First Neopolitan Pizza

[JCBBQ]

Breadhead, I want to thank you for all your bread related posts. One of the reasons I bought a Primo was to bake and cook pizza and your posts inspired me to go out and buy a few goodies - digital scale, infrared thermometer, and 00 flour. I watched your buddy's videos at StellaCulinary a few times and am pretty happy with the results. The hardest thing is waiting 24 hrs for the dough to proof. Here are some pics of the cook. I have questions.

Here's the set up. I tried to get the stone as high in the dome as possible.

Raw pie


3 minutes w the top vents closed...think i'll go 4 next time bc it only got a little color on top

I was happy with the crust - I've tried pizza before in the oven but it petty flat.

Nice Leoparding

[fuzzydaddy]

That's a great looking pizza. You did a fantastic job! Nice photos as well. Have any left?

[JCBBQ]

Thanks! Haha no chance w leftovers.

[fuzzydaddy]

Yeah, that was a long shot on my part.

[RonB]

That's a great looking pie. A nice job on the dough - you produced a great cornicione.

[JCBBQ]

Thanks RonB, I was particularly happy about that.

[W.A.]

Awesome. Another minute the bottom might become too black.

[W.A.]

I hear you on the black parts, but my family said mine was burnt. I liked it. Somehow you have to get the dome super-heated to really hit the top in time when you got the thing going like 800 F. Maybe warm it up longer? Could use a torch too at the end to brown up?

[JCBBQ]

Hahaha, yeah my family is away so I didn't hear from them how it was burnt! W.A. I was definitely impatient. I put the pie on around 670 degrees. I don't know if it's better to crank it up to 800 or to lower it but keep it on for longer. I'll report back!

[Breadhead]

JCBBQ ... I bake bread flour or AP flour pizza at 650°. I bake 00 Neaploitan pizza dough at 800°. 00 flour was engineered to have less natural sugar than AP or BF so it could be baked very hot and very fast.👍

[l'inferno]

Wow. That looks fantastic.

[l'inferno]

When you guys do pizzas has anybody checked the surface temp of the stone or have a recommendation of what that temperature range should be? There's an infrared at the GF'S workplace they would let me borrow.

Sorry if I am asking a previously asked question. Thanks.

[W.A.]

@I'inferno I just bought one. So, not yet...

[Breadhead]

When baking AP or BF pizza dough you want your stone to be between at least 500° but 600° to 650° is better. Neapolitan dough with 00 flour you want your stone to be at least 750°.

[Breadhead]

[QUOTE=JCBBQ;n211234]Breadhead, I want to thank you for all your bread related posts. One of the reasons I bought a Primo was to bake and cook pizza and your posts inspired me to go out and buy a few goodies - digital scale, infrared thermometer, and 00 flour. I watched your buddy's videos at StellaCulinary a few times and am pretty happy with the results. The hardest thing is waiting 24 hrs for the dough to proof. Here are some pics of the cook. I have questions.

Here's the set up. I tried to get the stone as high in the dome as possible. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n211238[/ATTACH]

Raw pie


3 minutes w the top vents closed...think i'll go 4 next time bc it only got a little color on top [ATTACH=CONFIG]n211239[/ATTACH]

I was happy with the crust - I've tried pizza before in the oven but it petty flat. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n211235[/ATTACH]

Nice Leoparding


JCBBQ... I'm pleased that my bread & pizza posts inspired you - having the right tools just makes things easier. Your pizza looks really great.👍

Waiting 24 hours for the dough to become fantastic. That's just what it takes to make really, really good pizza dough. It really is just a planning thing and I find it easier to make the dough 1 day and then bake the pizza the next day. If... You failed to plan ahead and decide you want to make pizza anyway, skip the delayed fermentation step.😡 Your pizza will not be as good if you do that but with the right toppings, you will be ok.

I like your setup in your Primo. Are you using 2 stones? If so why?

You said you baked your pizza 3 minutes with the top vent closed. I have a couple of questions about that. Why do you close the top vent? What temperature did you bake at? Did you use 00 flour?

