Crispy Neapolitan style pizza

[akiko]

I love the Neapolitan style pizza but I want to make it crisper like MOZZA's pizza in L.A.
I made a classic one that came out nice but missing the crispness that she has at Mozza's.
I know the lower temperature will make dough crisper but then I can't get the lightness.
If I use more yeast, it doesn't develop as much flavor.

Any ideas??   

[scott r]

How much yeast you use does not really have an impact on crispiness or lightness.  In my experience it only effects flavor, and other aspects of texture that are fairly subtle.  It is pretty easy to get a crispy and light pizza, but there are many factors that have to add up to achieve this.  It might be very hard to simplify with the small amount of information you have given us, so could you elaborate?   What type of oven do you you have, flour, recipe, proofing regimen etc.?

Also, Mozza has absolutely nothing in common with Neapolitan pizza, so saying you want to make Neapolitan pizza and have it be like Mozza is an impossibility.  I would actually consider them to be complete opposites as far as the crust goes (which to me defines a pizza).   

[akiko]

Thanks for your reply.

I guess  my question was not too clear, sorry. I have a professional woodstone fire deck gas oven. (I'm opening a small pizzeria)
We have made many of the recipes on this forum, using some with a natural sourdough starter added and came up with great authentic Neapolitan pizza. The problem is most of the people who try it want the same flavor but with a more crackle to the crust. Serious pie in Seattle has a nice crisp crust, but not the depth of flavor and structure as Mozza's.
I should not have mentioned Neapolitan style since they do not want it to stay crispy.
My question really should be what could I do to the Tom Lehman's, or Peter Reinharts dough recipes to achieve a crisper crust?
Thanks

[Pete-zza]

My question really should be what could I do to the Tom Lehman's, or Peter Reinharts dough recipes to achieve a crisper crust?

What kind of oven temperature are your using, what kind/brand of flour and hydration, and what size of pizzas?

Peter

[akiko]

The flour is King Aurthur Bread. the temperature is 600 degree.
The hydration was 68 percent, and it's 72 percent when adding our sour dough starter. Basically we used Jerry Mac's New York style pizza recipe.
We did 2 - 12 inch pizzas.

What changes to any of "your recipes in the forum" would you recommend for a crisper crust that I am looking for?
(i.e. Adding oil, more hydration, less hydration, more heat, less heat etc...)

I appreciate your help,

Thank you.

[scott r]

I would definitely start by dropping the hydration!  That is quite a bit higher than a typical neapolitan, and much higher than Mozza uses as well. 

[Pete-zza]

I am getting a bit confused with the transition of the discussion from Neapolitan to Mozza to Lehmann and Reinhart and now to the JerryMac recipe. So, I will limit my comments to the JerryMac recipe.

By my estimation, JerryMac's recipe calls for about 68% hydration. However, perhaps more important than that, especially in the context of using a deck type baking surface at high oven temperatures, is that the recipe also calls for around 5% honey or malt syrup. That amount of honey or malt syrup, or an equivalent amount of table sugar, can produce a significant degree of crust coloration that requires pulling the pizza from the oven before the crust has had a chance to dry out enough to have a crispy bottom. One of our members, sourdough girl, who is one of the biggest fans of the JerryMac recipe, says that when she uses JerryMac's dough with her high-temperature 2Stone unit she omits the honey/malt syrup from the dough formulation. Unless something like that is done, you will have to use a lower oven temperature and a longer bake time to drive off enough moisture from the dough to dry out the crust enough to get a crispy bottom. Ideally, you still want to have a fairly high hydration since that is conducive, somewhat counterintuitively, to achieving a crispy crust. This is a matter that is frequently discussed by Tom Lehmann, as you will note in his PMQ Think Tank post at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?p=45476#45476. However, as Tom points out, the hydration has to be "within reason" to achieve a crispier crust. Whether 72% hydration in a 600 degree F oven is within reason is something that you may have to conduct some tests to answer, along with possibly omitting the honey/malt syrup from the JerryMac recipe. I hope you will let us know if you find the answer.

Peter