I just saw the message from last Spring about trying to make pliable pizza
dough and after checking the next couple of months never saw what I think
is the real answer to soft pizza dough.
The amount of protein (gluten) in a flour affects its stretchiness (as well
as chewiness). Regular flour has about 12% gluten, bread flour has about
14%, cake and pastry flour much lower.
For very pliable, stretchable pizza dough, the kind you can throw in the
air and it stretches out, use "Italian Style 00" (double 0) flour. It can
be bought in specialty shops or ordered from The Baker's Catalogue. Its
gluten is about 8%. I have used it many times and can assure you that you
can toss and stretch this dough in the air like a pizza pro.
I have read that you can achieve the same low gluten content by mixing some
cake flour with regular flour, but I have never tried that.
If you want to keep the pizza thin, like a true Neapolitan pizza, then
after the first rise, stretch it out (either by pressing and stretching,
flipping in the air, or with rolling pin), dress it immediately with
toppings, and pop quickly into the hottest oven you can achieve because the
heat stops the dough from rising further.
If you have a pizza/baking stone, start the oven with it already installed
so that it heats with the oven. (N.B. some baking stone instructions tell
you otherwise, probably from lawyers' fears about accidents).
When baking in the oven, I put my pizza dough on parchment paper, which is
on top of a rimless baking sheet. Then I can quickly and easily slip it
right onto the baking stone in the oven. If you want, you can remove the
parchment paper after the first few minutes.
You can also cook the pizza for a few minutes before dressing it with
toppings. This is especially important if the type of topping would
otherwise burn, like fresh basil. Perhaps steaming this undressed pizza
will also help its crispiness.
Because professional pizza ovens are usually set from 600 to 700 degrees F,
and our home ovens cannot usually get above 550 degrees, I have often made
pizza, breadsticks, focaccia and calzones on my BBQ grill placed on the
highest setting. There is no need to pre-heat the BBQ grill because it
gets so hot so quickly and cooking outside keeps the kitchen cooler on hot
summer days. On the BBQ grill, I use baking sheets, without parchment
paper, but haven't yet tried my pizza stone. Note however, that the heat
can get so intense that I once ruined the Teflon cover on one baking
sheet. I also remove the baking sheet partway through the baking in order
to get the very crispy and dark crust of the authentic Neapolitan pizza.