i tried this again last night using unbleached bread floour rather than all-purpose flour. i also made a double batch, making half of that a day beforehand and suing it as a preferment for added flvaor and depth to the dough. i also used my
salsa di pomodoro siciliana with excellent results.
i'll spare everyone the dough pictures, but here's how it went down:
i took half the dough put it in a freezer bag that i had sprayed some olive oil into - squeezed out all air and got it as flat as i could filling the bag, then into the freezer.
the other half, i divided into four equal portions and we made pizza. here's mine before the oven and pizza stone:
and after about 8, 9 minutes at 500 degrees:
as you can see, i probably could have gone another half-minute, maybe even a minute. also, i think i would have had a little more success if i would have baked it at around 425 or 450 instead. the reason for this is that the crust could have baked and finished right in time with the extra moisture cooking off. as it was, the very center of the pizza was jsut a little wet from sauce, toppings etc., even though the crust was done all the way through.
the bread flour was definitely the way to go for a chewy texture and crisp-outside-soft-inside crust. there are a few advantages to using both foulrs, and for experiement's sake i will try half bread flour, half all-purpose flour next time - having said that, if it comes down to one or the other, bread flour is the preferred choice.
using the preferment worked very well - it definitely adds a layer of rich flavor to make half the dough the night before and let it "blossom" for 24 hours or so.....