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Great write-up, Adam. I'm a big at home pizza maker, but I also hate making the dough ahead of time, so I usually cheat and buy the dough. This recipe sounds worth the effort and I'm definitely going to try to make it this weekend! Thanks so much!

I knew there was another school of thought on pizza dough recipes. I'm so glad you posted this because this may be the recipe/technique I have been trying to find!

I would say the general favorite method at pizzamaking.com involves the 3-5 day rise (with something on the order of half a tsp of IDY per pizza and a final dough temperature of 75-80 F). Going out to a week with those doughs will definitely give you something alcoholic and overproofed. The method I linked is great because you can make a batch of dough (say, 3 pizzas worth in your Kitchenaid) and then leave it for whenever in the next couple of weeks is convenient. The elasticity of the dough is fantastic. This is accomplished by starting with cold water, using about a quarter or third as much IDY, and developing the dough a bit less before tossing it in the fridge... after a few days the gluten will organize itself quite well.

And yeah, pizzamaking.com is a huge time waster. But you get pizza out of it.

About salt and temp: 1.5-2.0% salt is a must. Can't really taste the dough otherwise. I think 450 F can be just fine for cooking a pizza- you don't get nice charred spots, but it browns and crisps well. Toss it under the broiler for a couple minutes to finish it off with nice char on top.

We have had tremendous success with our pizzas, even without the refrigeration. Enough salt is definitely key. And we recently switched over to 00 (double zero) flour, and that has taken it to a whole new level: perfect teeth resistance and a nice chew.

They are definitely not super easy to handle, but aren't terribly difficult by any "stretch." When I ate at Pizzeria Mozza in L.A. and watched the guys behind the counter churning out pie after pie like nothing, though, I was quite envious.

My wife and I are torn on the sauce. I like just the crushed San Marzanos with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a dash of fresh oregano, and no cooking. She has taken to adding a tbs or two of tomato paste to the sauce, for a little zing, but I prefer the former.

Definitely need a 550 oven and the pizza stone. Huge difference. 2-3 years, I'm putting a brick pizza oven in the backyard. Then we'll be talkin'!!!

@Adam: The "rabbit hole" of Pizzamaking.com can be a bit daunting, but the retarded cold dough rise is one of the bits I learned in my early going there and is, in my opinion, the most important factor in making my dough super-easy to handle and the resulting crust ever so much more flavorful. I find the best doughs come from a 3-5 day refrigeration. Also, purchasing a digital scale has helped me maintain an excellent consistency so my pizzas are great every time. Finally, this handy dough calculator proved to be an invaluable tool throughout my recipe tweakings. Try it!
http://www.pizzamaking.com/dough_calculator.html

@Luther: Thanks! I still have three dough balls left in the fridge!

I've usually been a casual skimmer of Pizzamaking.com, because I've been afraid of going down that rabbit hole. But maybe it's time for me to become an in-depth reader.

@Luther: The blondeness of the dough does not necessarily translate into a lack of crispiness or taste. I bet the dough was pretty flavorful, actually. It only gets better with a 48 hour rise. :)

Reinhart is the man for real. Get your oven hotter! That pizza looks weak and flabby and barely edible; you can tell it wasn't cooked hot enough.