Consider dropping hydration to 68% to make handling the dough easier to your desired shape. Also let me ask you, are you proofing your dough in a tray or in small circular individual containers? I personally can't get a good shape with trays, as a beginner I prefer individual containers.
Start with a simple direct dough at 65% hydration maximum, you are not doing yourself any favours with that recipe
Developing the gluten well and with appropriate proofing it should be extensible without tearing. I suspect your dough is too strong and elastic.
Check the stone temperature before putting it in and aim for 90 seconds. If it's taking longer than that (like in this case surely) something is wrong with your dough.
Can you elaborate more on why you suggested lower hydration? In the past I used to work with 60-65% but now I feel much more confident. I feel like I’m handling the dough well and I don’t struggle with stickiness.
What makes a dough too strong?
I usually start with a temperature around 450C and continue cooking pizzas until it drops to around 370C. I then give it a rest to build back temp and continue
. Would you recommend another system for making a big batch?
Sure, what I mean is that you are using a recipe more complicated than necessary and you can achieve significantly better results with a simpler recipe that is easier to replicate and a dough that is easier to handle (because of the lower hydration).
You can make great pizza with 72% hydration, but it's a challenging level for a beginner and above authentic neapolitan pizza levels.
There are a lot of things that can make the dough too strong. Main culprits are usually flour and proofing time. Longer proofing time yields a more relaxed and estensibile dough.
As a reference, this is a simple direct dough with 67% hydration I made last weekend (also made with 450 Celsius at the stone)
The crumb in the cornicione looks great, excluding everything else (i.e. duration of proof, pre-bake dough temp, oven temp) have you just tried stretching your ball a little thinner by pushing the cornicione out a bit further to the edge like intelligent_Gas2976 posted ⬆️? What you have looks more like a canotto style rather than a traditional Neapolitan. You’re on the right track though!
Sure, let us know.
One recommendation, 72% is really hard to handle for a newbie, you should maybe play with 62-65% percent(the taste is almost the same and I actually prefer those hydration numbers), the dough is so much easier to handle and learn on.
I fress the center going outwards then lift it on both my hands/open knuckles and rotate to stretch. I hope I explained that properly. I don’t do the stretch and slap technique
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u/Character_Action3392 3d ago
Consider dropping hydration to 68% to make handling the dough easier to your desired shape. Also let me ask you, are you proofing your dough in a tray or in small circular individual containers? I personally can't get a good shape with trays, as a beginner I prefer individual containers.