Start with the autolyse: combine all the flour with about 90% of the water, mix until no dry flour remains, then cover and rest for 30 minutes. This hydrates the flour and begins gluten development with minimal effort.

Dissolve the yeast in the remaining water, add it to the rested dough, and knead it in thoroughly. Add the salt last — direct contact between salt and yeast inhibits fermentation, so keep them apart until both are incorporated.

Develop the gluten with stretch-and-fold sets: grab one side of the dough, stretch it upward, fold it back over the mass, rotate 90°, and repeat all four sides. Rest 5–10 minutes between sets, and do 3–4 sets total. The dough is ready when it is smooth and elastic and passes the windowpane test: gently stretch a small piece until it is thin enough to see light through without tearing.

This recipe works well in a conventional home oven. Preheat to the highest temperature your oven can reach (usually 250–280 °C / 480–540 °F) with a pizza stone or baking steel inside for at least 30–45 minutes — the stored thermal mass is what crisps the base.

For best results use a two-stage bake: first bake the dough topped only with tomato sauce until the base has puffed and begun to colour (3–5 min). Pull it out, add the remaining toppings, and finish until the cheese is melted and the crust is nicely browned (another 4–6 min). This prevents toppings from drying out or cheese from overcooking before the base is done.

Traditional Neapolitan dough contains no added fat. At very high temperatures (450–500 °C), oil causes the crust to brown and char much faster, which can lead to burning before the dough has had time to puff and develop its characteristic leopard spotting.

If you are baking in a conventional home oven you can substitute 2–3% of the water weight with olive oil. At lower temperatures it won't cause problems and adds a slightly richer flavour and a crispier bottom.

The ideal choice is Italian Tipo 00 flour with a high protein content (12–14 g per 100 g). The fine milling produces a silky, extensible dough that blisters beautifully at high heat.

Strong bread flour (also 12–14% protein) is a widely available substitute and gives excellent results — the crumb will be slightly chewier but still very good.

Avoid standard all-purpose or plain flour: the lower protein content means less gluten, weaker structure, and a dough that tears easily and spreads flat rather than holding its shape.

The longer and colder the fermentation, the less yeast you need — the yeast simply has more time to do its work. A 48-hour cold proof requires only a fraction of the yeast a 2-hour room-temperature rise would need to achieve the same level of development.

Using less yeast also produces better flavour. A slow fermentation gives the dough time to develop complex organic acids, CO₂, and aroma compounds that a fast, high-yeast ferment cannot replicate. The calculator derives the yeast percentage from your chosen schedule using a temperature-corrected exponential decay curve (Q10 coefficient) — see the README for the full model.

In baker's math, flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight. Hydration is the water percentage: 65% hydration means 65 g of water per 100 g of flour.

Higher hydration produces an airier, more open crumb with larger bubbles, but makes the dough stickier and harder to shape. Neapolitan dough typically sits between 60–65%. Start at 60% if you are new to high-hydration dough.