Napoletana Pizza Dough

Total Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt or 3 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water, plus
• 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
• olive oil, for oiling bowls and pan
• pizza sauce or tomato sauce, of your choice
• basil leaves (4-6 leaves per pizza)
• mozzarella cheese (cut in slices)
• parmesan cheese or romano cheese

Recipe

• 1 mix yeast with 1/2 c of lukewarm water and let it proof. this usually takes 5-15 minutes.
• 2 place all ingredients including the remaining lukewarm water (1 1/4 c plus 2 t) according to the abm machine instruction and set it for dough only. my abm takes 2 hours for dough only setting.
• 3 after the 2 hours are up take out the dough and place it in a well olive oiled large bowl. turn the dough to coat it with the oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put the bowl in the refrigerator overnight. the overnight method makes wonderful tasting pizzas.
• 4 next day remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator 2 hours before you plan to make the pizzas. the dough will have expanded and gluten very relaxed.
• 5 using wet hands gently transfer the dough to a floured counter, trying not to degas the dough as little as possible.
• 6 using a pastry blade or knife dipped in water, divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. gently round each piece into a ball and brush or rub each ball with the olive oil.
• 7 brush the sheet pan with olive oil and place each dough ball on the pan and loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap. (if you do not plan to use all the pieces, place the extra ones in individual freezer bags and freeze).
• 8 allow the dough balls to sit at room temperature 2 hours before making the pizzas.
• 9 preheat the oven to 500°f.
• 10 roll out the each dough into 9 to 12 inch diameter pizzas using a rolling pin and your hands. this dough is very soft, elastic and hard to handle compared to other pizza doughs and will require some effort to get to 9 inches diameter. i use combination patting down, stretching, and use of rolling pin to get it to 9 inch diameter. once you get very good handling this dough, you may get it to 12 inch diameter, but 9 inch is perfectly fine.
• 11 lightly oil the pizza baking pan and place the pizza. spread 1/4 c to 1/2 c sauce over the surface of dough, leaving a 1/4 to 1/2 inch border uncovered. arrange mozzarella over the top and sprinkle with grated parmesan or romano cheese.
• 12 bake for about 9-10 minutes in the middle rack. when done, the crust should be puffy and slightly charred on the edge and thinner in the center, and cheese fully melted and just beginning to brown in spots. the underside of the crust should be brown and crisp, not and soft. keep an eye on it until you know how long your oven will take because each oven is different.
• 13 remove the pizza from the oven and lay 4 - 6 basil leaves. repeat with the remaining ingredients to make the next pizza.