July 27, 2010 - 5:50am
Neapolitan Pizza
Pulled a few Caputo dough balls out of the freezer last Friday morning and put them on the counter to rise all day. (100% Flour, 65% Water, 1% Salt, & .5% IDY) My wife stopped at our local Italian Groceria and picked up some fresh mozzerella and San Marzano tomatoes. Fired the oven when I got home from work, opened a bottle of wine, and had a salad for our first course. Once the oven was charged, I finely chopped the San Marzano's and spread that on to the crust with the fresh mozzerella on top. Into the oven for about 2 minutes, a drizzle of olive oil along with some fresh basil and back in the oven for another 10 seconds. Here are the results
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Looks fabulous! Picture perfect perfection.
Could you tell us the temp of the oven? Any thought on my conundrum below would be appreciated.
If a 2 min bake and 65% hydration, guessing the oven temp would be around 800 degrees? I was surprised to see that your hydration ratio was 65% thinking it would have to be higher to compensate for such a hot oven and to deliver a nice moist interior on the dough as your picture delightfully shows.
What I am trying to get to is I've used 72% hydration at 650 degrees resulting in a four minute pie. My interior is usually moist, but not always. So I have been pushing for higher hydration doughs to allow for residual moisture after the bake. Given your results, I am now wondering if I got the oven to 800 to 900 (assuming my guess on your temperature is in the ball park), and thus more like your 2 minute bake, the shorter cooking time at higher time (and 65% hydration) seems to deliver a much better pie than 4 min bake at lower temp, even if a higher hydration ratio. Again, I welcome your input in my quest for the perfect pie.
I think your photo is perhaps the best looking pie I have ever seen!
coming out of your lovely wfo. Thanks for sharing!
Sylvia
I'm hungry just looking at it. Beautiful crust and nice toppings!
Larry
Thank you for the compliments! When I say it was a 2 minute pie, that's my best estimation. Cooking in a WFO doesn't give you much chance to turn your attentions elsewhere for any amount of time, so the 2 minutes would be a 'loose' estimation. My oven was fully charged, and my ir therm said around 775* on the floor and over 1000 at the ceiling. I've had my share of failures over the past year cooking in my wfo. I've found 2 main culprits that created my failures. Teh first is "rushing" the oven. It doesn't matter how hot I want the oven to be when I'm ready to cook, I have to wait until the oven is ready or the pies will not turn out well. I rushed the oven at my 4th of July party and it was about halfway white. The dome was over 900*, but when I swept the wood to the side and checked the floor temp, it was only 625* and falling fast. The result, top cooked well and the bottom & middle were raw. Second culprit is rushing the dough. It will also tell you when it's ready to be used. Too fast and it doesn't want to keep it's shape, or you get a very thin middle, which leads to tearing and sauce & cheese on the oven floor. I've found that if I take out a frozen caputo dough ball in the morning of the cook and let it sit on the counter all day, 8-12 hours, it is perfectly risen, soft and extensible.
Also, I keep a very close eye on the pie. As soon as the cornicione starts to puff, I'll start turning to keep any one area from charring too much. I've cooked with the oven floor at around 900*, and it's quick work. (A lot depends on the size of your oven also) Before I pull my pizza from the oven, I'll pull it towards the door, give it a spin and check the bottom to make sure it's looks the way it should. And, now that you mention it, that 775* floor was a very comfortable temp to work with.
That looks delish. Nice crust. I have a 20kg bag of Caputo and every crust I've tried has been a disaster and a complete failure. Good on you, Tony.
karl - I definitely make bread in my oven. It's nice because I can bake 6 or so loaves at a time.
Tony - are you cooking in a WFO?
Tony - are you cooking in a WFO?
No toyman. I suspect that might be the problem, but still, I should be able to get something half decent. It's such a strage flour!!
Tony
I'm admirer of all good pizza, that's how I got into baking bread.
Next year, check your local nurseries for the "Super San Marzano" variety of tomato. I find it better than the original. Here, outside of KC, the plants will produce a large crop of tomatoes from early July into late September. They're worth looking for.
Tony - I've used Caputo in my home oven at 525*. The results are ok, but you won't get any browning on the crust. This flour is made for the high heat, so it's very resistent to lower temps. The dough was cooked and tasted fine, it just didn't look so good. I normally split a 50# bag of high gluten flour for my home oven pizzas @ 525* and I buy a couple 50# bags a year of Caputo for the WFO. The bread flours do very well in the home oven also, if hi gluten isn't available.
I will definitely keep my eyes open for the SSM's! I grew roma's this year to freeze for pizza sauce and my plants are doing great. I'm hoping to be picking a bushel late next week.
Beutiful crust, I am looking for a good pizza dough. Right now I am just using my regular sourdough bread recipe for pizzas.
Could you give me some details on the dough?
John