Caputo 00 substitute?

[Frznrth]

What will work well instead of Caputo 00? Bread flour?, All Purpose? Add in some Cake Flour? a bit of EVO? Something else?
Thanks for the help

[Mongo]

Reading some of your other question I see you don't have local access to 00. I'm sure you've thought of it but I suggest buying it online.
There are other sources besides Caputo, like Central Milling who use American wheat. My preference however is Caputo 'blue label'. I buy 50 lbs at a time to spread the shipping cost out a little.

In the absence of 00 you go bread flour. You want a high protein content.
I've found that 00 is more resistant to burning at high temps. Not the dough itself but the residual flour that's always under the pizza so you can slide it off your peel.
If you use bread flour, use semolina under your dough. Cornmeal or pollenta work as well but add a taste and texture.
I use a mix of semolina and 00 under my dough.

Oil isn't going to help you in regards to a high heat bake. It does add certain characteristics to your dough that are a matter of taste and style. Not found in Napolitano style but is used in a Sicilian style. Oil under your dough or oil that comes out of your dough will lightly fry the dough as the pizza bakes.

Sugar contributes to browning, sometimes burning.

[Frznrth]

Thanks Mongo. I did find some other brands of 00 online that were reasonably priced. I'll give them a try. I'm still curious if adding some cake/pastry four to strong bread flour would be helpful. Might have to give that a try too. One of the 00 flours says on its label that it is good for pizza and cake - not sure if that is true of all 00.

[deejayoh]

+ one on bread flour. But 00 flour is not about protein content. It's about how finely it is milled. Most 00's are mid range (~11-12%) in protein content, and Caputo blue is actually lower than the red...

So you want mid-range protein, finely ground. Bread flour is generally best fall back. Cake flour will NOT work as is specifically defined as low protein (who wants chewy cake?)

EVO has nothing to do with it and will make your pizza brown too quickly in a WFO.

Personally, I don't love cornmeal or semolina on a peel - I find that they leave a sooty mess on my cooking deck. but that's a matter of personal choice

[Frznrth]

I’m assuming - not a good start - that cake is finer than regular flour and that good strong bread flour has even more protein than 00. If true wouldn’t a blend be closer to a good 00 than just bread flour alone?

[SableSprings]

Frznrth, Deejayoh was pointing out that cake flour is lower protein (i.e. gluten forming capability) than bread flour not finer milling. As he noted you want tender cake and bread with chew. Our USA flours are almost all the same milling grind...coarser than 00. With cake flour, the pizza skins don't have enough elasticity or extensibility because they generally have a low gluten content. The Italian system for flour labeling is based primarily on the grind. One (1) is coarser...like our whole wheat, Zero (0) is similar to our AP grind, and Double Aught (00) is a very fine milling. Tipo (type) 00 is generally a mix of soft & hard wheat that come closer to the the protein/gluten content of our high end AP flours than to the strong (higher gluten/protein) bread flour. Again, it's about the size of the flour grains that makes Tipo 00 flours work better for pizza skins. That said, years ago I did a comparison with some friends of three different flours available here (USA). I used Better for Bread (Gold Medal, really a higher AP flour, running just under 12% protein), Bob's Red Mill Artisan bread flour 14-15% protein, and Caputo 00 Red. We all liked the Better for Bread flour pizza skins best. I know it's all personal opinion in most cases, but I am now using Shepherd's Grain low gluten (runs about 11.5-11.9% protein) for my breads and pizza skins with no complaints.

Hope that helps!

[Frznrth]

Thanks - I've given up on trying cake flour. I have found where I can get 00 about an hour away from where I live - little price for better pizza!