My assumption is you were cooking at about 650° to 700°. I think if you extend your cooking time to 4 minutes at the same temp you're going to burn the bottom of your crust. The leoparding looks fantastic the way it came out but if it had cooked another minutes it would have been burned.

You're still in a trial and error stage of perfecting pizza on your Primo. Let me suggest a different method for baking your Neapolitan pizza dough using 00 flour.

1) Take your top vent completely off and control your temperature with just your bottom vent.
2) Preheat you pizza stone to at least 750°, 800° and only use 1 stone.
3) Put you pizza on, close the dome and watch it brown through your top vent. If it's dark out I use a small flashlight.

When baking pizza or bread on a Kamado, maximum airflow is the magic! That is replicating the airflow Pizzaria's get in their brick ovens.

If you try it that way your pizza will be done in about 90 to 120 seconds and I think you will get good color on your crust, top & bottom.👍

Try that, take pictures and let me know how it comes out.👍

[Breadhead]

Here is some interesting reading on pizza cooking by a trusted source...

http://blog2.thermoworks.com/2016/08/pizza-ovens-thermal-powerhouses/?utm_source=Nl-2016Aug20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Feature&utm_content=inbox&utm_campaign=Aug2016-Pizza-Ovens-cs

[l'inferno]

Great article. Thanks.

[JCBBQ]

That's interesting. I wonder if by putting the plates in under the pizza stone I created too much thermal mass relative to the the top of the pie. I'll have to play around with it.

[l'inferno]

I ran into the Pizziaolo at the GF'S.
Went back to see where the oven was running.
I don't think the fire had stabilized yet.
And depending where I pointed the temperature range was 100 degrees or more.

[EdF]

Here's another trick that can help. Wrap the stone in foil while it's warming up, the yank the foil off and put on the pizza. Helps to equalize the temps a bit.

[JCBBQ]

Breadhead , in answer to your questions:

The thing under the pizza stone is the ceramic heat deflector shields or D plates. I used them to get the stone that much higher in the dome.

I did a margarita right before this one. It didn't get any color on the top of the pie and the top vent was all the way open. I closed it on the second pie (pictured) in hopes that the heat would bounce off the top and cook the pie rather than escape out the top.

Yes, I was impatient and put the pie on at 670. I'll wait until 750-800 next time.

I'll report back. Thanks for your help.

[Breadhead]

JCBBQ ... in my opinion you've elevated your stone high enough. I would recommend you mount your heat shield down lower where it would go during a low and slow cook with the intent of stopping your pizza stone from taking direct heat. Let the convection heat warm up your ceramics & your pizza stone.

Heat bouncing off the top... The shape of your dome determines the airflow in your cooker. With your top vent totally open or totally off... The airflow will still follow the shape of your dome and be forced downward beforing going back up and out the top vent.

Problems getting your 00 pizza dough to brown on the top. 00 flour was designed in Italy especially to use for making Neapolitan pizza dough. In Italy they cook their Neapolitan pizzas at 800° to 900°. That allows Pizzaria's to produce great pizza to order in 2 minutes or less, without burning it.

You are not going to get 00 flour to brown on the top at 650°. They've reduced the sugar content of the flour considerably to allow it to cook at extremely high temps without burning. So... There's very little sugar to camelize especially at a lower temperature.

Again... I will suggest you mount your heat deflector down lower, away from your pizza stone. Remove your top vent entirely. Control your temp with just your bottom vent. Preheat your ceramics & pizza stone to 800°, using your infrared thermometer to know when you're ready to cook. Keep an eye on your pizza while it bakes through the top vent to see if it's browning evenly. The back of the pie might brown guicker than the front... In which case you will need to open the dome and rotate it. Use parchment paper to make rotating it fast and simple.

That might seem outside the box to you now but trust me... It will give you great results on Neapolitan pizzas using 00 flour.

[JCBBQ]

awesome, thanks!

[Breadhead]

JCBBQ ... here's my exact setup I use to bake Neapolitan 00 pizzas. I completely remove my top vent to maximize the airflow too. The Crome item sitting to the back left of my BGE is the top vent.