4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
@scott123 thank you for the link! However you have me confused with someone who knows what they are doing. My desire is to bake pizza (as well as bread) in my Cuisinart Steam Oven, a small toaster oven. A small toaster oven with steam and convection bake. Forgive me if you are familiar with this miraculous device.
I've achieved almost acceptable pizza from my DeLonghi griddle but the crust ends up crisper than I'd like. For better or worse the CSO heats only to 450 deg F. But the broiler goes higher. Pizza stones don't thrill me (I have one) and I am thinking of purchasing a 10 inch by 10 inch steel sheet which will fit the CSO.
My main oven goes much higher than the CSO but I am an old woman turning 70 this summer and the idea of thick steel much larger than 10 by 10 inch turns me off exceedingly, gender bias or no gender bias.
The plan is that I can compensate for lower oven temperatures by higher hydration dough. Thoughts?
I'm sure I don't have to explain to you the amount of energy it takes to heat water, but, for those that may not know, it takes a lot. In the same sauce pan, try timing how long it takes to boil 1/2" of water and how long it takes to boil 2" of water. One is a matter of seconds, the other minutes. I can't speak for bread, but the rate at which pizza dough heats up in the oven is a big part of it's leavening. The water in the base of the dough quickly boils and turns to steam. This rapidly expanding steam is driven upward, which heats the rest of the dough and expands the gas that was formed during proofing. If you load the dough with water, it takes what should be a quick rise in temperature in the dough, a somewhat explosive reaction, and slows it way down. If dough doesn't get hot quickly, oven spring is sacrificed.
Gluten needs water to form. Every flour has a fairly exact amount of water that it can absorb which professionals call it's absorption value. Any water you add beyond that is just adding free water to the dough. And this water that the gluten has no use for, this excess water, takes considerably more energy to heat, and that kills the oven spring.
Beyond impairing volume, excess water impairs the texture of pizza crusts in other ways. Cooler ovens have issues with pizza because, as they extend the bake time, the dough dries out and gets hard. You might think that you're adding moisture and softness to the final product by adding water to the dough, but, in reality, by adding water, you're just increasing the bake time, and, in order to get the crust to eventually brown, you're drying it out just as much.
Excess water is not your friend. Up until the point you reach the absorption value, it's your best buddy, playing the ultra critical role of hydrating the gluten, but beyond that, it's just a literal and a figurative wet blanket.
Those are my thoughts on water 
I don't know exactly what kind of pizza you're striving for, and, perhaps, with a considerable amount of extra oil and sugar, you can do something American-ish or maybe something foccacia-ish, but if you want pizza that's soft, chewy, puffy, and has good color, I just don't see it happening in the Cuisinart.
10" x 10" x .375" steel has the same surface area- and the same weight, as 7" x 14" x .375". If you're willing to work with 10" x 10", just get two pieces of 7" x 14" steel to make a 14" x 14" surface for your main oven. If 7 x 14 is too heavy/too unwieldy for you, you can even break it down into three pieces- maybe three 5 x 15 pieces.
Like I said, I'm not really sure what you're striving for, but, from your description of your DeLonghi pizza, it certainly sounds like you want puffy. If that's the case, I strongly recommend using your main oven.
How hot does your main oven get? Does it have a broiler in the main compartment?
