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[dstr8]

Cooked Pizzas at 500.

 

Although certainly edible baked at 500*F Neapolitan dough gets its renown at 750*F and north.  You will find, if the classic chewy bubbled/blistered perimeter with medium to large air bubble interior (crust perimeter) is the goal, you will only get this quality at the higher temps.  Lower temps result in a flatter crust without the development of fast rising air bubbles.  The chew texture will be more homogenous; whereas classic Neapolitan will have the thin, chewy layer on the outside portion of the crust yet light and forgiving interior.

 

For pre-heating my KK:  Ideally I start a smaller fire, using the full size basket, about 90-minutes out from bake time with the stone in place.   I get the KK & stone heat soaked at ~500*F or so.  Then about 20-30 minutes from when I want it to be idling at 750*F (dome) I load the basket with lump.  

[tony b]

Excellent. Nice "window pane."

[EGGARY]

How do you take off the grill with the Pizza Stone when it is at 500 ? I see disaster on my end. Another question, with the dough very elastic, how do you form the pizza dough ? I spread to out with my fingers and then picked it up and tried to spread it more and it became thin in the middle. Forming the Pizza Dough is definitely a work in progress. Thanks.

[tinyfish]

^ what temp did you bake the pies?   

 

Good idea tinyfish about the rice flour...presumably it has a higher smoking point and/or wouldn't turn bitter like wheat flour does on the bottom of Neapolitan pies (I use rice flour for my fish and chips batter...crazy good).  Although I generally don't have sticky pizza peel issues anymore I have been tempted to buy one of these:  http://brickovenbaker.com/brick-oven-and-baking-tools/peels/13-inch-rectangular-perforated-pizza-peel-47-inch-handle?gclid=CKexl-DClcUCFYZffgodiZwAVA

Thats a nice looking peel.

I make about six pizzas per cook so I use the wood peels to make the pizzas on and use the rice flour. You are right the flour has a very high burning point and its very slippery on the wood peels. I have a wood fired type of pizza oven and I cook two at a time.

[dstr8]

EG:  Insulated fireplace/BBQ/thick welding gloves work great as long as you have a fire proof (concrete/brick) place to set the hot grates and stone onto.  I put the shaped stone onto the highest position of the sear grate...sitting atop the largest/highest grate.  I just, when time to re-stoke the fire with lump, lift off the sear grate with the stone in place...then flip the coal "door" up and slide more lump to the basket.

 

If your raw pizza dough is more tender and not as elastic then just leave the dough on your bench and push, turn, push, turn to stretch it.  My dough is generally higher hydration (wetter) than my BIL's so I generally can't palm/knuckle it as much as he did in the video:  "All roads lead to Rome"

 

Also, I recommend starting with ~300g balls of dough and aiming for 10-12" maximum diameter pies...much easier especially for building the pie on one surface then sliding the assembled pie onto the peel. 

[Hankvon]

Hankvon: I don't know where you are located but Caputo 00 and other brands of flour can be sourced from Amazon.com and eBay. Altough its getting a little easier to find these flours I rely upon the aforementioned to source mine.

Also, although I haven't tried it, King Arthur has a finer 00 grade pizza flour...

FWIW: The typical flour most Italian's use for Neapolitan pies, including Caputo, has a lower protein content than KA's bread flour...

Thanks for the replies. We are currently living in South Korea, so a lot of western stuff is not easily available. But, my wife said yesterday that she seen Italian flour in a shop the other day, expensive thou, $10-12 a kilo     Anyway, at least I can get it

[bryan]

I use  http://www.varasanos.com/pizzarecipe.htm and King Arthur Sir Lancelot High-Gluten Flour.

Took a lot of reading and practice but the results were well worth the time spent.