grovemonkey,
Thank you for the additional information.
I estimate that your dough formulation produces around 39 ounces of dough, with each of the three dough balls weighing around 13 ounces. If you are making 10"-12" pizzas, they will be fairly thick--medium to thick. Using less dough per pizza or making larger pizzas will itself reduce the breadlike character you mentioned.
I also offer up the following suggestions.
First, I would reduce the yeast level quite substantially. Assuming that you are using active dry yeast (ADY) that requires activation in warm water, I estimate that you are using about 1.2% ADY by weight of flour. That is higher than you really need for a dough that is to be cold fermented in the refrigerator for a day or more. I suggest you reduce the ADY to about 1/4-1/3 t. Also, if you are using water at 45 degrees C (113 degrees F), that is too high to use with ADY. I suggest that you use a small amount of the total formula water at about 105 degrees F to rehydrate the ADY, for about 10 minutes. You can add a pinch of sugar to the water/yeast mixture if you'd like, but not all of the sugar. My practice is to either add the sugar to the flour or dissolve it in the remaining water (before adding the rehydrated yeast). The amount of the formula water that is not used for rehydrating the ADY should be kept on the cool side. Once the ADY has been rehydrated, it can be added to the remaining (cool) water.
Second, I would suggest reducing the amount of oil. I estimate that you are using around 6.7% by weight of flour. At that level, you are likely to end up with a tender crust with a somewhat breadlike character. If you don't like that characteristic, I would reduce the amount of oil to around 1 T. and see if that helps.
Third, I would eliminate the two rest periods. The rest periods you have been using are variations of a classic autolyse as commonly used in bread making and now finding popularity in pizza dough making. A common result of using such rest periods is to produce a soft, breadlike crumb in the finished crust. Many people actually work very hard to achieve that effect, but it sounds like you may not be as strong a proponent. If eliminating the rest periods doesn't improve the results, you can always reinstate them in future efforts.
Fourth, I would avoid freezing the dough as much as possible. When dough freezes, the ice crystals that form during freezing cause the cells or the yeast to rupture and release cellular fluids, mainly glutathione, that can act as reducing agents and cause the dough to become slack once defrosted. That may be why you found the dough to be so pliable after defrosting. If you use the reduced yeast level mentioned above, you should be able to store the dough longer in the refrigerator so that freezing becomes unnecessary over a period of a few days.
Fifth, if you plan to use a metal pan or sheet to bake your pizzas, you might want to liberally coat it with oil before placing the stretched out dough onto it. That should help produce better bottom crust browning. From what you have indicated, your oven heats up to 250 degrees C (482 degrees F). That should be high enough to bake the pizzas although it may take a bit longer. I agree with the other posters that using a pizza stone is a good idea, but until then I think you should use the pan/sheet as you try to perfect your dough.
I don't think using unbleached flour will produce a noticeable effect on your results. Using a higher gluten flour might do so, but that is a matter of personal preference and may be moot in any event if you don't have access to higher gluten flours in Japan. I estimate that the hydration of your dough is around 63%, although it may be a bit lower if you are adding a few tablespoons more to reduce the wetness of the dough at the end of the mix/knead cycle. If that is the case, I think your final hydration is in line with the type of flour you are using. Your salt and sugar levels look quite normal.
I might add that I would personally use a different sequencing of ingredients than you have been using to prepare the dough, but you might want to stick with your methods for the next iteration of your dough formulation to see if you notice any meaningful improvement in your results.
Good luck.
Peter
