Pursuit of leopard spots and light airy crust

[johnamus]

Argh! This attempt wasn't much better than the last despite the adjustments.  Bake time was less than 4 minutes, although it could have probably come out of the oven sooner than that at the expense of some crispiness. The bottom of the pie exhibited a bit of charring, but the top was an albino leopard.  I'm going to focus on creating an insulator for the probe before making any more attempts.

Pictures are attached.  On a side note, I opened up the dough without using any bench flour, does it matter that the dough resembled the surface of the moon, or is it optimal to achieve a smoother dough surface?

[johnamus]

I should clarify that my top element was on, but the only way I could get it to turn on was via the "roast"setting.  My guess is that the roast setting puts out less heat than the broil setting of my oven even though they both involve the top element. 

The frustrating thing is that the 35 degree oven calibration registers for the bake and roast settings but not the auto shutoff for the "broil" setting, it remains fixed at 550 regardless of calibration.  Either way, the temp probe mod should resolve this issue.

-John

[scott123]

Well, look on the bright side, the only way to go is up. 

I'm curious, how long of a pre-heat are you doing?

[johnamus]

This time I did a 2.5 hour preheat. A bit of overkill but I wanted to make sure that insufficient preheat time wasn't an issue.

[salvatoregianpaolo]

What I was forced to do was leave the door open during baking in order to keep the broiler on.  That is why the soapstone is nice... It retains so much heat leaving the door open wasn't detrimental to bottom heat.  After a 90min preheat it would be around 570deg.  That was good enough for a 2min bake.  Unfortunately, as i've discovered, 2min is too long for true Neapolitan.  It results in too crisp a crust. 

Salvatore

[johnamus]

Bottom heat wasn't an issue for me this time; my infrared gun showed a plate temp of 650° when I launched the pie.  I'd guess that the bottom of the pizza was completely baked at the 2 minute mark, but the top of the pie was still rawish.  I'm really hoping that the probe cover will solve my top-heat issue.

If it doesn't , then soapstone might be my next hearth substitute.  I'd use it as the hearth in an oven-within-an-oven setup that has gotten Omid some simply amazing results.

[salvatoregianpaolo]

Omid's setup is a perfect example of what needs to be done. He also shows what I believe is the defining factor of pizza napoletana: suppleness.  Too many people are hung up on charring the top, when tenderness is the key.  Of course, putting the two together in a home oven is a real challenge.  I believe in order to get it right, bake times have to be sub-90sec at the least. 

[dellavecchia]

He also shows what I believe is the defining factor of pizza napoletana: suppleness.  Too many people are hung up on charring the top, when tenderness is the key.

Salvatore - One of the great characteristics of a perfectly cooked NP pie, in my opinion, is the contrast in a charred, slightly crispy outer rim and a supple, tender interior and middle. The middle of the pie becomes naturally supple from the toppings and sauce, and the inside of the crust is light as a feather. Cook times for such a pie varies from 40-60 seconds in a very hot oven. But this is just my ideal. I agree though, it is much harder to achieve overall suppleness as they covet in Naples.

John

[salvatoregianpaolo]

John,

I am in complete agreement with you.  The charred, ever so slightly crisp top crust has just a tiny bit of "bite," and this does contrast perfectly with such a soft interior.  And yes, most definitely, featherweight!  I remember sitting in Gino Sorbillo and remarking to my wife how light the pizza was. 

Thanks for expounding on what I was trying to convey.

Grazie,
Salvatore