My first pizza with half whole wheat flour

The thought of trying out pizza has been tickling my mind for a while. Finally, I gathered all the ingredients I would need and get it started. Apparently, all the books I've read about pizza dough require overnight delayed fermentation. Since I've been doing that for all my sandwich loaves already, it is no big deal. Here is my first attempt based on Peter Reinhart's whole wheat baking book.

Recipe: pepperoni, sausage pizza with half whole wheat flour (one pizza for 2)

Ingredients:
soaker
- 1/2+3/8 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
- 1/4 tp kosher salt
- 3/8 cup + 1 TB water
biga
- 1/2+3/8 cup King Arthur unbleached bread flour
- 1/8 tp active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup + 5 tp water
final dough (use only 3/4 of the entire final dough for the pizza)
- 1.5 TB King Arthur unbleached bread flour
- 2 TB Hodgeson mill rye flour
- 3/8 tp salt
- 1 tp active dry yeast
- about 1/4 cup warm water
- 2-3 TB olive oil
Toppings
- about 1/3-1/2 cup pasta sauce
- 3 fresh italian mild sausages
- pepperoni
- 1 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella, asiago, parmesan)

Procedure:

Day 1
Prepare soaker and biga separately in the same way has bread dough. Chill overnight.

Day 2
1. Warm soaker and biga on counter for 2 hours.
2. Proof yeast in 2 TB water.
3. Chop and mix soaker and biga, along with additional flour, salt and proofed yeast.
4. Keep chopping and remixing the dough until the soaker and biga are thoroughly blended together. Then add water until the dough becomes really stacky, to the point of sticky.
5. Rub oil on the final dough and on a large sheet of parchment paper.
6. stretch the dough on the parchment paper. After each stretch, hold the dough for a few seconds before letting go. This way, dough does not shrink back too much. Stretch dough until it fills the size of the pizza pan. If holes occur while stretching, simply pinch them back. Then rub the surface with oil and cover with plastic wrap.
7. If not to bake within 30 minutes, then chill until 30 minutes before baking.
8. Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes. Then transfer it onto baking sheet dusted with flour. It may be easier to just flip it onto the pan, topside down.
9. Remove casing from fresh sausages. Break them down to small crumbs and fry them in a hot sauce pan. Drain of fat and set aside for use when pizza dough is ready.
10. Apply a thin layer of pasta sauce. Then apply sausage and pepperoni uniformly. Finally cover the top  with shredded cheese.
11. Place a rake at the lowest position in the oven. Preheat oven to 500F.
12. Bake the pizza for 5-8 minutes. Peek every 2 minutes to check readiness.

Results:

Day 1, 3:31pm inital soaker:

Day 1, 3:36pm, final soaker:

Day 1, 3:41pm, initial biga:

Day 1, 3:54pm, final biga:

Day 1, 3:57pm, biga and soaker ready to chill:

Day 2, 1:50pm, biga and soaker to warm up:

Day 2, 3:00pm, biga and soaker warmed for 1 hour and pinched to check elasticity:

Day 2, 3:36pm, biga and soaker texture:

Day 2, 4:14pm, final dough with water added to make it close to sticky:

Day 2, 4:15pm, use 3/4 of the final dough, stretch it on a piece of oiled parchment paper:

Day 2, 4:24pm, final dough stretched to the size of a pizza pan:

Day 2, 4:24pm, final dough's thickness before resting:

Day 2, 6:50pm, final dough chilled for 1 hour, then warmed and allowed to rise for 30 minutes:

Day 2, 7:02pm, final dough coated with pasta sauce and toppings:

Day 2, 7:05pm, final dough topped with cheeses:

Day 2, 7:07pm, pizza baked for 2 minutes on the lowest rake in oven at 500F:

Day 2, 7:13pm, pizza baked for 8 minutes:

Day 2, 7:15pm, pizza's bottom after baking:

Day 2, 7:15pm, pizza's top:

Day 2, 8:23pm, a cross section of the pizza:

Observations:
1. The pizza crust is not hard to make. It's just important to be able to control the hydration of the dough so that it can be handled and stretched without breaking.
2. Parchment paper can only withstand heat up to 420F. Therefore, after stretching the dough on the parchment paper, the dough needs to be transferred to some other pans when baked. The best way to transfer it is to flip it upside down. I did not do it until after applying the pasta sauce. This makes the transfer clumsy. The dough ends up with many wrinkles. But it is in one whole piece after baking.
3. The final outcome turns out quite satisfactory. The bread has a nice almost crispy bottom. The amply oil on the bottom of the crust prevents sticking.
4. The cheeses are a bit too dry. Next time, I am apply cheese at the last 2-4 minutes of baking instead of from start.
5. The amount of meat is too much. Next time, use 1-2 sausages only. Add other ingredients such as mushrooms and pineapple.
6. The taste of whole wheat is distinctive in the crust.


The remaining 1/3 of the dough is chilled for another 2 days. Then I make a mini-pizza out of it.

Day 4, 6:54pm, a mini-pizza dough rolled very thin, with half the meat, and same portion of cheese:

Day 4, 7:20pm, mini-pizza baked for about 4-5 minutes, a little overdone:

Day 4, 7:40pm, the cross-section of the mini-pizza:

Day 4, 7:40pm, the top of the mini-pizza:

Observation:
1. With a thinner crust, it's much fast to cook. In fact, this second pizza is a little overcooked on the edge.
2. This second pizza has a much nicer composition in terms of meat, tomato sauce and cheese.
3. Having been left for 3 days, the pizza dough has developed a lot of strength. This makes the dough very stretchable.