Dough – What’s the best water temperature for making Pizza dough

When you have a (good) bread recipe, the weight ratio is always given as percentage of the flour. This tradition is known as a baker's percentage. It may sound counterintuitive at first, but when you are measuring, or scaling, ingredients (which add to the total weight by themselves) you soon notice how convenient it is.

So, if you recipe calls for 300 g flour and 3% salt, it needs 9g salt. The water at 150 ml is 50% - a rather low hydration, don't do this with bread flour unless you have another liquid in the recipe you didn't mention (eggs, oil, or additional water for a poolish). It will be stiff with AP flour, but I like it that way, while other people find it too hard. It is up to personal preference, I guess. Also measure the other ingredients (yeast) as a percentage of the flour weight. And if you are given a recipe for fresh yeast, don't forget to convert it to instant dry if you are using it, or vice versa - the conversion factor is 3:1.

I think you might not be giving your dough enough time between shaping and baking. Proofing lets little bubbles build up in your dough, letting it rise as you mentioned - stretching and shaping will deflate the dough and let the little bubbles loose, even with careful handling. Some methods of shaping will deflate the dough more than others, and if you're stretching by hand you should try to be careful not to handle too roughly, especially around the edges where you want a fluffy crust. Letting the dough rest after shaping and before baking will help the dough recover.

Also, you didn't mention your proofing method much, but it sounded like regular counter-top proofing. Several recipes I looked at prefer a cold ferment for new york style pizza, citing more complex flavors and better gluten development, and also that stretching cold fermented dough tends to produce a fluffier crust (since it holds the pockets of gas from rising through the stretching better). The pictures look quite convincing that this will let you have an airier crust. Since this would involve making your dough several days in advance, and letting it rise in your fridge, it may not be your ideal solution - but if you don't mind planning ahead (best results apparently 3-5 days), it may help.

Also, you might want to check how long you knead - a dough that isn't kneaded enough will end up dense and heavy. You might make sure your dough is kneaded enough to pass the windowpane test - stretch a marble-sized ball of dough between your fingers, it is developed enough when you can get it thin enough to be translucent enough to see your fingers through. This article talks bout the importance of kneading (and also suggests using a food processor for better gluten formation quicker), since having well developed gluten should trap the bubbles from rising better and give you a more airy crust.

Of course, getting more heat in the oven might help - it might even be all you need, and if your problems are solved after getting a pizza stone, so much the better. But these tips I found might also help you get the effect you're looking for in the meantime - or possibly stack several of them to get the pizza just the way you like it. Good Luck!