My wife and I just made 4 pizzas on this last night. It is great but the edges around the pizza were golden brown and not that bubbly crispy crust you get in pizzerias. I am convinced now more than ever that the dough is the critical procedural element we were getting wrong. She used a 1 hour dough where even the pizza steel recommends a 72 hour one. Needless to say, she has one in the proofer for Wednesday night.

I highly suggest this recipe (From here: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm)

  Ingredient (grams)        1 Pie  3 Pied  5 Pies	
  Filtered Water	    110	   330	   550	
  King Arthur Bread flour   168	   510	   850	
  Kosher or Sea Salt        6	   18	   30	
  Sourdough yeast culture   15	   45	   60	
  Instant Dry yeast 	    0.5	   1.5	   2.5	


  All ingredients into mixer except 25% of flour.
  Mix on lowest speed for 1-2 minutes or until completely blended.
  Cover and Let it rest for 20 minutes.
  Start Mixing on Low speed for 8 minutes. 5 minutes into it start adding held back flour gradually.
  Mix for 1 more minute

  Divide in to 300g balls and either let raise warm (3-10 hours) or cold (2-7 days).

Good recommendation! Big fan of his work...

I use the recipe from this book + the levain instructions — https://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/d...

Highly recommend though I believe the author is located in the Pacific Northwest, and one thing I have found is nearly all recipes should have their hydration ratios adjusted to your local climate. Local humidity / seasons tend to have impacts on dough.

Having worked in Italian Pizzerias (in Italy), 2 days minimum for a decent crust, but the cheap places don't all do that.

2 days in the fridge? How many hours out after that? Tell us the secret!

It's not a formula! Take it out when you start prep for the evening, so it's at least 90 minutes before first use. But pizza made at close will be different than pizza made at the beginning of the shift.

Forgot to mention: It is a perpetual starter--take a pizza worth of dough to start the next batch (for maybe 100 pizzas).

To add, I think perhaps the levain makes it develop to a good state faster such that 2 days is fine as opposed to the 3+ I seem to need with no levain, if you want the nice spotted and bubbly dark and light pattern as opposed to the even golden brown.

For sure a live starter makes things move extremely fast. We would usually leave it at room temp for a shift and then refrigerate. I have seen people talking about 5+ days here. That would leave a spoiled batch using this faster method. 4 days tops usually.

I would agree with this as well. My best crusts rise from 36-48 hours in the fridge, after which they're baked almost immediately at 450-500F for 10-12 minutes.

At least two days, I'd say 5+ is best if you have the foresight.

To use, just take it out a few hours ahead of time so that it can warm up to RT and rise again.

> not that bubbly crispy crust you get in pizzerias

Yes, aside from high heat the cold ferment step seems to play a big role: https://slice.seriouseats.com/2010/09/the-pizza-lab-how-long...

Indeed. Although Physics is important in the cooking process, Pizza is all about Biochemistry. Since flour and water have essentially no flavor, all the taste comes from what the yeast makes as it metabolizes the flour and other carbohydrates present. More metabolic activity == more flavor. More time == more yeast output.

Good dough is easy:

* Use bread flour

* Let it sit refrigerated for a few days before use. 1-2 weeks is pretty ideal.

Compared to a fresh dough, you'll get that nice crispy crust and chewy, flavorful interior.

1-2 weeks is far too long for a yeasted dough to sit in a refrigerator. 2-5 days would be the max.

I agree. 24-48 hours is the ideal refrigerator proofing time for pizza dough in my experience.

Too much beyond that the dough will break down too much, becoming gooey, tearing easily when handled, and resulting in a hard/crunchy crust.

Proofed dough balls can be frozen for storage, however. They keep well in the freezer and defrost quickly when needed.

I use a ~35x40cm, 8mm thick, ~8kg slab of iron as a baking steel. It does take a while to heat up, and conversely also to cool down again, but it produces extremely consistent and good results.

As someone who's cracked several conventional baking stones, I would be seriously surprised if the Slab O' Steel doesn't outlast me. I can highly recommend getting one, it's definitely worth it.

i have alot of plate steel lying around. cut a piece of 3/8" (~1cm) to fit exactly in the oven, put stainless handles on it (its probably 30lbs/14kg) to lift it in and out. cleaned it off well and seasoned with avocado oil (I guess flax is better, but it spoils)

takes a long time to heat up, but when it does pizza cooks like its supposed to, and the oven temp springs back quickly after you close the door.

inexpensive and pretty durable. highly recommend.

I just toss my cast iron griddle in the oven. It's not large enough to cook a huge pizza but I usually cook smaller pies anyway. Works great.