Take a look at my pizza and tell me what i did wrong?

[LuNchBoX1371]

Here's my pizza recipe just to start with that:
Flour (100%): 503.41 g
Water (62%): 312.11 g
ADY (.40%): 2.01 g
Salt (1%): 5.03
Oil (1.2%): 6.04 g
Sugar (1.2%): 6.04 g
Total (165.6%): 833.64 g
Single Ball: 416.82 g

Below are some pictures of what the crust looked like. You can see some seperation between where the crust on the bottom was cooked and where the dough is- if you would of had some of it when it was cold- they are seperated; it only taseted good when it was baked. And i think it was a little thinner than, either i wanted and/or what the thickness factor was. The thickness factor was a .13 so you tell me. Now the sauce came out great which I was happy about, its just the crust was one not fully cooked ( i used the cook before baking thing where you cook the dough before baking the pizza) and two it didnt have very many holes. No im atributing that maybe to over kneading the dough just a little bit but idk maybe thats not the issue.

[Donjo911]

Lunchbox,
Are you cooking it on that screen you show in your pic?  Are you using a stone or anything similar?  What temp is your bake and where in the oven (top/mid/bottom) are you baking?  Do you have a broiler?
Cheers,
Don

[LuNchBoX1371]

Lunchbox,
Are you cooking it on that screen you show in your pic?  Are you using a stone or anything similar?  What temp is your bake and where in the oven (top/mid/bottom) are you baking?  Do you have a broiler?
Cheers,
Don

Yes i am cooking on a screen under a stone and the oven only gets up to 550 and in the middle of the oven, and yes i have a broiler.

[mbrulato]

How long are you letting the dough temper before you bake?  If the dough is not given enough time to come up to room temperature before you bake, you can get what's called a gum line and the pizza will have a gummy, undercooked appearance.

[Donjo911]

Lunchbox,
I went out to You Tube to look for some videos of Pizza Port's pizza to see if there were any of them making it.  There are two from when they attended Pizza Expo in 2013 and 2014.  You can see how thick their dough is and it is thicker than I remember.  You can also see what looks to me like a dough that has a highly active quantity of yeast.  Since they are also a micro brewer, I'll bet if you reached out either to the brewery, or perhaps checked at the bottle shop, they may be able to give/sell you some of their fresh brewers yeast. That may help produce some of the thick but airy crust they make and I'll bet it would give you some of the flavor your looking for in your crust.

Another thing I think I noticed in the videos is they are preparing them on screens just as you do. However, they do not appear to be in any rush to get them to the oven.  It makes me think that like other thicker crusts, they are letting the dough come all the way up to "room temp" as Mary Ann suggests but may also be letting the dough sit on the screen "pre stretched" for a while to give the yeast time to create some air across the pizza skin.  Once they top it - and they top it on the very heavy side with toppings - the weight of the toppings keep the center of the pizza from too much expansion. 

Earlier in my pizza making journey (not that long ago) I was doing as you do - baking on a screen in my case on pizza stones/soap stone slab. I also did not have a scale at the time so I was guessing about how much yeast to use (I was 2-3 day cold fermenting at that time) I was using about twice as much ADY yeast as you used in your latest pizza and I was mixing it in dry - not dissolved in any water in advance.  I got the big puffy rim, but not the right texture or the "Pizza Port" in the center crust of the pizza. 

I think a worthwhile experiment would be to: 
 - try increased ADY/IDY yeast
 - make your dough with cool water (not ice cold, not warm)
 - skip the sugar it will just make your yeast more active earlier than you want it to.
 - try a few days cold ferment using IDY/ADY in the fridge
 - once the dough ball is ready, let it come up to room temperature for a few hours before baking in its container.
 - shape your pizza on parchment paper on the screen.
 - let it further develop on the parchment/screen for some time - watch to see what happens before topping it.
 - top it
 - slide it with the parchment onto your stone to bake it ( I know PP does not do this but you're not using a conveyor oven with the same kind of top/bottom heat they have)
 - I'd try 6-7 minutes @ 530* without opening the door at all.  (a preheated stone for at least an hour)
 - Check the bottom of the pizza for browing - slide screen under it if it's browning too much.
 - turn the broiler on HI and watch closely to see make sure you don't burn the top. (maybe up to 2 more minutes)

That is what I'd try as a next experiment.  Here is one of my earlier pies that was closer to what PP does.

[LuNchBoX1371]

Thank you for the informative response; but, im just curious, why the PP? Wouldn't the screen on the stone do better to cook it? And thank you for the ideas, i think im going to use that idea of more yeast and letting it rise a big on the PP and screen. But thank you for the response again.

[Donjo911]

I think you need more initial heat to transfer to the crust to get the oven spring your looking for in the cornicione of the crust. At the same time - if you're going after a Pizza Port kinda pizza - it's probably going to have more cheese and toppings than a typical NY-style pizza so it will have to bake or bake & broil for more time than the bottom of the pizza will be able to handle.  Normally, I'd say just launch from a peel onto the stone and then just slide a screen under it when you need to to protect the bottom. I do not know if you have peels. Plus parchment paper is easy to get and works well to help you get the initial heat to the bottom of the pizza and also is easy to help slide the screen under the pizza. Plus, it's not going to burn in a home oven - so it's safe.  If you have peels, use them.  If not, the parchment paper is a good proxy. However, if you're going to be making pizza regularly, a wood peel will almost certainly give you better crust.
Cheers,
Don

[LuNchBoX1371]

ok thanks for the advice, ill use the PP and also the other tips you have said. And no i do not have peels i havent had a very good pizza yet to want to invest into it, but ill try your suggestions and see how it works.