Re: Pizza okay, but wanting better crust, need help When we first started doing pizzas we struggled in the same fashion. I had not found the forno bravo forum to help and it was some serious trial and error. We had our share of underdeveloped and overdeveloped, etc, etc and on and on. We were from New York and so had verry particular taste, my wife especially. Truth be told we are still learning.
So some suggestions from someone who had his share of troubles. First, flour probably did not have enough gluten(in the event you cant get better bread flour you could add some vital wheat gluten which is available at specialty stores, brands like Bob's Red Mill).
I concur with James in that 10 minutes in the mixer was probably too long. Unless all the ingredients were cold it probably made the dough too warm from the friction. Check the temperature of the dough when it comes out of the mixer with a probe thermometer. It should be in the mid to high 70's. Much warmer than that is not good.
I also agree with his observation of trying without EVOO and hand kneading. The feeling of the dough is important to your evolution as a pizza maker.
Consider a short bench rest after mixing and kneading(to allow the gluten to relax, or you may consider a 1-2 hour bulk fermentation at room temperature), then divide the dough into balls and refridgerate over night. It sounds like you did a bulk fermentation in the fridge and then divided and tried to work with cold dough.
As Drake alluded to you should remove the dough from the fridge about 1 hour prior to cooking to allow them to warm slightly(the will still feel a bit cold when you work with them).
The wood fired pizza e-book is a great resource...and it's free.
Hope this helps!
Best
Dutch
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