Attempt at Napolitan pizza on a stone

[skan]

Hi

Today I had another try to make Napolitan pizza.
But this time is the first time I've used a stone, a cordierite.
I don't post any picture because the result wasn't good.

Last time my pizza was too dry, then this time I've increased hydration to 65%, maybe too much. I've also used high gluten flour, some semolina, and fresh yeast.
I kneaded it for 10 minutes, and I left the dough 1 day in the fridge. Then 2 hours out of the fridge.
I had to use oven paper to spread the pizza and be able to transfer the stone to it because the dough was too liquid.
I used tomato, mozarella and ham for the topping.


I had several problems:
The border of the paper raised, lifting the pizza.
The borders seemed to be right and I didn't noticed that the middle was burning on its bottom face.
However the top face of the dough (near the center) was RAW. I don't understand why because the dough was very thin and the pizza is supposed to bake properly on a stone.
The baking time was around 6 minutes.

I'm starting to think the dough I like is not the Napolitan one. Whatever I try it doesn't taste as the pizzas I like.
If I use too little yeast I get a very hard pizza. And I don't mean crispy but hard.
If I use too much yeast I get something that tastes too much of bread.
I've alsto tried with few yeast and long time fermentation but I can't get a good pizza.

Next time I'll try some other recipe with more ingredients (milk, egg yolk...) that disguise yeast flavour or maybe some baking powder or 00 flor instead.

[TropicalCoasting]

What temp was the oven set on?
I usually put the stone in for about 20 minutes at full blast before I cook a pizza
At 250 ish (electric fan forced)
it takes about 11 minutes to cook a pizza in my oven
I use 00 flour 3 cups to 1 and bit cups water 2 tsp dry yeast
Knead for 10 ish minutes roll into a ball coat in ev olive oil in a bowl with glad wrap (no eggs or milk)
24 hours in the fridge.
It tastes fantastic.

[wotavidone]

Hola Skan.
Gotta try it like this. No fancy additives, just cheap flour, water, yeast and salt.
This pretty much a compendium of all the good information I've read on this forum.

1000g plain white flour, 600g water, mix gently, rest for 20 minutes, add 2-3 tsp yeast, mix gently, rest 20 minutes, add 3-4 tsp salt mix gently. I made some today, and my wife, who is a very good cook (people offer her money to make her signature dish), commented that it looked "silky". There would not be 20 minutes of kneading and hands on work in the whole thing. I mixed it too much the first time, and this seemed to make the dough springy, tough and hard to flatten, but one of the forum members set me straight.
Divide into 6 balls, rise in fridge for 24 hours.
Roll/flatten into a 220mm circle.
Have you watched these, yet? $20 stone, homemade fibre board peel, all generic supermarket ownbrand ingredients (I'm saving the premium ingredients for when I finish my wood oven), and it comes up delicious. Great texture, crisp but chewy if you get my meaning.


Pizza on a stone - YouTube
Pizza on a stone Pt 2 - YouTube

[wotavidone]

P.S. my stone measures well over 300 degrees C when I drop the pizza on it.

[skan]

Originally Posted by TropicalCoasting

What temp was the oven set on?
I usually put the stone in for about 20 minutes at full blast before I cook a pizza
At 250 ish (electric fan forced)
it takes about 11 minutes to cook a pizza in my oven
...

Hello

It's an old gas oven, the broiler doesn't work, then I decided to put the stone on the bottom.
I just put something metallic to have a 1 inch gap between the bottom and the stone and allow the air to flow.
The oven was set at its highest temperature, 240ºC, I guess this should be the average temperature within the oven. The stone was at more than 300ºC because it was very close to the flames. My thermometer can't measure values above 300ºC.

I think it was hot enough because it burnt the bottom of the pizza in 7 minutes but I don't understand why the other side was still wet and raw.
Maybe I used too much water or a flour with too much proteins.

I still have some of the dough in the fridge, I'll try again tomorrow. It will have been 48h resting. I've added some all purpose flour to the dough in order to lower proteins ratio and dry it.

Next time I'll try with sourdough instead of fresh yeast.

[wotavidone]

That's the spirit, keep trying. Every situation is different, so you have to figure out what works for your circumstances.
Maybe try heating the heck out of your stone down at the bottom close to the flame, then put it up somewhere above middle height.
My wife reckons that she always does her puff pastry at the top of the oven because its hotter and the top of the pastry crisps better.

[scott123]

Originally Posted by skan

I think it was hot enough because it burnt the bottom of the pizza in 7 minutes but I don't understand why the other side was still wet and raw.

Here's your answer:

Originally Posted by skan

It's an old gas oven, the broiler doesn't work, then I decided to put the stone on the bottom.

Pizza needs heat from below AND above.