lack of an authentic wood-fired brick oven.
You can cook pizza on your grill, on your cast-iron skillet, and even on parchment paper.
Yes, that’s right, parchment paper. It might seem impossible since pizzas need a very high temperature to cook on and paper can be burnt easily.
But it is not impossible, in fact, more and more people are choosing parchment paper to cook their pizza on since it is less messy.
So imagine making a pizza without all the mess on the table from flour and other excess ingredients, or without the dough sticking on your baking stone and oven.
Preparing the pizza on parchment paper is very beneficial since it catches all the mess that you usually make on your table.
You can use a pizza peel to easily slide the pizza on the oven and you do not have to worry about it sticking on the pizza peel. It slides smoothly off to the oven.
The downside in cooking a pizza on a parchment paper is you do not quite attain that crispy crust since the paper does not absorb as much moisture as a pizza stone does.
But there is a trick to get both, which is a crispy crust and using a parchment paper about which you would read in the next sections.
Some people use foil to cover the pizza when using parchment paper to keep as much heat as they can on the pizza but personally, I do not use this method.
Basically the foil trick works for you if your toppings are not getting cooked that well and you want even cooking on the top of the pizza.
The foil only keeps the moisture inside and most of the time, the pizza comes out cooked but not that great.
Why use a parchment paper?
Many people find it really difficult to transfer the pizza from a pizza peel to the oven. This is where the parchment paper comes to your rescue.
Many people just make their pizzas on a parchment paper and then easily transfer the whole pizza on a pizza stone. This makes it so easy to make pizzas and get the job done without using a pizza peel.
Placing a pizza on a peel can cause the peel to stick and since you have to work a little quickly on the pizza peel when you are making a pizza, this can be a little tricky for beginners or someone who makes pizza once in a while.
Such people can use a parchment paper as the parchment paper makes it really easy to make a pizza on it and you can slide it on the pizza stone directly inside the oven without worrying about the base sticking to the peel and ruining all your efforts in making the perfect pizza.
Placing the parchment paper along with a pizza on a pizza stone makes sure that the base of the pizza is cooked to perfection and you can easily take off the pizza from the parchment paper once done.
Cooking on a Parchment Paper
There are two main ways to cook pizza on parchment paper. First, you can directly put the pizza on parchment paper in your oven or set up a pizza stone and place the paper on top of which you would place your pizza.
If you do not own a pizza stone then cooking your pizza on parchment paper is probably the best way to go as you can easily remove the pizza once it is done cooking and the base gets cooked evenly as well.
This trick can be used inside home ovens as the outdoor ovens can be really hot and if you want to use parchment paper there then I would suggest that you refrain from doing it.
Home ovens do not go above 500 degrees Fahrenheit and even though the maximum temperature in which the parchment paper can be used is about 420 degrees, there are many people who are able to use it up to that high temperature without any issues.
A parchment paper can be safely used till 510 degrees Fahrenheit but above that, you are going to find changes in the texture of the paper and that is the reason I would say it is best if you avoided using it in outdoor ovens as they easily go to temperatures higher than that.
Using Parchment Paper in your home oven is easy as all that you need to do is place the pizza on top of the parchment paper and the pizza is done you can take out the pizza and even serve on the paper without any issues.
Overall, using parchment paper is amazing for a beginner as it helps you get the job done without any trouble.
You can place the parchment paper on top of a pizza stone inside a home oven but make sure to keep checking on it as a really high temperature can cause the paper to shrink or change the texture and that is when you know you need to stop.
Here is a simple step-by-step guide on how to cook pizza on parchment paper:
1. Preheat the oven at maximum temperature for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare your pizza on parchment paper.
3. Make sure not to have too much excess paper.
4. Gently shape your dough into your preferred size.
5. Add your sauce and toppings.
6. After that, place the pizza on the top rack.
7. Wait for 4 minutes before turning the pizza around to cook on the other side.
8. You can remove the paper if you like as the dough would have already firmed enough to keep it from falling through the rack of the oven.
9. But if you want it to be safe, then you can keep the paper and wait for another 8 minutes.
10. Voila! Your pizza is ready in less than 15 minutes and you can now enjoy it!
The result will have a less crispy crust than a pizza cooked directly on a pizza stone but it will not be as soggy.
