Napoletana Pizza Dough
Patience is certainly a virtue, and the best way I learned that was with this pizza dough recipe. Being a typical New Yorker, I never had patience to wait for anything to ferment over 24 hours, but this isone instance in which the old adage, it will be worth the wait, holds true.It’s really such a simple and foolproof process, doesn’t require any special equipment (I prefer to make it with my hands, but you can use a stand mixer)and the most difficult part is just planning ahead 72 hours. So if you think you are going to make pizza on a Saturday, just start making your dough on Wednesday. Yes, you can take it out prematurely, but the flavor really develops with a long fermentation. And yes, it can be frozen.
Ingredients
- 500 grams of Type 00 Flour (I like Mulino Caputo®Chef’s Flour or Tony Gemignani 00 Flour from Central Milling)
- 360 grams of room temperature filtered water (72% hydration)
- 16 grams of fine sea salt
- 16 grams of honey
- 1 gram of active dry yeast (you can use freshyeast also. To convert from fresh yeast to active dry yeast, multiply the freshquantity by 0.33).
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the flour and salt andwhisk thoroughly.
- Measure about 1/4 cup of water (approx 60 grams)and heat up in a microwave-safe cup or bowl or over the stove for about 10-15seconds. Active dry yeast must be hydrated in warm (not hot) water before beingincorporated into a dough. The water should be between 100°F and 110°F. If thewater is too hot it can kill the yeast. Mix the yeast into the warm water andstir vigorously until it is dissolved, ab,out 15 seconds. Set it aside for about10 minutes. You can mix the honey into the yeast mixture at this point if youlike because sugar actually helps to activate the yeast or you can opt to mixit later right into the dough.
- Once the yeast is activated, slowly pour theyeast mixture into the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or rubberspatula. Slowly, then pour the remaining room temperature water (300 grams), alittle bit at a time, into the flour mixture and mix it thoroughly beforepouring more in. Scrape the sides of the bowl and get that flour and water allincorporated. Add the honey and mix it until it’s fully incorporated.
- Dump the mixture onto the counter and rigorouslyknead the dough with your hands for about 3-4 minutes until all the clumps offlour are worked out. The dough will be sticky, just keep working it. If youneed to wash off your hands with just water, do so but keep in mind when you dothis and don’t dry them you are adding more hydration to the dough, which isn’tnecessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I use a little olive oil on my hands. Youdon’t have to.
- Place the dough back into the large bowl andcover it tightly with plastic wrap. Make sure that it has enough room to doublein size.
- Leave the bowl out on the counter for 24 hours.After 24 hours, put the bowl in the refrigerator with the plastic wrap stillon. Make sure it’s not in the back of the refrigerator where it has thetendency to get too cold and frost. Leave the dough in the refrigerator for 3days (72 hours). You can take it out and use it after having fermented for only 1 day or even 2 days but it will be at peak performance in terms of taste andtexture at 3 days. You can use it past 3 days but no longer than 6 days.
- When you remove the bulk dough from therefrigerator you will need to “ball up” your dough. Usually I cut the dough in3 or 4 equal parts and make 250-280 gram dough balls. It depends what sizepizza you would like to make. I store them in covered containers in therefrigerator (take-out pint or quart size soup containers are ideal for thissince they stack easily).
- After you make your dough balls, refrigeratethem and remove them from the refrigerator at least 2-3 hours before bakingyour pizza so they get down to room temperature. I highly recommend preheating a Baking Steel® for 1 hour at 500°Fbefore launching your pizza.
