Neapolitan dough

Muahahaha

Im a novicebaker just trying to get a dough recipe down that comes close to how they make pizzas in southern Italy, with a thin and crispy crust. I love pizza so I finally want to perfect a dough recipe that will become my 'go to' recipe for pizza dough and someting that I can make up in batches and then freeze to use as needed. So on my first attempt I used

400g 00 flour
1 ts salt
1tbs sugar
300ml luke warm water
7g yeast

Method was to leave yeast prove in water till it bubbled and then slowly added it to a well in the flour which already had the salt and sugar stirred in.

I didnt use any olive oil as I read in a few places that traditional neapolitian pizza dough never uses oil. Anyway attempt number one turned out pretty bad, 300ml water didnt seem to be anywhere near enough to soak into all that flour so I ended up with a very floury dough ball. I didnt want to go outside of the recipe so perservered and made one pizza with it which was really bready and not nice at al.

So onto batch no.2. This attempt I decided to use olive oil and more water if I deemed it necessary, which it was. I probably used 450-500ml of water all up, adding it only bit by bit to help bind the flour into dough.

So after kneeding the dough I left this second batch for a slow rise of 48 hours in the fridge. Then I took out and divided the bulk dough into 4 pizza balls, kneaded them again and recovered in the fridge for a further 24 hours.

I made the first pizzas from them at the weekend and was surprised as the dough tasted pretty good. Whilst not the best dough in the world it was thin and crispy as desired and had a good crunch.

Anyway for me moving on I'm interested to know a few things about baking pizza dough. Ive been through most of the pizza threads on here but couldnt find answers. Im wondering about the olive oil part, what does this do for the dough and is it 100% necessary? Also which ingredient in the dough gives it elastic qualities? My second batch was nice but tricky to stretch without it starting to break up, what should I put more of in to make the dough more stretchy and easier to maniulate by hand?

Finally Im after a true Neapolitan pizza here and I understand from some other sites that this is impossible in a convection oven, even with a pizza stone. I came across the G3 Ferrari Pizza Oven on Amazon, its goes up to 390 degrees which is a good bit hotter than the 250-270 degrees most regular ovens go up to. Just wondering is anyone here using one of these and if so how have you found it ? I'm guessing they could be used for tandoori chicken too?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferrari-G10006-Delizia-Pizza-Oven/dp/B002VA4CDI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409618529&sr=8-1&keywords=g3+ferrari+pizza+oven

Faith

The elasticity comes from kneading, which works the gluten in the flour. If it's not stretchy enough, you need to knead for longer - about 10 minutes should do it. There's a couple of good pizza base recipes with directions in the cooking club. I love the 'death by cheese' recipe personally .

Muahahaha

Can I ask about the flour too, most recipes I came across recommended 500g 00 flour and 300ml water, a 60% hydration to the flour. But when I made it with 400g flour and 250ml water I found it wasnt nearly enough water as the fine flour seems really absorbent. Maybe Im mixing it wrong or something but I didnt think it was possible to go far wrong. I just found that it didnt seem like I had a hope of getting a dough ball from 400g flour and 250ml water. On the second run I added 2 tbs of olive oil and probably nearly 500ml water which is a lot more than recipes Ive seen have recommended. Im just scratching my head.

Also Ive seen some pizza dough recipies that advise adding 25% semolina flour to 75% 00 flour. Anyone know what effect this would have on the pizza dough when its baked ?

Faith

The semolina makes the dough crispier.

60% water to flour sounds like the correct ratio to me. At that ratio, I'd add a tablespoon or two of oil and I've never had a problem with it being too dry. Make a well in the middle of the flour, and pour the water in there. Using your fingers, bring in the flour and mix with your hands. When you have mixed all the water, pour the dough and any unmixed flour onto a floured surface and start kneading. This should bring in the remaining flour. It's time consuming - you need to give it a good 10 minutes.

Use this dough recipe like I suggested: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056955985

It's foolproof. My fiancé had never touched dough in his life and he was able to make that dough very easily.

wmpdd3

I use the death by cheese recipe too, I found that if I use the dough hook on my mixer for 20 minutes, I get really elastic dough, it's impossible to rip it.