I looked at this recipe. Anna Olson
450 grams of all purpose flour to 375 grams of water . That is a 83% hydration rate . I dont think the all purpose flour can handle that being a 11 to 12 pecent protein content . Better to use a 0 flour or bread flour.
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I have a lift-bowl KA mixer, plus the ‘new&improved’ spiral dough hook.
hence nada problem to “knead” the pizza dough - mixer on, set timer, relax . . .
my basics, adapted for size from Jamie Oliver
115 g semolina
165 g KA Bread Flour
148 g warm water
+yeast+salt
works great for us, but tastes / preferences do have the tendency to vary . . .
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I happened to use bread flour 
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Here are the 3 pizzas I made.
I used Mutti Pizza Sauce that comes in a can. It costs around $4.99 CAD. We liked it as much as Rao’s pizza sauce and it’s half the price per ml. The toppings were sweet onion, red Shepherd pepper, white mushrooms and oregano.
I let my adaptation of the Anna Olson dough, using bread flour, I let it rise at temp for 4 hours.
Pizza Number 1
10 minutes at 450⁰ convection fan on
The crumb close-up is from Pizza Number 1
Pizza Number 2. Slightly thicker dough.
5 minutes at 450⁰F convection fan on on then I decided to turn it up to 470⁰F, also with convection fan on. 11 minutes in the oven.
Pizza Number 3, slightly thinner dough, no mushrooms, 470⁰F convection on and lower rack. 10 minutes.
We liked this dough. I would make it again if I wanted to make dough the same day I want to make pizza for dinner.
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You haven’t written about and perhaps you have used it but I would highly recommend at pizza stone or steel and a higher temperature without convection
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Thanks.
I had thought about purchasing a pizza stone, but I hadn’t, partly because of lack of space to store it, partly because one DC had not been wanting pizza at home as that DC is watching carbs and salt and pizza is hard to resist/moderate for that DC. I have barely baked any since 2023, so I haven’t invested in specialized tools.
I have been using preheated cookie sheet, and I slide the pizza on parchment onto the preheated cookie sheet. I haven’t baked hotter than 470⁰F with the convection on, to avoided setting off any smoke alarms. I will try a higher temp without convection sometime when the windows can be open, without parchment which already starts to burn a little at 470 ⁰ F.
The chew was good with these pizzas baked at 470 F convection on. This crust was the closest I have gotten to the texture of a Neapolitan crust at home, which was a surprise. I wasn’t going for a specific result, other than more soft, crispy, and chewy, than cracker like.
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Mine lives in the oven.
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that is where I store rinsed pyrex and dinner plates that need to be washed. lol.
Well, that’s a good habit to get out of!
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my sil in fl used her oven to store pizza boxes replete with leftovers. That, coupled with inviting mold into her apt by opening the door to her balcony while leaving the AC on, turned out to be a very expensive set of choices.
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Oh, lord. Did she have to have the place de-molded?
de-molded, de-pested and de-hoarded.
And Florida is an especially moldy, pesty place.
it turns out wherever my sil lives is a mold-y, pest-y, hoard-y place. this was her third time on the merry-go-round and you can probably guess who cleans up after she leaves.
I was responsible for clearing out my grandmother’s (Florida, of course) condo after her death. I found a roll of aluminum foil in every closet, cabinet and drawer, and enough dead anoles in the shag carpeting to…well, I don’t know what one does with that many dead anoles. I just threw them away.
Also, you can wrap leftover pizza in foil, so we’re back on topic!
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True that! Most New York pizza is designed to be reheated, I wrap leftover slices in aluminum foil, preheat a cast-iron skillet, and drop a slice in. After a minute or two, I add a light sprinkle of water, cover it with a smaller pan, and let it steam briefly.
It’s not as “correct” as fresh out of the oven, but damn, it’s a fantastic guilty pleasure.
–just to go completely off the rails for a second, I was in xian the other day and I realized it works pretty well for a vegetarian: the hand pulled noodles with chili oil, liang pi, cucumbers, spicy and sour spinach dumplings and there’s a cold tofu dish.
do you go?
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FYI King Arthur Baking is coming out in April with a book dedicated to pizza for the home baker.
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Have you seen Alexandra’s Kitchen Pizza Night Cookbook? I like her blog and “voice” a lot.
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The previews on Amazon look good
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