Flour

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When it comes to pizza, toppings are most commonly thought to make a pizza great (to be debated later), but it’s really the crust that makes or breaks a pie. For true Neapolitan pizza, flour makes all the difference. While there are countless types of flour out there, the four most common flours are: all-purpose, pastry, bread, and cake flour. Each flour provides complexities that create different types of bread. My daughter, Kelsey, is a pastry/baking chef, and if she used the same flour I use for pizzas, she would create some very strange desserts. 

So, which one makes the best Pizza dough? I’m glad you asked. I don’t use any of these flours for pizza! Then what are we talking about here, right? 

For those just looking for the answer, I use Molino Caputo Tipo 00 Blue (available in many higher end local grocery stores, and certainly online at Amazon).

My time in Italy has taught me so much about flour, so for those that want to learn more (like all you Wurstaholics™, let’s take a closer look at what makes a difference in all these flours:

All-Purpose Flour

• All-purpose (AP) – this is the white, 5 lb. bag we all have in our pantries. AP is a blended flour, consisting of both hard and soft wheat.
• Hard wheat produces a denser product (like baguettes), while soft wheat yields an airier product (like croissants).
• Blending the two creates a product just right for everyday baking.
• There are NO exact characteristics for AP flour.
• An AP flour from one manufacturer can be different than another, creating a lot of inconsistency.

Pastry Flour

• Pastry flour is 100% soft wheat and not as heavy as all-purpose or bread flour.
• Does not return the elasticity needed for most bread.
• This flour helps pastries to have a much flakier texture.

Bread Flour

• When people think of bread, yeast usually comes to mind. This is because bread flour actually works best with yeast.
• Has the highest amount of protein of all the flours.
• Produces more gluten than other flours.
• The gluten traps the fermentation of the yeast and causes the dough to rise.

Cake Flour

Who doesn’t love cake? How would you describe cake? Light, airy, moist, and delicious, right (we hope)?

• Has a very low protein percentage and is also milled much finer than the others.
• Feels silky when you run your fingers through it, creating the fluffiness in cake that we all love so much.
• Chemically bleached, which gives the flour a higher acidity. Mixed with sugar, the acidity in cake flour allows cakes to rise in the oven. No yeast needed!

Let’s take an even closer look into which flour makes the best pizza.

So, you just got a small education on the four most common flours and broke down each of their special characteristics. As you can see, there’s a lot to know about each type of flour. Now that we got those out of the way, I’m sure you want me to cut to the chase and tell you what we use for Neapolitan pizza and why?

The Flour to Use

I’m going to let you in on my favorite flour to create genuine, Neapolitan pizza. I’ve tried a number of flours out there, and I personally like the workability of Molino Caputo Tipo 00 Blue:

• W =  280-310 (fits the AVPN parameter of 220-380 – explained in more detail below)
• Protein = 12.75% (Between AP (10-12%) and bread (14-16%) flour)
• Gluten = high quality, soft, and extensible (does not snap back when you form it)
• Absorption = 55 – 57% (also described in more detail below)

But First, Know Your Stuff

Back in the 70’s, I worked for a company called Fox-Stanley Photo. I was lucky enough to handle multiple, high-end cameras and film (Google it, film!). Even though the cameras had automatic settings, they forced me to use them in the manual mode first, so I could understand why things worked the way they did. And so, I am doing that for you, here. There’s so much more to dough than the protein content of the flour and how much water you use – it’s really much more scientific than that. 

There’s More to the Milling

The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana or AVPN (the enforcers of the authenticity of Neapolitan pizza) say your flour should be: Highly refined wheat flour, type “00”. The flour has an almost talcum-powder like appearance: white, fine, and is completely free of bran or germ.

Sometimes referred to as Doppio Zero, 00 flour refers to the milling of the flour, NOT necessarily the content. In terms of milling, you will see numbers like 00, 0, 1, or 2. The higher the number, the courser the grind, and more of the bran and germ are left in.

But as we learned earlier, there is more to flour than just the milling – there’s the amount of protein in it, and we need to be concerned with how it produces gluten (for flexibility and strength).

The “W” rating

Simply said, the “W” rating is one of the parameters recorded when subjecting flour to an Alveograph, the machine that determines the strength of a flour. The Alveograph takes a piece of dough and basically blows a bubble out of it until it pops. The “W” rating measures the energy used to blow up the bubble – the higher the “W”, the stronger the flour.  Even though several flours are 00, their “W” ratings can range from 220-380, meaning they each handle and work very differently.

So, as a general rule of thumb for the “W” rating:

• < 170 — Good for simple breads and pastries
• 180 to 220 — Good for rapid rising
• 230 to 290 — Normal strength flour
• 280 to 350 — Good for brioche and pastries raised with yeast
• 300 — Strong flour, ideal for bread
• 380 to 450 — Good for breads made from sourdough starters, bigas, or poolishes.

Flour Absorption

The 55-57% absorption you see in the Molino Caputo Tipo 00 Blue features has to do with the individual flour, NOT the ratio of flour to water that you might see in some recipes. Higher protein flour absorbs more water than lower protein flour, and even the absorbency of flour varies from grain-to-grain and season-to-season. When experimenting with a new type of flour, be prepared to add more water or a bit more flour to your dough to accommodate the variations: and remember to record the changes you made to your recipe for your next batch!

So, still eager to learn more, and my challenge to you is to:

• Go to the AVPN website and try some of their approved flours.
• Although these are approved, not every single one is going to work and feel the same.
• Get the Alveograph spec sheets and see what their characteristics are.
• Then find the flour that works best for you!

Now you can compare specs and understand what goes into your favorite flour and better understand your results. Remember – pizza is a journey, NOT a destination, and we are just beginning our journey together.

Got more questions? Give me a growl at info@wurstpizzaiolo.com and I’ll do my best to help you out!