Reddit mentions of American Metalcraft 17080 8" Round Aluminum Pizza Peel with 12" Wood Handle

First of all, I can see how my use of the term 'dome' might be confusing, but, in this context, I'm just using it as a synonym for ceiling. Your oven has a ceiling, and, for achieving fast balanced bakes, it's far too high. I guess the manufacturers wanted to sell something with multiple uses, such as cooking a turkey, but, in order to accommodate taller foods, they pretty much ruined it for fast baked pizza.

When I talk about a low ceiling, this is what I'm referring to:

https://cdn.barbequesgalore.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1130x733/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/f/b/fbpizzaoven_main_1.jpg

This is a little extreme, but, between having a ceiling that's too low and that's too high, low is always better- for pizza. No, you'd never fit a turkey in there, but, as I said, a proper pizza oven is single purpose.

I believe you have an Aldi oven. I've spent quite a lot time helping people correct/mod faulty oven setups like this one, and, after analyzing both your pics and others, I have some ideas how this oven could be modded to produce a more balanced bake (without a great deal of expense), but... based upon your assessment of your first pizza being 'perfect,' I think my suggestions might end up being overkill.

If it's just a matter of repeating the quality of the first pie in ensuing bakes, then I think I can get you there without too much fuss. This is probably going to take a little trial and error, but you should be striving to build a fire that burns a bit stronger for the pre-heat, but then burns out pretty quickly, so that by the time the pizza is going in, it's giving off some heat but it isn't a roaring flame. Depending on how many pies you're baking, you're going to want to add some wood during the bake, but I would err on the side of caution.

One important aspect of tending the fire in a WFO is that, unlike an indoor oven, where, if you need more heat, you can turn the knob, and just about immediately get the heat you need, in a WFO, if, say, your stone is on the cool side, if you add more wood to the fire, it will take a minimum of 30 minutes for the stone temp to reflect it. If, say, the stone gets too cold, it will be a result of too small a fire 30 minutes prior, and, if it gets too hot, again, it will be because the fire was too hot earlier.

You're going to have to keep a mental (or a physical) diary of how much wood you used for the initial fire, what temps you see on the stone, and how much additional wood it takes to maintain a sensible stone temp. Your IR thermometer will be your best friend here. If you don't have one, get one.

These are just ballpark numbers, but, for the next bake, I'd take the preheat to 240c on the top dial, which should hopefully produce somewhere in the realm of a 300c-325c stone temp. If you overshoot that, even on a second or third pie, it means your initial fire was too large.

Beyond taking steps to control your fire more carefully, I would also suggest adding some doming to your repertoire. Doming is, quite simply, raising the pizza towards the ceiling of the oven towards the end of the bake in an effort to cook the top more (while not cooking the bottom). Here's an okay video where you see the pizza being domed at the end (4:04 mark).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJvkf77p4GY

Your technique is going to be a little different, since I think you're probably going to want to close the door for at least a portion of the bake to trap some heat in. You're ceiling is also going to be a LOT cooler than his, so, rather than a brief up, then down, you're going to want to spend some real time with the pizza raised high in the oven- maybe even half a minute or longer- total. Bear in mind the heat in the top of the oven will be uneven, so you'll need to dome for maybe 10-15 seconds, bring the pizza down to the hearth, turn, dome, turn, dome, turn, etc. Turn quickly- the longer the pizza contacts the hearth, the more the bottom is going to cook.

At the pre-heat temps I mentioned before, I think your oven routine should look a little like this:

0:00 launch, close door
1:00 check the bottom of the pie, turn
turns every 30 seconds until the bottom is almost done
doming until the top is properly colored.

If you check the undercrust at 1:00 and it tears- you checked too early. Next time either check a little later and/or maybe run the oven a bit higher. For this oven, you're never going to be able to do an authentic Neapolitan 60-90 second bake, but I think you can do a pretty respectable balanced 4-5 minute NY style bake, if you dial everything in.

Lastly, as I'm sure you're figuring out, a turning peel is critical. It should be round, slightly smaller than the pie you're making, and be long enough that you don't burn yourself. For a single pie oven, you don't need something incredibly long, but, at the same time, since you're going to be doming for longer periods than is usual, you'll need some length. I think you could get something like this to work:

https://www.amazon.com/American-Metalcraft-17080-Aluminum-Handle/dp/B004FNU6GG/ref=sr_1_13?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1496688041&sr=1-13

If you absolutely had to use a square peel, you could probably turn with a small one, but round peels are a bit easier to work with.

Launch peel - https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/epicurean-reg-natural-pizza-peel/1014457607

Turning peel - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FNU6GG/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_85PiDbC04E1HS