I'm looking for a better Neapolitan Pizza Dough recipe. My girl is gluten-free but I'm not. I'm more of a Paleo eater, but sandwiches and pizza are my hold outs. Something about a perfectly balanced, hot, pizza where the crust has both chew and crust. Where the yeast from the dough perfectly complements the cheese and tomato sauce.
One of my first kitchen stints was at an authentic America Italian pizzeria in Plymouth, MA. We would through through 300 pies for dinner (dining room only sat ~35). My point is, I've been around pizza for a long time but my "personal pizza perfection" has been elusive. Some of you may have seen my post of some pizza's i've made, they were meh, had all the characteristics but never exceed the sum of its parts.
My go-to dough has been the Modernist recipe that uses micro encapsulated livener and Champaign as the liquid and vital wheat gluten. It works but the dough leaves an unpleasant grittiness in my mouth. Plus, its a little too hocus pocus for a simple time tested food.
http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/neapolitan-pizza-dough/
I think Chef Jacob is working on an extensive series on Pizza, but until that arrives, can anyone suggest to me
1.) a traditional wheat based dough
2.) a gluten free dough
PS: I just had a 3/8" thick pizza steel fabricated for my Kamado grill, so will be able to maintain temperatures above 700 degrees.
There are some amazing bread heads on this forum, your assistance would be most welcome.
MB
MB, as I recall you have an awesome Neapolitan crust. I don't know if what I'm about to write will help or not.
I make two distinct crusts:
Neapolitian pizza where every aspect of the pizza is balanced and each holds equal importance. In my mind that is why Neo pizza has so few ingredients. My best crust (thanks to Jacob) for this is made with 00 flour. I make the dough in my food processor using 3 cups of 00 flour, 1 teaspoon of instant yeast, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt. Turn to "On" then pour in enough water to pull the dough together. I don't measure this because 00 dough takes less water than a recipe will call for. It's best to just do what the dough wants. From there I lightly grease a bowl or zip-lock baggy. The dough goes in for a quick rise (use warm water), or in the fridge for a long rest (here I use cool water and rest it overnight).
The other pizza crusts that I make are made with AP flour because growing up, that is what the old Italian ladies did, and they know best. I have tried making crust with bread flour, but it becomes too chewy for my taste. It's the same recipe as given above with the addition of olive oil 3 teaspoons and the water will be about 1-1/4 cups
Thanks for chiming in Nina and absolutely agree about balance of ingredients is critical for Neopolitan's. I prefer Caputo OO too.
@ Mucho,
My formulation is:
Dissolve yeast (really, just a very small pinch) into water and then add flour. Mix just long enough so there is no longer dry flour visible. Let rest for 30 minutes (autolyse).
Add salt and knead for 10 minutes.
Place into a container sprayed with non-stick spray, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 16-18 hours. Now this is the tricky part. For the batch you're making at home, you'll usually want to leave out at room temp for maybe 1-2 hours and then place in the fridge overnight to finish the slow rise. When I make a large batch of pizza dough at the restaurant, I'll let it sit at room temp overnight because that's how long it takes to leavin a 30 pizza batch of dough.
After the bulk fermentation, scale into 280 gram balls, round, and allow to rise a second time. I'll usually pop them back in my fridge after forming, and then pull them out to sit at room temperature for about 1.5-2 hours before using, depending on how hot my kitchen is.
Thanks Chef Jacob for such clear guidance with the dough. I'll document and post the WIP when I make it later this week.
Mucho, Chef Jacob is a great resource. For pizza, though, you may also want to go to http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php
I have a Kamado style grill, ( Big Steel Keg ) and found a steel plate did not work for me, I got plenty of bottom heat, but not enough top heat. Even using a pizza stone, I got good bottom heat, but could not get the top heat I wanted.
You said wheat based, did you mean whole wheat based? Villa Roma has done a lot of testing and has had some success with 100% whole wheat, This poster used a Villa Roma approach https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=29589.0 he does not say what type of oven, but it could have been a grill or Kamado, because you don't see much top heat. Here is what Villa Roma got out of a LBE https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=5682.175 and here is what his LBE looks like https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=4753.0
I tried his recipes a few times in a home oven, and a small deck oven and was not very impressed. Once I got a Blackstone Pizza Oven, I became a convert. The Blackstone has two stones, like the LBE,, except that the lower stone rotates. IMO, you need a pretty high heat source, and good balance, to get good results with a whole wheat pizza.
BTW, the steel will work great in a home oven if you have a broiler.
Barry, Thanks for the input. Perhaps your pizza steel was not thick enough? The one I had made is 3/8. I hear what you're saying about top heat, it is different than with an oven. Yesterday I was cooking around 475 to 500. I think it was fine, perhaps I could even go hotter, I had the smoker stone in to diffuse direct heat. You can see the mushrooms and Portuguese sausage were caramelized with Maillard. I think my oven is putting out enough heat. I thought I too some shots of the bottom but guess not. I like lots of stuff on my pizza this sausage, mushroom and pepper pie came out very good. Jacob's dough recipe is a winner. Best texture and flavor I've made yet. I'm doing another batch as we speak. Thanks Chef!
Hi all
On Friday evening i thought I'd experiment with Jacobs pizza dough recipe.
100% 00 Pizza Flour (I too use Caputo)
59% Water, room temp
1.5% Salt
Pinch yeast
It was the first time that I've ever attempted a pizza dough recipe with a pinch of yeast. I was hoping that the pizza dough would be ready for cooking the next day.
Knowing that it needs a long rising time to develop complex flavours I have put the pizza dough in the fridge overnight. When I had woken the next day the day didn't rise enough so I had taken it out of the fridge. I was hoping that it would be ready for dinner that night and hope that taking it out of the fridge would decrease the amount of time for the rising.
My first question that I have is the following. When I use such a small amount of yeast do I still need to wait until the tote doubles in size before I can use it?
After the first Rise do I need to Degas the pizza dough and punch it down before I shape it. Or much like sour dough making attempt to preserve and keep all the gas inside of the pizza dough. Tomorrow is Monday night and i still have the same dough and am hoping that by tomorrow night I can use it and that it's not too late to be able to use the dough.
On a side note having had guests over for dinner on Saturday night i made pizza using the same dough ingredients except used 2 teaspoons of yeast and went for a quick rise.
I still received compliments for that pizza though would love to make a Napolitano style pizza dough.
Thank you.
Leo, you don't need to have the dough double in size for pizza , the way you would for bread. It is common that it only increases in size a little. After the first rise, you normally would manipulate it, a stretch and fold, or something similar just to redistribute the yeast. Pizza dough is much more forgiving than bread, in my opinion.
@ Leo,
If using a pinch of yeast, you probably want to leave your dough out at room temperature overnight. The full, bulk fermentation will usually take about 16 hours. Obviously this can vary based upon ambient room temperature.
You are looking for a full doubling in size for both the bulk fermentation and proofing stage. This is important because the dough's hydration is so low, the long fermentation will allow for extensibility when you latter go to stretch it.
I have seen people who will portion the dough and proof right after mixing, skipping the bulk fermentation step, like Barry was talking about above.
I have found that I get a better result when I do a full bulk and then proof.
PS: Make sure you're dissolving the yeast into the water first before you add the flour and knead. This is an important step when using such a small amount of yeast.