Getting a crispier crust

[giambra]

Hello,
Looking for some help on getting a crispier crust. I've gotten feedback saying my pizza is really good, but its very soft, any way to make a crispier crust?

I use Caputo 00 pizza flour, following the Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast recipe for dough with overnight Poolish (although I add an overnight in the refrigerator to the end). So, the timeline is:

Friday evening: mix poolish (500g flour, 500g water, pinch yeast)
Saturday morning: mix dough (another 500g flour, salt, 250g water, poolish, so 75% hydration)
Let rise for 4-6 hours, shape dough, into the refrigerator for overnight.
Sunday, pizza bake.

I'm rolling out cold dough (helps with the high hydration), get the oven fired to 1000 degrees on the floor, but then I let it cool down to about 750 and do my bake.

Pizza comes out great, but very soft. I've searched some on this forum, found a few references, but not sure how to have a high hydration along with crispy bottom. I saw some reference to adding semolina (7%) to the dough? Would this make a difference? Anything else I can do to crisp this up? Thank you,
Tim
Raleigh, NC

[giambra]

Photo from last bake:

[scott123]

4 things:

1. Drop the hydration. 62% is much more normal for a crispier pizza

2. Use malted bread flour (King Arthur Bread Flour)

3. Use a lot less dough. Whatever your dough ball size is now, I'd say cut it in half

4. Drop your hearth temp to about 700. That will slow down the bake and give you a bit more crispiness.

[david s]

Soft bottoms usually indicate floor is not hot enough. I was going to suggest adding semolina to the dough recipe but see you are on to that. Have you tried the semolina on the floor test? Cast about 1/4 tsp of semolina into the middle of the oven floor. It should suddenly turn black after 3secs. If it turns black after 2 secs floor is too hot, 4 secs, floor not hot enough. When getting mine ready the floor is always too hot so I place the first pizza half in the entry where it's cooler and subsequent pizzas get placed further in.

[cobblerdave]

G'day
Drop the dough ball size.
A 220 gram ball should make 10 to 12 inch pizza
Regards dave

[KEmerson]

While I won't swear this is the answer, I'll offer it anyway. You say you roll out the dough. Rolling is specifically "forbidden" by the VPN - I don't know their exact reasoning. I just know it is so. But I do know that rolling dough will effectively get rid of air in the dough which would prevent a crispiness, especially on the crust edge. Absolute minimal handling is crucial too. It would be good to learn how to shape the dough into the disc with as little handling as possible.

The above suggestions for heat and hydration are also good to consider. But I would stay with the Caputo 00. After many tests with a variety of flours (often with the knowledge things would fail but simply wanting tests and comparisons) I have concluded that the Caputo 00 is best. Not even other Italian 00 flours compare.

[heliman]

Boost with a small amount of diastatic malt. Some may be included in the flour already but experiment adding a few grams to each batch of dough). The floor temp should be dropped slightly for best results.