Napoletana Pizza Dough

"This is the "best" pizza dough ever. Much harder to handle than the rest of others, but worth all the work and effort. It is an overnight dough from Peter Reinhart, however his instructions are for using electric stand mixer and I have successfully used my bread maker set on dough. Bake temperature is highest your oven will go. Mine is at 500 F for about about 9-10 minutes. I have used this recipe several times now and so impressed with this dough. The ingredients are for making six 9-inch to 12-inch pizzas and sauce and topping of your choice. This dough will be very soft unlike other pizzas dough. Very important to leave about 1/2 inch border around the pizza without the sauce so that edges puff up beautifully. Also, best not to overload on topping. I've used two types of topping schemes now - the pizza Margherita style (homemade tomato sauce, slices of mozzarella, basil and sprinkle of Parmesan only) and another version with homemade tomato sauce, grilled wild mushrooms, several pieces of salame, slices of mozzarella, basil and Romano and both are really incredible tasting to me. Peter Reinhart uses pizza peel and recommends pizza stone, but I have a heck of a time with using a peel and pizza stone is too big for my oven so I do not use and had no problems pizzas working out perfectly using this modified version. I am mostly putting this recipe up for my own ease of usage and retrieval, but wanted to also share with anyone who was interested in trying."
 
Download
photo by Clean Plate Club photo by Clean Plate Club
photo by Clean Plate Club
Ready In:
1hr
Ingredients:
10
Yields:
6 pizzas
Advertisement

ingredients

Advertisement

directions

  • Mix yeast with 1/2 C of lukewarm water and let it proof. This usually takes 5-15 minutes.
  • Place all ingredients including the remaining lukewarm water (1 1/4 C plus 2 T) according to the ABM machine instruction and set it for dough only. My ABM takes 2 hours for dough only setting.
  • After the 2 hours are up take out the dough and place it in a well olive oiled large bowl. Turn the dough to coat it with the oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight. The overnight method makes wonderful tasting pizzas.
  • Next day remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator 2 hours before you plan to make the pizzas. The dough will have expanded and gluten very relaxed.
  • Using wet hands gently transfer the dough to a floured counter, trying not to degas the dough as little as possible.
  • Using a pastry blade or knife dipped in water, divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Gently round each piece into a ball and brush or rub each ball with the olive oil.
  • Brush the sheet pan with olive oil and place each dough ball on the pan and loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap. (If you do not plan to use all the pieces, place the extra ones in individual freezer bags and freeze).
  • Allow the dough balls to sit at room temperature 2 hours before making the pizzas.
  • Preheat the oven to 500°F.
  • Roll out the each dough into 9 to 12 inch diameter pizzas using a rolling pin and your hands. This dough is very soft, elastic and hard to handle compared to other pizza doughs and will require some effort to get to 9 inches diameter. I use combination patting down, stretching, and use of rolling pin to get it to 9 inch diameter. Once you get very good handling this dough, you may get it to 12 inch diameter, but 9 inch is perfectly fine.
  • Lightly oil the pizza baking pan and place the pizza. Spread 1/4 C to 1/2 C sauce over the surface of dough, leaving a 1/4 to 1/2 inch border uncovered. Arrange mozzarella over the top and sprinkle with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese.
  • Bake for about 9-10 minutes in the middle rack. When done, the crust should be puffy and slightly charred on the edge and thinner in the center, and cheese fully melted and just beginning to brown in spots. The underside of the crust should be brown and crisp, not white and soft. Keep an eye on it until you know how long your oven will take because each oven is different.
  • Remove the pizza from the oven and lay 4 - 6 basil leaves. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make the next pizza.

Questions & Replies

Got a question? Share it with the community!
Advertisement

Reviews

  1. Peter Reinhart is my pizza guru and this is the best real deal pizza dough. I won't use any other pizza dough recipe now that I have this one. We have been making pizza at home for years and years. Nothing else is even close to this good. We use a pizza stone and preheat it for at least a 1/2 hour.
     
Advertisement

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

You can find me reviewing book, magazine and online recipes with a name of Rinshin at eatyourbooks.com.
 
View Full Profile
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Find More Recipes