An Early Neapolitan

My Dough

My recipe hasn’t changed much since 2020, I know it by heart but adjust for humidity:

• 500 g Caputo 00 flour
• 325 ml water (~65% hydration)
• 3 g active dry yeast
• 15 g salt (3%)

Bulk dough

1. Start with cold, filtered water, it will warm up as it is worked.
2. Add the yeast and wisk to incorporate air, not clear if this makes a difference but doesn’t hurt.
3. Add flour and mix (KitchenAid) until fully incorporated into a shaggy ball. Leave it to autolyze for 10-30 min.
4. Add salt
5. Mix for 10 minutes
6. Ball-up and let bulk ferment for 2 hrs, room temperature in lightly oiled large container.

Split and cold ferment

1. Split in 3 even weight doughballs, ball-up in hands by continuously folding the dough into itself. The goal here is to create a uniform ‘skin’ to hold the dough’s shape.
2. Fridge for 2-3 days.

The Prep and Bake

To be continued…

Lessons Learned in the past 5 years

1. Patience with the dough - 2-3 day cold ferment is well worth it
2. Overfermentation is overlooked - This can happen relatively fast. Many recipes and YouTube videos suggest an overnight bulk ferment. This is far too long. The dough will look and smell wonderful. But the gluten structure is shot and ultimately will end up with a very thin bottom crust that cannot support basic toppings.