Bursting at room temp or in the fridge? I'm guessing it is in the fridge. When you bring it home, loosen the knot in the bag to allow for the expansion. I have a couple in the fridge and use the same bread bags they usually use. Mine is homemade but looks the same as what i see in the grocery. Expands a bit and has some loose airy holes. (i don't knot the bags, just a loose twist and tuck it under) When i plan to use it i take it out and let it sit on the counter for a couple hours or one, depending on the kitchen temp. Taking it out of the bag acts as a 'punch'. I then shape it in a ball using the side palm and spin method on the counter with a bit of fine corn flour. Put it on a parchment lined cookie sheet and cover with a damp towel to rest and rise another hour or so, again checking because of air temp. The resting and rise at this point, and doing the ball tuck, maintains the loose bubbles you want and it becomes very easy to work and very stretchy. Takes some patience to wait for that. (patience and time we often don't have) Not real time...it takes seconds to get it ready, just dinner time needs to be 7-8, not 10pm. A starving family with young ones that should be in bed by the time we often eat a late meal. I have rushed it by turning on the oven a few minutes, then off, using the mild oven heat to rise. I do tend to make stuff up, but check a few y-tube videos of 'pizza parlor dough making' and they do a similar method, on a larger scale.

There is both an electric and a gas oven in my kitchen. My gas oven is ''old-fashioned'' (I believe someone referred to it as analog, because it has a dial, rather than a digital temperature selection) and the thermostat cycles quite a bit to work at keeping the heat at a particular temperature. It isn't as accurate as the electric, there is no window or light to view what's going on in there, and the gas oven takes longer to bake exactly the same thing as the electric oven. There is no convection with a gas oven, like with an electric, and if you've used a convection oven, you'll know what the advantages are. (I always preheat in convection mode, because it's much faster; I bake my pizza on convection as well as bread.) I know about this because I've tested both my ovens extensively. Yes, Velodoug knows exactly what he's talking about. I have a gas range mainly for the cooktop, and the oven for those times we lose power; typically in the winter during storms. It's my second oven, and a reliable ''back-up''. (No...Just like Doug, I don't turn it on in the summer months either.) My electric oven is better insulated, has a window so I can check progress without opening the door, and because the temperature is digital, it typically ends up where I want it to be. With a gas oven, you regulate a recipe by sight and smell, not by time the recipe states it should be done. If you're hanging out in the kitchen all day, or using your old gas stove to heat the room (like I used to 30 years ago), No Problem. It's Done When It's Done. Your Nose Knows. In the electric oven, my pizza recipe turns out the same every single time, and I know exactly how long to bake it to get consistent results. Not so with the gas oven. That doesn't mean you won't get good product; it simply isn't as accurate and doesn't bake the same way. You tend to get moist heat with gas, and there is a natural convection, but side by side, I'll go with electric every time. I wouldn't spend that kind of money ($7K) on any gas oven (mine is also a Lacanche), over a Gaggenau for what you want to use it for. (I don't have experience with other pizza ovens, so I only know about what I'm using. I thought you were asking for experience, not just opinions.) Typically, I preheat my oven to 550 degrees before putting in a pizza, which is done to a golden brown with perfectly charred cheese and a golden bottom crust in 8 minutes. I use my oven heavily for everything. Good luck to you. I know it's daunting to spend serious money on appliances that don't do what you want them to. I hope your next appliance will give you everything you want from it.

Yes, use a pizza peel. A sprinkling of cornmeal acts like little ball bearings so the pizza will roll right off, onto the stone, if you give a quick snap of your wrist. You need to sprinkle your peel with cornmeal, then make your pizza on it, then transfer to the stone in the oven. If you don't have a peel, you can improvise by using the back of a cookie sheet. You don't want to use parchment when using a stone. The point of using a pizza stone is that the stone is porous, and as such, absorbs some of the moisture from the dough, so the crust becomes crisper. If you use parchment, you might just as well bake your pizza on a cookie sheet--the stone won't have the opportunity to do it's job properly with the barrier between it and the dough.

Annie, I can't speak to the perforated pan, since my method is to use parchment paper. If you use my crust, it's easy to make the thinnest crust pizza just using your hands. It's only technique, but for myself, I like the parchment paper on the stone and liken using a stone as a quick sear method to help set the crust. If the pizza is thin enough, and you don't overload it with ingredients, the middle won't be soggy. At the high heat, it also comes out with the browned crust you expect from a pizza parlor. I always make the outer edge of the crust a little thicker, with the middle as thin as I can make it. Try using half the amount of ingredients you normally would and see if it makes a difference. (I know, it goes against my basic nature to use restraint, but it really makes a difference!) One recipe of my crust will cover the bottom of a half sheet pan (on parchment), which lets you know how much the dough should stretch. I've tried Ann's method of using an peel and sadly I am obviously not coordinated enough to manage it. It seemed that in order to get them to move, my crusts always had too much flour, and the cornmeal always burned and smoked in my oven. I'd really like to watch her do it, so I figure out a new technique! My pizza crust also has an olive oil coating (top and bottom), which helps create a crispy exterior and flavor that I like. It's impossible to move anywhere after you oil the dough, spread it out and load it, which is why I like making it on the parchment. This is only a theory on my part, but I think when you make your crust in a pan, the tendency is to overload the toppings since you have a pan to support the crust. The pan will take time to heat up with the pizza in it, which is why the top burns before the bottom gets done. There are many ways to make pizza, however I know this is the only way I can make mine turn out! Since I'm also a fan of thin and crispy (St. Louis style) pizza, that's the style I wanted to learn to make. I am dismal failure with anything else...