Quasi-Neapolitan Pizza Crust

parts of two farm to flame pizzas made with my quasi-neapolitan pizza crust

I’ve had several requests for the Neapolitan pizza crust recipe I use for my farm to fire pizzas, since I began sharing my Pie of the Week journey.  So, I’ll share it here!

A couple of background notes…

  • This recipe is scaled to make four 10″-ish pizzas.  You can multiply or divide it to make more or fewer, or larger or smaller pies.
  • I’ve typically referred to it as a Neapolitan style” crust.  Technically, that requires only using a combination of Italian “00” flour and American bread flour, water, salt, and yeast.  This is probably more accurately a New Haven style crust, though I make it a bit thinner than that style, so it looks more like a Neapolitan.  You do you – there really isn’t any such thing as “wrong” when it comes to homemade pizza!
  • This is still very much a work in progress!  While my crust is better than anything I can find locally, I’m still in the “constantly fiddling to improve it” stage.  So no guarantees it’ll stay the same very long.
  • I’m not going to give shaping and baking instructions here.  I’ll probably create a post later showing how I shape and bake. There are just too many ways to do both, which depend a great deal on how you want your pizza to turn out and the oven you’re going to bake it in.  But, I generally hand stretch (more so than “toss”) it, and bake it in a Gozney Roccbox at about 960 degrees, for between 90 seconds and 2 minutes, depending on the topping load.  Before I got my portable pizza oven, I was baking it on a stone in my home oven, at 550 degrees (as hot as it goes) for about 5 minutes

 

Print Recipe
Chad's Quasi-Neapolitan Pizza Dough
This is the current iteration of my go-to farm to fire pizza dough. While a true Neapolitan pizza dough (by law in Italy) can only contain Italian "00" flour, American bread flour, water, salt, and yeast, mine is a bit more elaborate. It's probably closer to a New Haven pizza dough, except I make it thinner and bake it hotter for the crispy/creamy cornicone characteristic of a Neapolitan. The rye flour gives a more robust flavor and makes up for the fact that I don't want to spend the time it would take to make sourdough pizza crust. The sugar helps with browning/carmelization that hot baking temperatures provide. The olive oil adds flavor and helps elongate and lubricate the gluten strands so you can stretch the dough a lot without it tearing.
parts of two farm to flame pizzas made with my quasi-neapolitan pizza crust
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Passive Time 1-3 days
Servings
pizzas
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Passive Time 1-3 days
Servings
pizzas
parts of two farm to flame pizzas made with my quasi-neapolitan pizza crust
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Add all the dry ingredients to a stand mixer bowl, and stir to combine.
  2. Add water and oil, and stir to get mostly combined. Put the bowl in the mixer, attach the dough hook, and mix/knead for 5 minutes on low. (You can also hand-knead for about the same time).
  3. Let sit for 5 minutes.
  4. Mix 4 more minutes on low. Check to see if gluten allows a “baker’s window pane” (you can stretch it thin enough to be translucent, nearly see-through, without tearing). If not, mix it a bit longer (or hand-knead).
  5. Immediately divide into 4 equal portions (preferably by weight)
  6. Make a small puddle of olive oil on the counter.
  7. Form each portion into a ball, then plop the bottom of it into the oil puddle. Place the dough balls on a parchment-covered baking sheet.
  8. Brush the top of each ball with more oil, and loosely cover the sheet with shrink wrap.
  9. Immediately refrigerate for 24-72 hours.
  10. On pizza night, pull the dough ball(s) out of the refrigerator one hour before using. If the rest are remaining in the fridge for a later time, cover the dough ball(s) in use with a clean dish towel. Otherwise keep covered with shrink wrap.
  11. Shape and bake as you wish.
Share this Recipe

Leave a Reply