Just wanted to update this thread a bit.
Since I started this I've used the steel plate a few more times with great results. This weekend I did 12 pies in under an hour at my sister in-laws. The plate had no issue maintaining heat. This experience did leave me extremely confused about the issues others are having with top heat though. My sister in-laws oven is electric with convection. I preheated the plate for an hour at 550F on the top shelf, and found convection led to the best results in this oven. I was able to get the plate to 560 and maintained that temp throughout. After that I turned on the broiler and never turned it off. Now I was worried due to the issues others have had with top heat. The broiler in this oven had very few passes(I swear 4, but that doesn't seem right, could have been 6) and turned off when the thermostat hit 550. I had zero issue with top heat. I would open the door for a minute or so between pies dropping the temp and turning the broiler back on. The broiler stayed on for the entire 3-4 minute bake and the tops browned nicely. The pies got eaten so fast I only got one very bad blurry cell phone picture, but it shows the top color well regardless.
On another front, I may very well become a bromate convert for this style of pizza. I've been using better for bread flour with good results, but this time made a second batch of dough when I found out more people were going to be there. This second batch was made the exact same way but used Seal of Minnesota Bromated bread flour in place of the better for bread. As soon as I started mixing the dough together I could see the difference, and the bromated dough was superior from start to finish. It kneaded better, balled better, stretched easier in forming, held more gas, led to more spring, and in the end produced what all agreed was a better pie. I find it had to believe the flour itself was that much better then what I had been using, all fingers point to the bromate.
The dough I've been using is essentially a Neapolitan method modified slightly in my opinion. I use:
100% Bread Flour
60% Hydration
3% Salt
Cake yeast based on fermentation time, generally 0.1% for 24 hour room temperature in my house at 65F
I weight out the flour and put it in the bowl of my kitchenaid mixer with a spiral hook(I do not use this for Neapolitan dough, that is 100% hand kneaded)
I then weight out the water in another bowl and dissolve the the salt completely.
Next I dissolve the cake yeast into the water salt solution.
I then add all of the water-yeast-salt solution to the flour in the mixing bowl and mix it together with the paddle on speed 1 until it has loosely come together.
I then knead with the spiral dough hook on speed 1 for 1 minute.
I let the dough rest for 30 minutes at this point.
After the 30 minute rest the dough is a different beast, nearly smooth and elastic. I knead it for one more minute on speed 1 with my spiral dough hook.
I then divide the dough by weight, ball, and ferment at room temperature for 24 hours.
This yields a super strong, super slack dough that is easy to form into a nice thin pie. It couldn't be any easier or faster either. I'm really loving this method and everybody loves the pies it produces.
