On 12/17/2020 at 7:14 AM, weinoo said:(Though I'm tired of moving it around - sucker weighs 25 lbs.!)
Thick aluminum plate can match (and exceed) steel at about half the weight. Your goal of trimming another minute off the bake time- aluminum can achieve that- with one hand tied behind it's back.
Another option for a less back breaking plate would be taking your existing steel to a distributor and getting it cut. Cuts are usually around $10. Just make sure you run the seam from side to side. If the cut runs from front to back, it will contour to the bowing shelf and sag.
On 12/16/2020 at 6:38 PM, weinoo said:Total cook time about 4.5 minutes, which I think may be as short as it can get, though I'll shoot to shave another minute off.
Paper is wood, and wood is an insulator. It won't trim a minute, but, if you can launch without the parchment, you'll trim off about 30 seconds (and see a difference).
Another way to trim off more time- and obtain a dough that's exponentially easier to stretch and launch, would be a more traditional pizza dough recipe. High hydration doughs are great for bread, but, in pizza, they extend bake times, hinder oven spring and produce sticky slack doughs that are much harder to stretch- and launch. This is why you won't find doughs much higher than about 62% water in both New York and Naples.
What flour are you using?
