Dough – Homemade frozen pizza dough

Damn, that looks good. I've never made this particular type of bread before, but here are some things that I do know which might help:

Butter is (roughly) 10% water and 90% fat, while lard is 100% fat. So if you substitute one for the other, you should adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly. The flavor will be a little different, but I bet either one would work.

I would not assume AP flour. In fact, I'd assume high-gluten bread flour. The gluten is what creates those fibers. It's the fat that keeps it tender.

This looks very similar to a brioche, so you might want to look at brioche recipes to learn some of the principles. One thing that most of them will tell you is to to knead the dough to develop the gluten fibers, and then add the butter. This I think is the key. I know that fat can keep gluten molecules from sticking together into strands, so if you add the fat later, you should wind up with strands of gluten surrounded by fat.

Yeast action is only one factor in getting a rise when baking. Yeast metabolizes sugars and produces CO2 bubbles which puff up your dough, and also help with gluten development to make your dough stretchy. However, when you bake your dough much of the lift you get is from the expansion of water turning into steam - this is what makes pizza dough puff up a bit when baked and gives you that texture.

Water is also important in gluten development when your dough is proofing, without enough water you won't get an elastic dough with good crumb. My thinking is that your dough is too dry, so add more water to your dough. Stick to the amounts of flour and water in a trusted recipe and knead with oil instead of flour. After kneading your dough should be fairly loose and just a bit sticky, and you should be able to stretch it quite a bit without breaking.

Regarding oven temperatures you don't need the fires of hades to make a good pizza - the most important things for a good pizza is a good base, sauce, and quality ingredients. Crank your oven up as high as it will go and use a pizza stone (make sure to heat it up for at least 30 minutes) and you'll get a good result.