Naples Pizza

Overview

In "The Apprentice Baker", this pizza was highly praised. I often hear people say that pizza is the perfect food. . . . . Naples is the birthplace of what we know today as pizza. Genoa has focaccia, Tuscany has flatbread, Sicily has Sicilian pizza, but true Neapolitan pizza is the perfect expression of perfect food. While all pizzas have dough and toppings, I wish only this super version could be called pizza. In the past, when I made pizza by myself, I always tried my best to fill it with fillings, for fear that there would not be enough fillings. However, here, I have always believed that it is the dough rather than the toppings that makes people miss a pizza. I've seen expensive, great-tasting fillings ruined by poor dough, and more often, a good piece of dough was ruined in the oven because the oven wasn't hot enough. The biggest flaw in most pizza dough recipes is not asking the baker to let the dough sit in the refrigerator overnight (or at least for a few hours). Chilling overnight gives the enzymes enough time to work and release the subtle flavors trapped in the starch. Long-term placement can also relax the gluten, reduce the elasticity of the dough, and make shaping easier, so that the dough will not deflate as much as possible. Sure enough, after the dough was taken out of the refrigerator and rested for 2 hours, it was stretched out with a slight lift. It had reached the ideal size without much stretching, let alone tossing. The dough was so soft that it made me feel helpless and clumsy, but I managed to move it to the baking pan without any damage. This recipe can be made with any flour, if using bread flour I recommend adding some olive oil to it to soften it. (Real Neapolitan dough does not add oil when making - this is actually a strict requirement - but that is because Italian flour is naturally looser and softer, and at the same time very extensible and easy to shape.) I found that although high-gluten flour is very elastic, if you give it enough time to stand, it will be very easy to operate. If using all-purpose flour, there is no need to add oil. After hesitating for a moment, I decided to use high-gluten flour. Very few toppings were used for this pizza. Because the book says, remember that the principle of placing fillings is ‘too much is not enough’. Adding too many fillings is often counterproductive, because it will make the dough difficult to bake. We usually put out less than 3 or 4 fillings (including sauce and cheese) and that's enough. In this way, just the sauce and cheese are enough. Referring to the fillings mentioned later, I used mozzarella, cheddar and Parmesan cheese, each accounting for one-third, plus all the spices on hand. In the end, a pizza that looks very thin is baked, which is undoubtedly very subversive for pizzas that are layered with various vegetables, fruits, and sea, land and air meats. No wonder someone later saw this flat pizza and said disdainfully, if the dough is the key point, then why do you need toppings? Baking pizza at low temperatures will ruin the dough because it takes longer to brown, during which time all the water evaporates and the dough becomes mushy and dry. Therefore, keeping the oven and baking stone hot is the secret to baking good pizza. The direct race between pancake color and cheese melting is one of the most dramatic aspects of baking, and if they can happen simultaneously, the taste of the finished product will be something you’ll never forget. The thinner and more evenly you stretch the dough without tearing it, the greater the likelihood that both of these things will happen at the same time. There is no mention of oven temperature settings in the steps. This is probably the only place in this book where oven temperature is not explicitly mentioned. Only baking time - 5-8 minutes. Turn to the above and find a sentence. Over the years, most of the baking temperatures given in cookbooks are 177-218°C. You rarely see instructions for adjusting the oven temperature to the extreme. But if you want to bake a good pizza at home, you have to make it. I have never used the highest temperature of an oven, and I can’t imagine what it would be like. I am somewhat worried that the oven will burn out? Fire? Gritting my teeth, I learned for the first time that this oven can be adjusted to a maximum temperature of 270 degrees. The discoloration of the dough and the melting of the cheese did not occur at the same time. The cheese had melted and burned into a golden brown shell, but the edges of the dough were still white and not as golden as desired. The dough does not need to be formed into 'ears', but sometimes the finished product will take on this shape naturally. The edges of pizza are usually thicker than the middle so that the toppings don't flow out. However, you don’t need to roll the edges, you need to let them puff up on their own so that the edges of the dough are lighter and filled with air. It seems like there are no ears on this pizza, although its cross-section shows that the edges are indeed thicker than the middle. Next time, maybe add some mozzarella. Also, what would be the result if the temperature was lowered?

Tags

• baking
• afternoon tea
• summer recipes
• autumn recipes
• lunch
• dinner
• students
• basil
• cheddar cheese
• garlic powder
• high gluten flour
• italian tomato sauce
• olive oil
• oregano
• parmesan cheese powder
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• thyme
• black pepper
• dry yeast
• ice water
• salt

Ingredients

Steps

1. 1 Filling: 80g Italian tomato sauce, 30g Parmesan cheese powder, 30g cheddar cheese, 30g grated mozzarella cheese, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder.

   

2. 2 Mix flour, salt, dry yeast.

   

3. 3 Add oil, water,

   

4. 4 Stir for 5-7 minutes to form a smooth dough.

   

5. 5 Grease a plate with oil, dip your hands in flour, shape the dough into a ball, transfer to the plate, grease the surface with oil, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

   

6. 6 Filling: 80g Italian tomato sauce, 30g Parmesan cheese powder, 30g cheddar cheese, 30g grated mozzarella cheese, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp garlic powder.

   

7. 7 Mix the spices,

   

8. 8 Cut cheddar cheese into small cubes,

   

9. 9 Mix with other cheeses.

   

10. 10 Add spice mix,

    

11. 11 Mix well and set aside.

    

12. 12 Take out the dough 2 hours in advance, place it on a floured and oiled table, and press it into a cake shape with a thickness of 1.3 cm and a thickness of 13 cm.

    

13. 13 Spray oil on the surface, sprinkle with flour, cover with plastic wrap and leave for 2 hours.

    

14. 14 Carefully use both hands to stretch the dough in circles until the diameter reaches 23-31 cm.

    

15. 15 Place in baking pan.

    

16. 16 Spread tomato sauce evenly on the surface.

    

17. 17 Sprinkle cheese mixture with spice mixture.

    

18. 18 Place in a preheated 270-degree oven on the middle rack and bake for about 5-8 minutes.

    

19. 19 The surface is golden brown and comes out of the oven.