I'm not completely satisfied with the results, but it's definitely my best pie to date. It cooked in 1 min. 50 sec. A huge thanks to TXCraig1 for some serious help with the dough recipe tweaks.
My new dough recipe is as follows:
Quantities shown for (1) 288g dough ball
Levain
15g 00 flour (100%)
12g water (80%)
2g 100% hydration Ischia storage starter (13%)
Mix the levain and use once it has reached its peak in volume. This should take ~10-12 hours. Ambient temperature should be ~72F.
Final Dough
157g 00 flour (100%)
97g water (62%)
29g levain (18%)
5g salt (3%)
Total hydration is 64%
1. First mix 80% of the flour, all the water and the levain until even and let it rest for 20 minutes.
2. Then add the salt and gradually mix in the remaining flour, followed by another 20-minute rest.
3. Stretch and fold a few times, until it gets tight. Give it a 7-10 minute rest and then stretch and fold a few more times. If it's not silky smooth, give it another rest and a few more stretch and folds. It should be ready for your bulk ferment now.
4. Bulk ferment the dough at ~72F until it has risen 1.1x in volume. This should take ~3-4 hours.
5. Divide and shape the dough into ~275g balls, which are then proofed until they have risen 1.9-2x in volume. This should take ~6 hours.
6. Set a pizza stone in your oven approximately 2” from the broiler and pre-heat the stone using the broiler for 2 hours. During this time, prep your ingredients.
7. Open the dough ball, taking care to create a slightly thicker rim and to not flatten it.
8. Spread the sauce on the dough so that it comes to ~1" of the rim. Add cheese, basil, sea salt and oil.
9. Stretch the dough again to ~13" before putting the pizza in the oven.
10. Wait for the broiler to turn on before sliding your pizza onto the pizza stone. Check the pizza after 1 minute 30 seconds to see if it is done.
I want to take scott123's advice and get a 1" steel plate to replace my pizza stone, as the underskirt on my pie was still a bit blonde for my liking. Also, I would like to attempt to disperse the char/bubbling/spotting around my pie a bit more evenly. This may be difficult however with my broiler. I can't wait to step it up to a WFO one day!
Any other advice for how I can improve my pies? Thanks!
