Marble is preferred because it doesn't hold onto cold temperatures the same way stainless steel does, and there will be none of the reactions that concern some when stainless steel and food come into contact with each other.
You can get some quick pizzas from your trusty cast-iron Lodge pan, but that will only get you so far. The secret to making your homemade pizza dough really sing in your oven is a baking stone or baking steel. It will get you as close to owning a pizza oven as you can without actually, well, owning a pizza oven.
There are various flours you can use for pizza dough including All-Purpose Unbleached White Flour, Cake and Pastry Flour, Artisan Bread Flour, Spelt Flour, Cassava Flour and Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. Each flour creates a different texture, which is dependent on the amount of gluten in the blend.
Thermal shock: Ceramic stones are more likely to break or shatter due to thermal shock if your pizza stone is placed in a hot oven and exposed to a high heat too quickly. Pizza steels will not break because they are made of a heat-friendly, shatter-proof material.
Tips to Prevent Dough From Sticking. Prep your pizza dough on a separate work surface. Don't knead or stretch your dough on the peel itself. Use a countertop or a silicone rolling mat, and make sure you sprinkle plenty of flour on your workstation before you get started.
Atop your water heater or refrigerator; or on a high shelf.
Atop a heating pad set to low. Wrap the heating pad in a heavy bath towel to prevent too much heat from “cooking” the bottom of the dough.
Warm the dough
The first step on rolling out pizza dough starts with letting the dough sit at room temperature for around 30 minutes to relax the gluten. Warming cold dough makes it easier to roll out or hand stretch pizza dough because of the protein in gluten that makes pizza dough chewy and stretchy.
Place the ball in a container to prove and cover with cling film. Leave the dough to prove in a warm place for 60-90 minutes or cold prove in the fridge for 1-3 days.
They suggest placing the stone on a higher rack, about 4-5 inches away from the oven's top heating element. As a result, the top of the pizza gets nicely browned and bubbly, while the preheated baking stone takes care of the bottom.
If all you have is a light-colored baking sheet, you can absolutely use it to make pizza. Just increase the oven temperature to 510°F (or up to 550°F if possible) and bake your pizza for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, checking the underside every few minutes to make sure it's evenly browned but not burnt.
The main differences between a stone and a perforated pizza pan are the cooking surface and the amount of heat. Using a stone will produce a crisper crust and a lighter, airier dough. A stone is closer to the Neapolitan oven in terms of temperature.
Under-proofed pizza dough is hard to stretch and dense. An over-proofed dough will stretch too thin and won't spring up when you put it in the oven. Warm-up your dough: Cold dough is hard to stretch and more prone to tearing. Let your dough warm up to at least room temperature before stretching for best results.
Some pizza purists insist that hand-stretching the dough is the only method to make pizza. Many home cooks, however, opt to use a rolling pin instead. Either approach can be successful, but you should go into it knowing that you'll make two distinct types of dough. With a rolling pin, you can make a thin, sturdy dough.
Dough Recipes
When stretching pizza dough, you should never use a rolling pin, as it will push out all the gas, negatively effecting oven spring and resulting in a condensed, tough texture. Generously flour both sides of rounded and proofed pizza dough. Gently flatten into a disc using the palm of your hand.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel, and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.
Normally with pizza dough you give it a short to medium rise (30 to 90 min) as one big ball of dough, or even an overnight cold rise. The rise after rolling it out is generally very short, like 10 to 20 minutes; it's not the main rise and is more about relaxing the dough than rising.
Refrigerating the dough allows the flour to fully hydrate and helps to make the cookie dough firmer. Firm dough prevents the cookies from spreading too much, which is why chilling the dough is a crucial step for cut-out and rolled cookies.
The longer the yeast has had to feast – ideally 24 to 48 hours – the lighter and more flavorful the pizza dough will be.
Keep dough in a food-safe container and cover with a lid with an airtight seal. A well-made pizza dough box prevents crusting on top and encourages complete and consistent proofing.