The biggest problem I see--and one I have experienced myself many times--is not the flavor of a 00 crust, including a Caputo 00 crust, but rather crust texture and crust color. The Caputo 00 flour has a nice flavor profile to begin with, and using a preferment or long fermentation times, under room temperature or retarded conditions, result in flavor byproducts of fermentation that nicely complement the flour's natural flavors. But texture is another matter altogether. 00 flours in general do not tolerate very high hydration levels. The Caputo 00 seems to be better at hydrating than other brands of 00 flour, and if you can manage getting high hydration levels and also have very high oven temperatures available to you, as do pizzanapoletana and Sante Fe Bill, for example, with their wood-fired ovens, the texture (and color) of the finished crust will be very good. You might have some problems peeling unbaked pizzas into the oven because of the high hydration levels causing the dough to stick to the peel, but so long as you can successfully navigate that problem, your pizzas should be fine. They will be the real deal or very close to it.
The situation is different in a standard home oven, however. In that instance, if you follow the lead of pizzanapoletana and others and use high hydration levels, in order to get any semblance of coloration in the crust you will find that you have to use rather long bake times. Even with a high hydration dough, you can end up with a crackerish crust if you lengthen the bake time looking for color. And you may not end up with much color even then unless you use the broiler or something equivalent to get added browning. With an oven that operates above 700 degrees, there is no need for any such artifice. The Caputo 00 has a higher protein content than other brands of 00 flour, but not so much greater as to promote quantum leaps in color when used in a home oven environment.
What all the above means is that we, as home pizza makers with standard ovens, have to free lance with our recipes and procedures in order to achieve high quality 00 crusts. We can't just use 00 flour, water, salt and yeast (natural or commercial) and expect to get the same results as with high-temperature ovens that operate above 700 degrees F., and no particular regimen of dough management or autolysing or anything else is likely to completely overcome that and make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I hate to follow one cliche with another, but we have to deal with the hand that is dealt us.
As I see it, this means doing things like adding oil to the dough to get a bit more tenderness in the crumb and maybe a bit more crust coloration, or adding sugar to the dough to get better color. Maybe the oil has to be a mild one, possibly even a seed oil. Going to a thicker crust, as giotto has experimented with, or letting a skin rise for several minutes before dressing, are steps that might be considered to get a more tender, less crackery crust. Weakening the Caputo 00 flour, as by adding a small amount of lower protein 00 flour to it, may also lead to a more tender crust, just as happens when say, bread flour, is substituted for high-gluten flour. I once experimented with the Delverde brand of 00 flour in order to improve its performance in my home oven after failing several times with it and found that adding dry milk and lecithin to the dough helped. This was a somewhat draconian move, but I wouldn't rule it out. We might even want to try adding a bit of whey to the 00 dough to get more color in the crust. And I am not sure that we "need" very high hydration levels (e.g., above 57%). Maybe better yeast management and dough management (e.g., periodic punchdowns) will help. The point of all this is that we have to be inventive and creative in looking for solutions and not try to "force fit" the Caputo 00 flour/doughs into the prevailing circumstances in our desire and zeal to emulate the Neapolitan experience.
As far as room temperature fermentation is concerned, I will make the observation that the most difficult 00 dough to make successfully and repetitively is, in my opinion, one fermented entirely at room temperature, and especially one using a preferment and no commercial yeast. There are many variables involved, from the amount, form (e.g., liquid or dough-like) and maturity and virility of the preferment used, the prevailing room temperature (which, at this time of year in Texas is much higher than the ideal 65 degrees mentioned by pizzanapoletana), hydration levels, and so on. I have also observed that using an autolyse with such a dough does not yield any noticeable improvement in the quality of the dough and its handling characteristics. What does autolyse mean in the context of a dough that is already so wet that it is hard to handle? I am beginning to believe that autolyse and similar rest periods work better with higher protein flours and retarded doughs, and maybe even doughs that have low hydration levels relative to the type of flour used. For me, there is much more to learn on this aspect of dough making.
Peter
