1st Pizzas on new steel!

[bazman70]

Finally got time to make some dough and use my new 1/2" steel for some pizza!

I used the recipe below, mixed in a food processor, cut into 3 balls and left in fridge for 24 hours, then room temp for 2 hours before using

Flour 100% (strong bread flour 13.4% protein)
Water 66% (at 104 F)
Oil 5%
Instant Yeast 1.55%
Sea salt 1.55%
Sugar 2.2%

I used crappy cheese and sauce - the purpose of this was to learn about the dough and use of steel

Steel was pre-heated for an hour at 527F in convection mode (oven will go to 572 in regular mode - haven't tried that yet)

First pizza was done in 4:45, but the broiler hadn't yet kicked in when I launched. For the second pizza I waited until broiler was glowing red and it cooked in 4:05.  Third and last pizza was the worst one - I tore the dough badly and had to repair it and then the broiler went off part way through (even with the oven door wide open).  Cook time was just over 7 mins

Overall very very pleased considering the jar of sauce wasn't nice - will make my own next time.  Hardest part for me was shaping the dough - need lots more practice!

And I think next time I will move the steel closer to the broiler to see how that works

Anyway.... Thanks for the great advice on here re steel material and sizing, etc.  Have attached some pics - the first 3 are of my first pizza, and the pic showing the oven is the last (worst) one

Barry