Authentic Neapolitan Pizza Dough

[YoMomma]

I recently rec'vd a copy of Cuisine at home magazine and there was an article about Margherita pizza including the  recipe for "true" Neapolitan dough as governed by the UNI (the governmental agency that regulates arts, good and services in Italy).  The process was longer than most but not overnight.  I was impressed with the recipe so much that I decided to subscribe to their magazine.  I was wondering if anyone else has tried this recipe or method for "true" Neapolitan dough?  

[YoMomma]

This is the recipe from Cuisine at Home magazine:

Neapolitan Dough

This dough takes 6-8 hours but it's the real deal.

Combine:
1 1/2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 t. active dry yeast (1/2 of a 1/4-oz. package)

Mix with:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 T. sea salt

ADD YEAST MIXTURE; KNEAD.
COVER AND LET RISE.  
SHAPE INTO PIZZA CRUSTS.

COMBINE water and yeast. Proof until foamy, 5-8 min.
MIX flours and salt in bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with dough hook.
ADD yeast mixture to flour and knead at low speed 30 minutes.  Shape dough into a round, place in a lightly oiled bowl, and turn to coat.
COVER bowl with plastic wrap; let dough rise 4 hours in a warm place.  Punch down, divide into 4 pieces, and shape into balls.  Brush lightly with oil, cover completely with plastic wrap, and let rise another 2-4 hours.
SHAPE by pressing fingertips into dough, leaving edge puffy to create a rim.  Grasp rim with hands, working your way around the circle.  As dough dangles, it stretches while edge stay plump.
Bake on stone 550 degrees.

[DKM]

Thanks to those who posted their recipes, I shall try them over the next couple of weeks.

DKM

[DKM]

I have tried both recipes that I got here on the board, and they turned out really good except for one thing.  They didn’t brown very well.  I had to change from olive oil to butter to brush on them.

I used a stone and a 550 oven, but the cheese was almost ready to burn and the crust was still barely more of a pasty white.  It was done, just not brown.

DKM

[YoMomma]

Yes, I remember it being pale, but not totally devoid of color.  I probably should mention that I par baked the crust so that would give it more time to brown b4 the cheese burned.  This is where that wood-fired brickoven would help

I like this recipe, but I really don't like runing my mixer for that long of a time.  Someone said that the newer Kitchen Aid booklets say not to run the mixer for more than four minutes w/out giving the motor a rest.  I like the autolyse technique, but then that's not "authentic Neapolitan" is it.  I'm more for flavor than tradition.  It's also why I like to retard the dough.

[DKM]

I'm more for flavor than tradition.  It's also why I like to retard the dough.

That is for sure.  When i changed to butter it did brown better, I might try moving my stone to my pit.

DKM

[DKM]

I tried again but this time I let the oven heat for 35 minutes, and i got better color.

DKM

[YoMomma]

I've heard some say to preheat the oven & stone for an hour b4 !  That may be fine in the winter, but not in this heat!  And those stones (I've got two, one on each rack) hold their heat for hours - makes you not want to be in the kitchen

[Samm]

Yes this dough was very white for me too and would not brown. It was very tasty though.

I have learned that if you add more sugar it will help the crust brown.

[DKM]

I added some sugar and heated the oven to 550 for one hour before hand.  It was still light in color, but not a pasty white.

DKM

[cryogene]

Hello all.  This is my first posting to this forum, so I'm just going to leap in head first...

First, let's face it: cooking and baking in the summer can be a challenge if you live in a region where summers are HOT.  I'm in Chicago where weather changes on a hourly basis, but summers tend to sticky and full of ozone alerts.  I try not to let this keep me from doing what it takes to pull off a good recipe.

Neapolitan crust is tough because it's formulated for ovens that very few of us have in our living spaces.  The ovens we do have (I'm talking gas now) just don't circulate the heat aggresively enough to achieve the full effects of a large wood-fired oven.  However, a reasonably good pizza stone and the ability to deal with a hot kitchen can yeild fairly good results.

Par-baking the crust is a good way to compensate for the lower temps of commercial ovens, but I find sprinkling the crust with a bit of water or brushing on a bit more oil before adding the toppings helps keep it from drying out too much.

I keep my best stone in the oven and pre-heat it before baking my pizzas.  I use a cheaper stone of the same dimensions (covered with flour or corn meal) to prep the pie and simply slide the whole thing onto the pre-heated stone.  I can usually do it myself, but having a friend or loved one help makes it a bit easier.

Also, using a flour with a high gluten content (about 15%) has much better results for "browning" the crust than adding sugar.  The natual gluten in these flours has a finer chemical structure and browns more delicately and evenly.

Anyway, enough verbose.  I hope this helps or is at least interesting to someone.  Happy cooking...