My Nearlypolitan adventure (the beginning)

[weissblut]

I prefer to have a proper topic to show the progress. This is my 3rd attempt to bake a "Nealypolitan".

So I got the Caputo flour (amazing!!!) and am starting all my experiments. Those were baked under 4 minutes in a conventional electric oven, preheated at 500F with pizza stone and broiler tricks.

The flavor was really good, I'm just starting to have my first burnt bubbles (which I love!) and some little hint of leoparding.

Still need to figure out how to heat the stone more (the back of the pizza was white) - probably I'll get closer to the grill.

Tell me what do you think - suggestions accepted!!!

[toddster63]

Looks very nice!  For an early attempt, you should be quite proud. Did you try the broiler (right over the stone) to heat the stone up even hotter after an hours warm up at 500F? There's a few tricks here to get your temps over 500F in a regular oven that can be found around here, but remember that Caputo is hard to brown at temps under around 700F in my experience (particularly on the top).

[jeffereynelson]

Try a caputo blend instead of 100%

[ringkingpin]

Right on man!  There are things you can do like fool your oven in to going into afterburner mode (toss frozen rag on sensor) and I've also read from peoples experimenting here that metal conducts the heat better than a stone.  I'm talking like a piece of 1' thick steel. 
Now that you've been bit by the bug, you'll likely find yourself outside soon with a LBE, WFO, 2Stone, etc.

Keep it up!

[weissblut]

Ok guys,

I've reduced the distance between broiler and pizza stone. Now it's barely 1 inch. Using this method and some tricks with oven temperature (but without modding!) I managed to have the oven to sport a 800 F temperature! So I created a more hydrated dough, less yeast, more fermentation time (and fridge-finishing).

I managed to bake this Margherita in 100 Seconds!!! Hurray!

Now I'm in the process of creating my own "Sourdough" or Levain - so I'm expecting a performance drop when I'll start to use it, I have to read a lot about it before trying!

Thanks for all the suggestions, I hope you like my pie!

(EDIT: The day I'll have a garden/space I'll definitely buy a WFO or a good alternative. Next time I want to try to add some pieces of wood to create the smell.... we'll see! )

[scott123]

That looks pretty good for a home oven.

How are you launching within an inch of vertical space?

Next time, could we get an upskirt?

[TXCraig1]

Looks very nice.

CL

[toddster63]

THUMBS UP! 

(I agree with Scott—we love upskirt shots around here...!)

[jeffereynelson]

800 in a home oven without mods is very impressive. And I also assume you have an inch of clearance when the peel and the pizza are in? making it about 3 inches or so from stone to broiler?

[pizzaneer]

The cornicone looks like more than an inch high to me.  What is the actual broiler element to stone measurement? And did you do anything in particular to make your oven exceed its 500 degree setting?

Pies look awesome, just trying to understand how!  Great job!

[weissblut]

Ok sorry I was away. Thanks for your comments, I really appreciate that!
Now, I will try to answer your questions.

The "cornicione" was a bit less than one inch, while the center was really really thin (so I like it).
The total space between the heating grill and the stone was of 1,5 inches. I put the pizza inside with a peel, and do the same when turning it.
The up skirt - it was not leoparded as I wanted it to be, but it was ok - pic next time!

Next time I'll post picture of the set-up and the oven - regarding this, I think my oven has the heat probe in the down part of it, so when I "obstruct" the heating element with the stone etc it manages to go up to hellish hot.

Next step - I'll try that again next weekend, and as I'm creating my own sourdough, I'll be able to test it in a month or so - will keep you posted!

Ciao!

[scott123]

Dario, thanks for the clarification.

I'm looking forward to photos of your oven.  That probe placement sounds very unique. Is this a European oven?

[TheBlum]

Looks awesome man .. especially from an in-home oven!  Keep up the good work!   

[TheBlum]

Try a little less sauce next time ... and put your shredded cheese on before the sauce.  Ten put your fresh on top, as you did.  Here are some pics i took for you at the shop:

[weissblut]

Thanks everyone again!

Yesterday I baked again. Unfortunately I've no pics - I was with friends and had no time. They enjoyed the pizzas, but I was really disappointed. Hardly leoparded, the "cornicione" did not look nice, crumb structure was small, plain flavour, the centre was "saucy" a little bit too much for me.
No char at all, for upskirt lovers.

So I will post my entire procedure, and I hope with your help (and maybe some oven mod, eventually) I can break it.

DOUGH RECIPE:
500g Caputo blu flour
340g water
2 little spoon salt (I'm waiting for the damn gram scale from ebay)
approx. 1g yeast.

Procedure for the dough:
- mix 70% of flour and 70% of water to autolyse - rest 20 minutes
- add 15% of water and yeast - rest 5 minutes
- add the rest of ingredients
Then I mix it in the bowl (by hand), and when it's "kneadable" I knead it for 5-7 minutes on the table. This time I felt the gluten build up, and then I probably overkneaded because I felt the dough "relaxing" again a bit. I stopped immediately after.

I made the dough friday night, left resting for 8 hours at 72 degrees, then put in the fridge for 4 hours, then balled, fridge again for 3-4 hours, then 1 hour at 72 degrees.

I always left the dough ferment 12, 14 hours at room temp without problem. This time I wanted to try to "freeze" a bit the yeast and build up more sugars (I've read that the fridge helps the flavour, while slowing down fermentation).

Result: the dough was a bit too elastic. I've had hard time in keeping the pizzas large enough - they were always shrinking on the counter.

The oven temp (upper part, where I cook) was around 650F, and the stone temp was lower of course, around 400F. I think that's the main problem. I need the stone to heat up better (for having the char), and also I'm sure I'm making mistakes in the dough creation.

I need a gram scale. I cannot imagine how that would be when I'll made my own sourdough. I see disaster coming.

So, here I am - heeeeelp!!!!