Neapolitan Pizza Dough Recipe

Making your own pizza dough takes a bit of time but it’s so worth the effort and time. My Neapolitan pizza dough recipe is a simple pizza dough recipe which takes just 24 hours to proof. My pizza dough recipe makes four dough balls and delivers on flavour. Also, it produces lots of leoparding and a delicious, crunchy crust. If you make it in batches and then store it in the fridge, it’ll last for up to a week.

You can cook Neapolitan pizza using:

• Charcoal, electric and gas pizza ovens
• A kamado with a pizza stone accessory installed
• A home oven with a pizza stone

What makes Neapolitan pizza different?

Neapolitan pizza is the original and most traditional Italian pizza. It’s a very thin based pizza which has more tomato sauce than mozzarella cheese. It has a delicious, bubbly and crunchy crust, with lots of leoparding. Because the base is very thin and of the higher ratio of tomato sauce to cheese, Neapolitan pizzas tend to be smaller than other types.

Pizza Dough INGREDIENTS (for 4 pizzas)

Neapolitan pizza dough is made with four ingredients, namely flour, water, salt and yeast. Here are the particular quantities you need for a delicious pizza dough recipe:

• 500 g of 00 Tipo flour
• 325 ml water at room temperature
• 10 g sea salt
• 3 g bakers yeast or dry yeast

What flour is used for Neapolitan pizza?

00 Tipo flour is use for Neapolitan pizza.
 

Why is 00 Tipo flour better for pizza?

Firstly, when compared with other flours, 00 Tipo flour has a very low gluten content. This low gluten content makes for less elastic dough, which will translate to a crunchy crust and lots of leoparding. Secondly, it’s very finely ground from the finest quality wheat grain. In fact the ’00’ tells us that it’s the finest grade available.
 

THE METHOD – How do you make Neapolitan pizza dough?

• In a large bowl, add the salt to the water and mix to dissolve completely
• Mix in 10% (or 50 g) of the 00 Tipo flour into the salted water
• Add the yeast, and mix it to dissolve it fully
• Progressively add the rest of the flour while mixing
• Knead the mixture until the dough internal temp is between 23-26 °C (73-79 °F)
• Cover the top of the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to proof (rise) at room temperature for 1 hours
• Remove the dough from the bowl, cut it into 4 equally sized pieces and shape into 4 dough balls
• Put the dough balls into a container which will allow them to expand to twice their size
• Cover in them and leave out at room temperature of 16 °C (61 °F)
• After about 24 hours, the dough will be ready and can be stored in the fridge
• Take your dough out of the fridge 2 hours before use it so as to allow them to come up to room temperature

What are 3 ingredients needed to make pizza dough?

There are actually 4 ingredients needed to make pizza dough. As mentioned above, they’re flour, water, salt and yeast.
 

What is the most important ingredient in pizza dough?

In my opinion, the most important ingredient in pizza dough in the flour. 00 Tipo flour has a low gluten content and is very finely ground from the finest quality wheat grain. Using 00 Tipo flour will result in a crunchy crust and lots of leoparding.
 

What hydration is best for Neapolitan pizza dough?

A hydration of between 55.5-62.5% is best for authentic Neapolitan pizza dough. The reason why it needs to be such a low percentage is because wood-fired ovens are much hotter than conventional ovens.
 

CUSTOMISING TO TASTE

There are loads of Neapolitan pizza dough recipes out there. Some other optional ingredients to try include cane sugar, olive oil and semolina. I’ve always stuck to this pizza dough recipe and it has yet to fail me!
 

Storage

I use reusable plastic containers for storing my pizza dough while its proofing. Once the dough has finished rising, they fit comfortably in my fridge.