00 for pizza
And a fool proof recipe for Napoli style.
And a ton of woodrow wilsons
tried, tested and i'm very happy with this recipe. if you're doing true Napoletana style, you will need a very high temp oven, say 750-800F with a cooktim of 60-80 seconds. also, you'll need to move this dough hydration to 70% to withstand the high heats you'll be subjecting the dough to.
i run this recipe at either 62% or 65%. you can interchange either as you wish. all other ingredients remains the same, just add more water for the 65% version and same for the 70% version.
this recipe makes a 12" pizza when cooked. you will stretch your dough to 13-14" when making your shell and the dough will contract some when you cook it, leaving you with a 12" finished pie.
or you can start with a 12" stretched shell, and you'll have a thicker dough shell and crust. all depends how you like to form your shells.
drop this into a spreadsheet and you can set it up to multiply your ingredients for however many shells you want to make.
i have found that my 5qt KA stand mixer does well making a 4-shells batch. this doesn't overwork the motor and you'll get a nice and supple dough.
key components to making dough. when using a KA mixer, DO NOT overmix your dough.
i literally place all these ingredients in the KA work bowl and use the dough hook and mix on lowest speed for 5 mins. that's all, just 5 mins. no need to knead longer.
you must use cold water. cold water will keep your dough temp down and not over activate the yeast. over activated yeast will cause the dough to proof faster and this is a cold ferment dough, as in the fridge overnight and it's better at days 2-3.
you can countertop proof as i did for my other recent pizza cook; ambient room temp was 68F and counter proof was 6 hours.
once you have your large dough ball, weigh the full mass and then divide it by however many shells you seek to create. weigh each apportioned dough ball, gently round each ball out and tuck under the bottom of each ball and place in a lightly oiled container and cover the container.
best proofing comes in the fridge for 24-48 hours. the dough develops more flavor by the 3rd day as well.
then bring your dough balls to room temp before forming into a pizza shell. the rest is on you to learn to make pizza.
feel free to feedback any questions or experiences when making this recipe.
and yes, you can go all 00 flour and skip the semolina. that's your choice but make sure you're using 00 to the full weight of the 00 AND semolina weights as listed above.
