Servings: 2 16″ pizzas or 4 12″ pizzas
Preheat: 550
Prep Time: 12 hours rising. 20 minutes topping prep. 30 minutes baking
Source: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/neapolitan-style-pizza-crust-recipe
Recipe is doubled from King Arthur amounts. Makes two 14″ pizzas.
Start first thing in the morning for making pizza for dinner. A 12-hour rise is sufficient. The yeast will be exhausted if left to rise 24 hours.
For a shorter-rise version of this recipe, proceed as follows: Increase the yeast to 1 teaspoon. After mixing the ingredients into a rough but cohesive dough, cover and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes. After this rest, grasp one edge of the dough, pull it up and out, and tuck it into the center. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat three more times, until you’ve gone all the way around. Cover and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for at least 8 hours; this can be done before leaving for work. When you’re ready to bake pizza, follow the recipe above starting with preheating the oven and then dividing the dough in half.
Ingredients:
4 cups (464g) King Arthur ‘00’ Pizza Flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast or active dry yeast
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons (16g) table salt
1 1/2 cup (340g) water, lukewarm, (105° to 115°F)
Directions:
Sprinkle yeast on top of water and let dissolve. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt, then add the water with dissolved yeast. Stir until just combined, making a rough but cohesive dough. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise at room temperature overnight, for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours.
Set pizza stone 8-10″ from broiler. Preheat oven to 550F with pizza stone 45 minutes in advance. Turn on broiler about 10 minutes before shaping pizza dough.
To shape the dough: Divide the dough in half (about 400g per piece). Working with one piece at a time, transfer the dough to a well-floured surface. Stretch and fold it, as follows: holding onto the dough at both ends, pull one end away from the other, then fold it back onto itself. Repeat on the other side. The dough will likely be sticky — don’t worry about it looking neat as you fold. Be sure to keep your hands floured as you work. Repeat this process on the other side of the dough, so that all four corners of the dough have been stretched and folded. Next, pull the ends of the dough towards the middle, then turn it over. Using your fingers, pull the dough under itself to make a smooth, round ball with the seams tucked into the bottom. Repeat with the second piece of dough, and place each ball seam-side down into a floured bowl. Cover the bowls and allow the dough to rise for 45 minutes to an hour, while your oven preheats.
Generously flour a wooden peel, rubbing flour into the board to completely coat.
Scoop the risen dough onto a well-floured work surface seam-side down (a bowl scraper is helpful here), using care to shape it as round as possible for easier stretching. If the dough feels wet, use a generous dusting of flour on top. For dough that feels drier, use slightly less flour. Use your fingertips to gently depress the dough, being careful not to touch the outer edge of the crust. This step is important — leaving the circumference untouched at this stage will result in a beautiful bubbly outer crust post-bake. Again, using care to not touch the outermost edge of the crust, lift the pizza from the work surface and use your knuckles to gently stretch the dough into a 14″ circle. If the dough is at all sticky, use more flour. Use two hands at once to gently move the dough in a circle, allowing gravity to perform the stretch. Let gravity do most of the work for you, as pulling will stretch the center more than the edges. If you find your dough is difficult to stretch, set it down on a floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
Move the dough to the floured peel and adjust it so none is hanging off the edge. Remember — if the dough is sticky when you put it on the peel, it will stick to the peel! Make sure it’s well-floured. Lightly sauce the dough, then top with the cheese of your choice. Add additional toppings as desired.
Jiggle the uncooked pizza back and forth until it moves easily on the peel.
Turn off broiler and turn oven on again to 550. Slide pizza from peel on to stone and bake for 5 minutes.
Turn on broiler again and broil for about 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted, the crust is golden, and there are spots of char. Remove from oven and add any fresh greens like arugula, basil, lox, etc.
If you are going to make a second pizza, slide stone out of oven and wipe off burned flour and cheese, return to oven, and reheat stone surface under a broiler for a few minutes.