Neapolitan Pizza Dough - The hunt for the perfect pizza!
Maybe the perfect pizza dough!
Ingredients
- 1 000 gram Tipo 00 (Caputo is my favorite)
- 570 gram cold water
- 100 gram lukewarm water
- 20 gram sea salt
- 0,5 tsp sugar
- 0,5 tsp dry yeast
I can already at the beginning of this recipe warn that this recipe is for pizza nerds like me. Neapolitan pizza is considered by many to be the best pizza in the world. The bottom is airy and crispy, and gives nice bubbles in the crust when frying and the classic little black dots from the hot wood-fired pizza oven. If you are still reading this recipe I will share my best recipe and great tips to succeed with this.
To call the pizza dough Neapolitan, there are some things that are important. Which flour you use, amount of water in relation to flour (hydration) and raising.
Step 1
Start by measuring 100 grams of internal tempered water and place in a bowl. Add yeast, sugar and salt to this water and stir until the salt dissolves. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on the kitchen bench. Eventually you will see that it starts to bubble a little at the top and then you know that the yeast is active and working. If nothing happens I would have done this part again. It is very boring to spend a long time on a recipe if something is wrong.
Step 2
Measure out 1000 grams of tip 00 flour and pour into the mixing bowl. Then grind up 570 grams of cold water and pour together with the flour. Start the food processor at low speed. At first, the dough looks very sticky and wet, but the gluten in the flour needs some time to work together and become an elastic dough. After 5 minutes, I pour the hot water with yeast into the mixing bowl. Now the dough should be kneaded for another 15 minutes (total 20 minutes). The reason why it is important to use cold water is that the dough should not exceed 28 degrees. Let the kneading machine run at a fairly low level.
Step 3
Lightly sprinkle some flour on the baking bench and scrape out the dough. Knead and shape the dough into a large bun. I use a little neutral oil in the mixing bowl and put the dough back to rest. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour. This makes the dough "relax a little more" and becomes better to work with. Now the dough is extremely elastic! Since we use so little yeast and the temperature of the dough is low, the dough does not rise much during the first hour.
Step 4
Divide the dough into 225 gram pieces and roll them into round buns. I grease the pan with a little neutral oil and place the pizza doughs in pans with high edges. Do not lay them too close because they will rise for a long time and become a lot bigger. Cover with plastic wrap. Now I let the dough rest at room temperature for 4-5 hours. Put in the fridge overnight and take out 4 hours before baking pizza. Then the dough has reached room temperature and started to rise a little again.
Step 5
When making the pizza, it is important that you press it gently out and stretch it to the desired size. This is to keep the small air bubbles inside the dough. Add sauce and desired filling and bake in a wood-fired oven at about 400 degrees. Good luck.
