Now, we do know you may have never contemplated whether you can cook pizza on parchment paper, but why? Perhaps you remain unaware that parchment paper can offer you another option?
If you plan on cooking your own pizza at home, then knowing how to cook it in the correct manner makes sense. So, what do you do?
Well, it turns out you have a number of options. Various types of grills and specific pizza utensils do exist, but we want to look at something that perhaps comes across as less obvious, parchment paper.
But then, can you even cook pizza on parchment paper? Well, that’s the question we plan on answering right here.
The Answer
The answer is undoubted yes when it comes to using parchment paper to cook your pizza. It actually works surprisingly well, but you do need to know how to get the best out of it.
In actual fact, parchment paper can end up becoming your best friend when cooking pizza at home. It not only provides a good surface to cook on in the oven, but it also makes moving the pizza around surprisingly easy before you start the cooking process
But with that in mind, we do need to go through how to use it correctly to ultimately get the best possible results.
Make Sure it Not Wax Paper
Before we get into everything you need to know about using parchment paper when cooking pizza, make sure you do not use wax paper.
Some people think that both wax paper and parchment paper mean the same thing. Well, that’s not the case.
Actually, if you use wax paper, then expect it to burn in the oven. Wax paper is not as resistant to moisture or heat as parchment paper, so it will simply lead to a mess. Your pizza will end up a disaster, and all the work you put into making the toppings means nothing at the end of the day.
So, only stick to parchment paper and never substitute it for wax paper. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.
You Need to Know How to Use the Paper
But before we really get into using parchment paper when cooking pizza, we have a word of warning.
Parchment paper can become rather brittle and start to crumble thanks to the high temperature in the oven. That can prove problematic as you could end up dropping your pizza if you try to pick it up when ready and the paper literally falls apart.
That’s not an ideal situation to find yourself in. It can also lead to you having small pieces of parchment paper stuck on the bottom of the crust, and nobody wants that to happen either.
So this point does sound stressful, so let’s go through how you should use parchment paper when cooking pizza.
Combine a Pizza Stone and Paper
What we recommend is to use both a pizza stone and the parchment paper together. The two work well, and for different reasons.
First, the parchment paper stops the pizza dough from sticking to the pizza stone. It also prevents all the cheese from falling off and makes it harder to get the pizza stone clean.
At the same time, the pizza stone gives more solidity when cooking the pizza, so you won’t find parts of your pizza that have fallen through the grill in the oven. That can actually happen if you just use parchment paper, and it’s a distressing sight.
A Pizza Pan Also Works
If you don’t have a pizza stone, and let’s face it so many people don’t, then a pizza pan still works with parchment paper. At this point, you want to line the pizza pan with the parchment paper before you load on the pizza.
Once again, the paper acts as a barrier between pizza and pan making it easier to remove the pizza once cooked. The cleaning of the pizza pan is then very easy to do as you have effectively protected it throughout.
Preparing the Paper
One thing we recommend doing is adding some flour to the base of the paper before you then place the pizza on top. This can just make it easier to then move the pizza around when it’s cooked.
Also, make sure you have ample space around the pizza. Remember the crust will spread slightly during cooking, unless using the pizza pan, and you want there to be enough room for the pizza to do this.
Then, when ready, lay the parchment paper flat and place your pizza dough on top. You can do this before you then start adding the toppings before putting it all in the oven.
But let’s go through the basic steps to get a perfect pizza using this method.
Step 1: The Oven and Pizza Stone
Get the oven and pizza stone up to temperature. Remember a pizza stone works best when it’s nice and hot, so get the oven nice and warm while you work on preparing the pizza.
You will know the temperature depending on your stone and how you have cooked pizza before. Make sure you do this in advance of adding the pizza as there’s nothing worse than a pizza trying to cook in an oven that’s still warming up.
At this point, you can leave the oven to do its thing while you get on with the important part of putting together your pizza.
Step 2: Put the Paper On Your Countertop
Put the parchment paper on your countertop at this point, but don’t worry about the size just yet. You will cut things to size later on.
Make sure it’s all on a flat surface. You can then start to work on putting your pizza together.
Step 3: The Pizza Dough
Place your dough on the paper, and if you have made it yourself, then stretch it to your desired size and shape. Place some flour under the base to make it easier to move it around if required.
After this, cut the parchment paper so there’s roughly an inch or two of space around the dough to give it room to spread.
Step 4: Add the Toppings
Once you feel happy with the base and size of the parchment paper, it’s time to add the toppings. Go crazy and put on whatever you want. The parchment paper can handle it.
Step 5: Part Cook
This step may not always apply, but some people prefer to half cook the pizza and then remove the parchment paper. By doing this, it allows the pizza stone to crisp up the base.
The reason why they half cook and then remove is that the pizza crust and toppings no longer have the same moisture content. That means they won’t collapse and stick to the stone.
Of course, you can avoid this step and leave the parchment paper in the oven if you do not want that extra crispy crust. Both work well depending on the end result you wish to achieve.
Step 6: Remove and Enjoy
Once you cook the pizza, remove it and enjoy. At least then you can throw away the parchment paper since you won’t use it again.
Those steps cover everything you need to know about using parchment paper when cooking pizza at home. There’s nothing difficult here, and yet the end results you can achieve make it worth your while trying it out.
However, it’s not always plain sailing.
A Potential Problem
We mentioned a potential problem earlier on regarding the paper breaking, but that’s not the only thing you need to look out for when using this method. The other issue surrounds the crust and how crispy it can become when in the oven.
So much of the crispy nature of the crust comes from the direct contact between pizza and either the pizza pan or the pizza stone. Clearly, you no longer have that option when you have placed some parchment paper between the two.
That’s not to say the crust won’t crisp up. It just won’t crisp to the same standard or level that you perhaps expected. This then becomes a problem when people try to get that crunch and end up burning the toppings.
So, we feel it’s best to prepare yourself for the crust just not coming out as crispy as you perhaps enjoy. But then, it just means you take more care over the toppings to get a real taste explosion.
Overall Summary
So if you have some parchment paper at home and plan on cooking pizza, then why not give it all a go and see what sort of results you can achieve. We promise you will end up loving the end result, and then you can simply throw away the parchment paper making it easier with the clean-up operation.
This shows how you may have more options available to you when cooking pizza at home than you imagined. Give it a shot, see what you think, and if you love the finished pizza, then try it again to give yourself another reason for making a second pizza.
