Neapolitan Pizza
- March 26, 2020
- by
- Teresa
This pizza crust is just so good. It’s crispy, flavorful, and so, so thin. Make it for your family this Saturday night – and enjoy their company!
I’ve had a long history of extremely sad pizza crust. From the thick, chewy kind to the Tough-As-Nails-Cannot-Bite-Through-It kind to a failed attempt or two to make up a recipe. It hasn’t been pretty.
However, recently I’ve been trying almost everything out of Ken Forkish’s book “Flour Water Salt Yeast”. It’s simply the best! He’s a great teacher, and I am finally learning how to make pizza crust… This recipe is adapted from one of his.
- white flour
- water
- yeast
- whole wheat flour
- salt
- tomato sauce
- fresh mozzarella
- basil leaves
- olive oil
- flaky salt
- red pepper flakes
how to make the whole wheat pizza crust…
This crust doesn’t take much hands on work, but it does take time. The evening before you’d like to have pizza for dinner, you’ll need to mix your poolish. This is simply part of your flour and water mixed with a little yeast and then left overnight. (Doing it this way makes the crust more flavorful, trust me.)
The next morning, you’ll need to add the remaining flour, more water, and some salt to the mixture, and then it will need several folds to give it the strength it needs to stretch into a beautifully thin crust.
When the day has come to late afternoon, the dough is ready to be divided and shaped into balls. This recipe makes two 12-13 inch pizzas, so carefully tip the dough onto a floured surface and cut it in half with a floured knife.
Shape two balls, and let them rise, covered, on a floured baking sheet for one hour. Then place them in the refrigerator for an hour. You can bake both pizzas the same evening, or save one or both of them for lunch or dinner the next day.
how to make the neapolitan pizza…
Set your pizza stone(s) in the oven, and preheat to 550º Fahrenheit. You want the stone to be searing hot, so let it heat for an hour while your dough is chilling. Ten minutes before you assemble the pizza, turn the oven to broil to superheat the stone.
Take the chilled dough and turn it onto a floured surface. Flour the top, and punch down the center, leaving about an inch around the edge undeflated. Turn it over and repeat. Gently lift the crust and work your hand around the rim, letting it stretch out using its own weight to pull it down. Be gentle – you don’t want it to tear. Then place your fists inside the crust and work the backs of your hands around, stretching it further. Set it down on the floured surface, and wash your hands.
Using oven mitts, remove the hot stone from the oven. Lift the crust and set it on the stone. Quickly spread the sauce, and arrange the mozzarella and basil.
Return to the oven, and bake for five minutes, then turn the oven back to broil, and watch the pizza closely. Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust has a few charred spots.
Ta da! You’ve made an amazing pizza. Enjoy it with good olive oil, flaky salt, and some red pepper flakes.
If you make this recipe, I want to know what you think! Leave a comment and give the recipe a rating – hearing about your cooking adventures always makes my day.
Neapolitan Pizza
Ingredients //
For the Whole Wheat Crust
- 350 g White Flour divided
- 400 g Water divided
- 2 pinches Yeast
- 150 g Whole Wheat Flour
- 10 g Salt
For the Neapolitan Pizza
- ½ cup Tomato Sauce
- 8 oz Fresh Mozzarella Cheese chunked
- 6 Fresh Basil Leaves
- Olive Oil
- Flaky Salt
- Red Pepper Flakes
Instructions //
For the Whole Wheat Crust
- At 8 o'clock in the evening, mix up the poolish. Place 250 grams of the white flour and all of the yeast in a bowl and stir.
- Add 250 grams of water at 80° F. Mix well and cover.
- Let rest overnight.
- At 10 o'clock the next morning, place the remaining 100 grams of white flour, all of the whole wheat flour, and all of the salt in a bowl and stir.
- Pour 150 grams of water at 105° F around the edge of the poolish and then tip everything into your new flour mixture.
- Mix by hand. Cut the dough in pieces with your fingers, and then stretch and fold the dough over itself several times. Repeat until well mixed.
- Let rest for half an hour, and then repeat the stretching and folding process several times, until the dough tightens slightly.
- Let rest for 20 minutes, fold, let rest 20 minutes again, and then fold one last time.
- Around 4 o'clock in the evening, when the dough is about 2½ times its original volume, it is ready to be divided. Carefully tip it out onto a floured surface, and dust with more flour. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into two equal pieces.
- Stretch and fold one of the dough balls, and then turn it upside down onto a clean surface. Pull the dough toward you several times, using the friction of the sticky dough on the clean counter to tighten it again. Repeat with the other ball.
- Gently place the dough balls on a floured baking pan, leaving room for them to grow. Cover loosely, and let rise at room tempurature for an hour, then in the refrigerator for an hour.
For the Neapolitan Pizza
- An hour before you bake the pizzas, begin heating your oven. Place a pizza stone (or two) near the center, and preheat to 550° F. Ten minutes before you assemble the pizza, turn the oven to broil to super-heat the stone.
- Prepare the pizza toppings. You want to make the assembly process as efficient as possible so as to minimize the loss of heat while the stone is out of the oven.
- Turn your dough ball out onto a floured surface, and dust with flour. Punch down the middle of the dough, leaving about an inch around the edge puffed up.
- Turn over and repeat.
- Lift the dough up with both hands, holding it by the rim. Work your hands around the edge, letting the weight of the dough stretch it out.
- Place your fists inside the crust, and use the back of your hands working around the edge to stretch the dough further. Be careful not to stretch it so far that it tears! It's easy to get it too big.
- Using oven mitts, carefully remove the extremely hot stone from the oven. Lift your crust gently, and spread it on the stone.
- Working quickly, spread tomato sauce around the crust. Arrange large pieces of fresh mozzarella thickly on top of the sauce, and strew fresh basil leaves over all.
- Return to the oven.
- Bake for 5 minutes, and then broil for another 2-3 minutes. After 5 minutes, watch it closely. You want the cheese completely melted and the crust golden with a few spots of char.
- Remove from the oven, slice, and serve with olive oil, flaky salt, and flaked red pepper!
Notes
- The mixture that you make the night before is called a "poolish". It is a French bread technique that came from the word "Polish".
- You can bake the pizzas the evening you divide them, or wait and bake them for lunch or even dinner the next day. Just leave them covered in the refrigerator.
- The hotter your oven and stone, the better your crust will puff and the crispier it will be.
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