Tonight’s 21” mushroom pep, 74% hydration — and bonus easy-launch cheat code discovered

This one came out great. The bottom was a bit darker than I’d like, so next time I’ll maybe try a launch temp to 720° instead of 770°. But otherwise it had a good balance of crispy sturdy base and a fluffy interior, and most importantly it’s the first 20+ inch pizza I’ve launched without any problems!

Actually I found a very effective cheat for launching fragile large high hydration heavily topped pizzas w/o a screen or semolina (which I don’t like). It’s the same old “yoink the tablecloth” parchment paper trick for conventional ovens, only in this case I use a high-temp conductive flexible BBQ mat material — the thicker higher heat tolerance type: https://a.co/d/d6vSk2u. You only need it until your base firms up (~100s) and then yoink the mat out with tongs, leaving the pizza in place to continue baking directly on the stone. Seems to work far better than a screen, and you can build your pizza directly on it, without the pressure of having to hurry, or limit the weight of your toppings.

Some people (purists, gate-keepers, show offs, know-it-alls 🙂) are going to really hate this, but my arid climate necessitates 73% hydration minimum, and this is the only thing that’s really worked for me so far.