Neapolitan Style Pizza Dough

Submitted by Chef Sofia Occhialini

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 bag active dry yeast
1/2 tablespoon honey
½ tablespoon sea salt
Fustini's Robust SELECT olive oil

Directions

Step 1.

Mix yeast in water until melted, put water in the mixer bowl with the flat beater attachment and slowly add flour, when you are halfway with the flour remove the flat beater and use the dough hook. Add salt and honey and knead for 10 minutes. Shape into a ball and start the stretch and fold procedure.

Step 2. Stretch and Fold

When you fold the dough, you do three things:

expel the carbon dioxide formed during fermentation created by the yeast
strengthen the dough by aligning and stretching the gluten strands
equalize the dough's temperature which eliminates hot spots

This is what creates the bubbles or air pockets. To work with sticky dough use olive oil on the work surface and on your hand. Transfer the dough from the mixer to the oiled work surface, pat it into a rectangle or ball, and then stretch out about half of the dough from one side and then flip the stretched piece back over the top of the dough. Then repeat this from the other side. When all sides have been folded over, flip the whole dough ball over so that the smooth underside is facing up and the folds are underneath. At this point, you either place the dough into an oiled container or leave it on the oiled work surface and cover it with a bowl or plastic wrap. You have to repeat this process in 5-minute intervals, 3-5 times. This technique greatly enhances the oven spring and causes the dough to achieve a kind of bounce and liveliness that is hard to replicate by conventional mixing methods. (and it is fun!)

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