A recipe you can make in your home using a parchment paper:
Making the Dough
Dry Ingredients
-2 cups of all-purpose flour
-2 teaspoons yeast
-1 teaspoon sugar
-¾ teaspoon salt
-¼ teaspoon dried basil leaves
-¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Wet Ingredients
2 cups of water
2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
Mix 1 cup of all-purpose flour, yeast, sugar, salt. You can add basil leaves or garlic powder if you want it as well.
Make sure you mix the dry ingredients well enough. Use a food processor for better mixing and let it run for 15 seconds to make sure that the ingredients are mixed well.
Slowly add 3/4 cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. You can do this in a bowl or in a food processor. Just make sure that you do not leave any dry spots on the dough.
Gradually add the remaining cup of all-purpose flour into the mixture until you get your desired texture of dough.
Get a separate bowl and drizzle a generous amount of olive oil. Make a bowl from your dough and place it on the bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 30 minutes. You can also refrigerate it for at least a day to really get the yeast working on the dough.
As for the sauce, you can use a store-bought marinara or you can make one of your own. Here’s how:
Ingredients
-Tomatoes
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-2 tablespoons dried oregano
-1 tablespoon red chili flakes
-½ teaspoon sugar
-½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
You can choose to blend the tomatoes whole or take every liquid out of each tomato and set the juice aside.
Removing the water from the tomatoes makes it easier to attain a consistent paste from the dried ones since they do not move around too much in their own juice.
Use a blender for the tomatoes until you get a consistent mix of a paste-like texture.
Put the blended tomatoes on a pot on medium heat and add the juice you have separated earlier.
Add all the other ingredients and constantly stir the pot.
Wait for the sauce to simmer and leave it for another 2 to 3 minutes covered.
Get it off the stove and let it cool down.
Pre-cooking the Pizza
Grab a parchment paper big enough to place the dough and the desired size of your pizza but with not too much excess paper.
Place the dough on the parchment paper and stretch the dough to your desired size. Do this all while the oven is preheating at max temperature.
Put your sauce on top of the dough. You can use a ladle or a spoon to spread the sauce but make sure that you put just the right amount of sauce and not too much.
Season your dough with salt.
Cooking on parchment paper does not make the crust too crispy so you do not need extra moisture or else the pizza will be too soggy.
Put grated mozzarella cheese on the sauce and arrange your desired toppings evenly on the surface of the pizza. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.
Cooking
Use a pizza peel to carry the pizza on the parchment paper and then place it on the top rack of your oven.
Just wait for 13 to 15 minutes and then your pizza will be cooked golden brown and ready to eat.
Take it out of the oven with your pizza peel and remove the parchment paper before slicing. This is to make sure that there are no extra little bits of paper mixing with your pizza.
Slice into parts and enjoy yourself with your friends or family!
Conclusion
Making pizza on parchment paper is a very simple job to do. It also makes less mess than doing it directly on your table.
It also prevents the dough from sticking on any surface especially on your oven or on your pizza stone.
It does not make the crispy crust that a pizza stone can make but the result is not soggy when you cook it on parchment paper. Parchment paper does not absorb as much moisture as a pizza stone so that is the reason why it does not make a very crispy crust.
It helps you to reduce the mess you make when making a pizza and of course, it holds the pizza firmly in place so it would not fall off between the grates of your oven rack.
Most people will use a foil cover to keep the heat inside but I suggest that you do not cover the pizza with the foil as the excess moisture will only go back to your pizza making it soggier.
Parchment paper has a very wide range of use. It is very versatile so you can use it with almost anything that you want to cook – including pizza.
Of course, it does not beat the ability of a pizza stone to make a great pizza but if you are a beginner, cooking on a parchment paper will give much more control on how to cook pizza.
The thing is, you can avoid burning your crust with parchment paper so you can have a crispy crust but not too crispy.
At first, you might find some paper sticking on your pizza but eventually, you will learn how to adjust the consistency of your dough to avoid it.
You can add flour or oil. Not directly on the paper but on your dough so you can prevent the dough from sticking.
One of the main purposes of cooking on parchment paper is to avoid the recipe from sticking so you will not have a lot of trouble figuring this out.
If you have cooked a pizza using parchment paper then let us know in the comments below!
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