Which flour is best for your pizza?

Pizza crust is produced from the identical primary substances as bread: flour, water, salt, and yeast. However in relation to flour, which one is finest? Do you have to use all-purpose flour? Bread flour? Or what about one which actually has pizza in its identify, ’00’ pizza flour?

Every of those flours makes nice pizza, it simply relies on the type you need. Whether or not you’re seeking to bake a thick and puffy pan pizza, a crisp and chewy Neapolitan-style pizza, or a basic cheese-topped pie to exchange your weekly takeout, listed here are the most effective flours for every type of pizza.

Pictures by Kristin Teig; meals styling by Liz Neily

For traditional pizza crust: All-purpose flour

Trying to make a primary pizza crust, one with a crispy backside, slightly little bit of chew, and sufficient power that the slices gained’t get floppy underneath all that sauce and cheese? For a no-fuss crust, you want a workhorse flour, and that’s all-purpose flour.

Why all-purpose flour works: This on a regular basis flour is designed to reach every kind of baking, and should you solely preserve one sort of flour in your own home, it needs to be this. It has sufficient protein (11.7%) to assist a sturdy gluten community, translating to crust with loads of power and chew. It’s additionally versatile sufficient to make use of in nearly your entire different baking — from desserts to cookies — so that you solely have to fret about retaining one bag of flour in your pantry.

Pizza recipes that use all-purpose flour:  

Pictures by Rick Holbrook; meals styling by Kaitlin Wayne

For thick, chewy pan pizzas: Bread flour

Pan pizzas are sometimes outlined by their thick, puffy crusts, with a hearty chew and a crunchy backside (achieved with a combo of oil and a scorching pan). To get there, you want a flour that has loads of power and may assist a high-hydration dough. You want bread flour.

Why bread flour works: King Arthur bread flour has a better protein content material (12.7%) than all-purpose (11.7%). As a result of the protein in flour is what types gluten in your dough, greater protein means extra gluten. Extra gluten means stronger, extra stretchy dough, which is vital for a puffy, ethereal crust with plenty of chew — precisely what you’re on the lookout for in a pan pizza. Flour with a better protein stage is nicely suited to greater hydration doughs, which are perfect for pan pizza, yielding a pie with an open crumb and lofty peak.

Pizza recipes that use bread flour:  

Pictures by Kristin Teig; meals styling by Liz Neily

For pizza with a crispy, bubbly exterior and a puffy, ethereal inside: ’00’ pizza flour

Neapolitan-style pizza is understood for its puffy outer crust (referred to as the cornicione), crispy exterior, and ethereal, hole-flecked inside. The perfect variations of this basic pizza type are made with a particular flour designed to emulate the flour used to make pizza in Italy: ’00’ pizza flour.

Why ’00’ pizza flour works: ’00’ pizza flour is a finely milled flour produced from each onerous and gentle wheat. The onerous wheat provides the dough power, so it may be stretched skinny with out tearing (and provides the completed pie its distinctive chewiness). The gentle wheat offers further starch, which provides the dough the right crisp (however not onerous!) crunch and makes it simpler to stretch. This flour can also be milled to the identical requirements as Italian pizza flour. Not like the USA, the European normal for flours is on a numerical scale, starting from 2 (coarse, complete grain) to 00 (further wonderful, white flour). Neapolitan pizza is made with flour milled to ’00’ requirements, which is strictly how we’ve ready our model of this flour.

Pizza recipes that use ’00’ pizza flour:

Pictures by Danielle Sykes; meals styling by Kaitlin Wayne

Baking gluten-free? We have now a pizza flour for that, too! Strive our Gluten-Free Pizza Flour; it’s the key to the most effective (gluten-free) pizza you’ll ever make.

Extra ideas for excellent pizza at house:

Cowl picture (Artisan No-Knead Pizza Crust) by Rick Holbrook; meals styling by Kaitlin Wayne.