Dough is very elastic

[Apprentice]

Hi, I made a pizza last week and when I stretched my dough, it was WAY TOO elastic. By that I mean that it didn't stretch out very well. After a certain amount of stretching, it just springed back all the time and refused to be stretched any more.
My recipe:
2 1/2 cups Five roses flower (measured with measuring cups filled to the brim and excess taken off)
210 ml of water (very approximate, I eyeballed it from a measuring cup)
4 tsp EVOO
1 tsp salt
1tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ADY

Dissolved yeast in water and oil. Added mix of flour, sugar and salt. Mixed until dough ball obtained (I add the flour mix in steps, but at a certain point, I need to force the last amounts of flour into the mix and really work it in. I have to like stretch the dough so that it tears and reveals its humid core so that the flour will stick to it and be part of the Dough Lord). Hand kneeded for 8-10 minutes. Placed in plastic bowl covered completely in plastic wrap (no air coming in, no air going out). Proofed in the room for 5-6 hours ( not sure). After proofing (it had doubled in size, approx.) took out of bowl, cut into 2, formed doughballs by taking the dough, folding it in half, pinching the interface of the folded dough together to kinda close the gap, then repeated until a satisfyingly round doughball was obtained (kinda like this, except I actually folded the dough into a half-circle, pinched it all up and repeated:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he-V1J86REA). Then, I placed my 2 doughballs on a plate, covered them in a tiny bit of EVOO, then covered the whole plate with a humid cloth for 1 hour 30 mins. approx. Then, it was dough shaping time, and it sucked. Much too elastic, didnt want to stretch, ended up with relatively thick-crusted pies of small size.

Can someone figure out where things might have gone wrong (I know my water measuring  method is iffy, it might be a problem)? I've read a lot of threads, that's why I explained everything step by step. Also, how to you cold proof for lets say 20-24 hours, what's the setup, do I add more yeast? Stuff like that.

Thanks!!!

[Tscarborough]

More water, less kneading, more time to proof.

[buceriasdon]

Apprentice, Time for some tough pizza love. In May of last year you posted having the exact same problem and said you would purchace a kitchen scale, yet here we are ten months later with the same guesstimated recipe and you are being given the same advice, increase the amount of water. I know we can help you with sticky dough handling but you have to help yourself first. One of your first posts:

Well, my measurements aren't particularly precise, since I don't measure by weight, only by volume. I'm going to have to invest in a scale I guess, if I want to better control my recipe.
As for the yeast situation, I'm going to see how adding more affects my dough, then I'll see about the water. But I'll have to admit, my water-measuring technique is a bit iffy, especially if variations in quantity have a great effect. I guess the bottom line is: get a scale and measure by weight.
If it helps, I use Five Roses all purpose bleached white flower and my gluten flower says it contains 70-80% gluten (I am using bob's red mill)), and I usually let my dough proof approximately 5 hours at room temperature. After that amount of time, the volume has usually always doubled.
Okay, thanks a lot for the tips, I'll try to develop a recipe through time.

I love this forum, people are so nice!

[Apprentice]

Yeah....... I know. I actually checked those posts before re-posting. But, this time I used different yeast. ADY instead of Fleischmann's instant pizza dough yeast, and my dough obviously wasn't the same as usual, which is why I immediately came here.
Then, can you just comment on my proofing method and whether it's good or not to let the dough rest for 1 hour under a moist towel before making the pie?

[FJPhil]

There are a lot of good doughs that can be made in 2-4 hours of proofing time.  Thats really not the issue...first, its really important to get your water levels correct.  Any under hydrated dough will be difficult to work with and will not stretch properly. 

But based on your method you posted, I would say you handled the dough too much before trying to form.  Here are some things to note:
1. Separate your dough ball BEFORE proofing..makes it much easier (the less handling of the dough before forming, the better)
2. After your dough ball doubles in size, that's when you form the pizza with it.  Don't fiddle with it otherwise...any extra stretching, folding, pushing, pulling, balling, etc...is just going to make the dough harder to work with unless you give it more time to rest...and its not really worth it.

So to be blunt, after the ball doubled in size, Thats when you make it into a pizza...don't bother with warm towel nonsense...