re: Homemade Pizza Dough Tips (and recipe)

Great post.

I use fresh mozzarella. What do you recommend?

I have gone through all of this, but not to the same extent as you. I have arrived at my method and my pizzas rival any of those I get at restaurants - even in pizza Meccas like New Haven.

I use a steel and 550 F oven on convection roast. If you are making many pizzas, then a steel retains heat better and you still get good charting on the bottom of each pizza. With a stone, my subsequent pizzas weren’t as good. It takes 4-5 minutes for my pizzas to bake.

I found that I can use 00 flour, but I add a bit of honey so it gets some color. Without a sugar it won’t brown at 550 F. I only use 00 flour for same-day dough. Sometimes. I almost always use AP flour.

I do a 3-day ferment in the refrigerator. One-day if no time. Same day in a pinch, but with an 8-hour or so room temperature ferment.

I bought a covered, plastic proofing tray that fits 6 doughs. I love it and it fits in the refrigerator. Technically it is a half-size proofing tray I think.

I use semolina flour for shaping and in the peel. Just seem to prefer it, although I will use regular flour if I don’t have semolina.

Homemade pizza is a great dinner party food - sit around, drink, make pizzas and eat them as the come out.