Tools Used To Measure Best Pizza Flour
In our case study, we used the following tools and appliances:
- Ooni Karu 16 – wood-fired pizza oven (this oven is absolute must when cooking pizza and it’s rated the best Ooni pizza oven in our test)
- Ooni Bench Scraper
- Ooni Bamboo insertion peel
- Ooni Pizza Turning Peel
The Case Study: Which Flour Is Best Suited for Pizza?
Let’s start with Tipo 00 flour. Tipo 00 Italian flour, also known as type 00 or double-zero flour, is the softest, finest Italian flour. It is ground into a fine powder and its color is white. Compared to other Italian flour, Tipo 00 flour is the most refined and has the least fiber left. Tipo 00 flour normally has a gluten content of 12%.
Tipo 00 is the best flour you can use for pizza.
Advanced tip: You can go the extra mile and use a blend of 50% Tipo 0, and 50% Tipo 00. These two flour types have different ash content. And when you blend them 50/50 you have the best of both worlds. The Tipo 0 has more of it, meaning that it has a little more bran, so the flour can absorb more water and your dough will have a slightly different texture. You will get a significant increase in elasticity from blending 00 and 0. You will also experience a better flavor and an accelerated enzyme activity, and your dough will become softer and get a better structure.
Although Tipo 00 flour is a very specific type of flour, there are different blends available. Tipo 00 flour can be purely soft wheat or it can be blended with hard wheat.
For this case study, we used the same amount of yeast, water, and flour for each dough. Every dough was proofed for 12 hours at room temperature before cooking. We wanted to see if we can spot any differences in taste, texture, handling, and lightness. We used King Arthur AP flour (Tipo 0) as our control.
Best Overall: Antimo Caputo Pizzeria Flour Blue Tipo 00
Protein: 12.5%
W strength: 260 / 270
P/L: 0.50 / 0.60
Best suited for: Long fermentation
Our rating: 5/5
When it comes to quality, you truly can’t beat Caputo Tipo 00 Pizza Flour. Caputo 00 flour is a very unique type of flour made by the Naples-based company Antimo Caputo. Caputo is known around the world for its high-quality pizza flour that uses mostly locally produced wheat. Antimo Caputo is one of the “approved suppliers” by the True Neapolitan Pizza Association (AVPN). While Antimo Caputo makes several types of flours, they are best-known for their Tipo 00 pizza flours.
While there’s no doubt that you can successfully make a tasty pizza using other types of flour, Caputo 00 is the superior choice for pizza dough. It is finely ground, has a lower gluten content than most other flours, and is made from a selection of the finest grains by the Caputo family. To make an authentic and delicious homemade pizza, you will want to start with Caputo Tipo 00 flour.
Test Results
Just as expected, this flour made our pizzas taste authentic, kind of like the pizza you would get at a real Neapolitan restaurant. Depending on how much hydration you’re using, the dough gets soft and perfectly airy. This is our go-to choice for pizza.
[summary]Caputo Tipo 00 flour is a unique type of flour that is recognized by many professionals around the world as the best type of flour to use for pizza dough. Our tests proved the same.[/summary]
Best Alternative: Cento Anna Napoletana Tipo 00 Extra Fine Flour
Protein: 12%
W strength: 270
P/L: N/A
Ash: N/A
Best suited for: Thin crust pizzas
Our rating: 4.5/5
Cento Anna Napoletana Tipo 00 is an extra fine flour, so it’s perfect to use when making thin-crust pizzas like the Tonda Romana. Its overall quality and consistency make Cento Anna flour a great candidate for pasta as well as pizza.
Test Results
This flour produced an airy and light pizza with a cruncy bottom. If there was such a thing as an all-purpose tipo 00 flour, this would be the one.
[summary]Cento Anna Napoletana Tipo 00 Extra Fine Flour is another top choice for pizza chefs. It makes the crust very curnchy. [/summary]
Best Organic: Molino Grassi USDA Organic Tipo 00 Flour
Protein: 13.3%
W strength: 290
P/L: 0.55
Best suited for: High-temperature ovens
Our rating: 4.5/5
If your restaurant promises all-organic ingredients or you simply prefer to go the organic route within your home, Molino Grassi makes a high-quality organic 00 flour. Molino Grassi’s USDA Organic Italian 00 Soft Wheat Flour is 100% Italian and contains zero GMOs. It is produced by a family-owned mill run by the fourth generation of an Italian family in Parma, Italy.
This is an unmalted flour, so you will need an oven that reaches very high temperatures to get a decent browning on your pizza. If you don’t have a designated pizza oven, you will need to add 1-2% of diastatic malt powder to get decent results.
This flour is perfect for you if you constantly burn your crust. Since it’s unmalted, this flour makes cooking in high-temperature ovens much more forgiving.
Test Results
Our expectations were that this flour would make our pizzas taste just as with the Caputo Molino flour. While they did have similarities, the Molino Grassi offered a slightly different texture. The taste was similar but the dough felt slightly heavier. However, the dough was still much airier than with our control.
[summary]Molino Grassi 00 Flour is an organic alternative with a unique taste, but it might make your pizza feel slightly “heavier”. You will need a real pizza oven for this unmalted flour.[/summary]
