Hi all:

I'm actually asking this on behalf of a friend of mine. She's an excellent cook, went to cooking school, etc.

She said that she's never been able to get a bit of chewiness in her pizza dough - it always comes out too crispy.

She is in the US, uses bread flour so it has enough gluten, uses a good stone and bakes it at 475 degrees.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

A bit of rye flour helps. I normally add about 1/5 rye flour to 4/5 regular flour. It has a heaver texture but doesn't dry up quickly.

I generally flatten the dough on parchment paper so it goes on the stone between the crust and the stone.

A couple of other things that come to mind would be to not flatten the dough too much and not to punch it down after it has risen.

Thanks very much, Diana and Jerry.

I forgot to say that she does use some rye flour, but I'm not sure how much. Perhaps she should use some more.

And the parchment idea as well as not flattening it and punching down sound good.

Of course I do not use rye flour because it isn't sold in Italy.
The big deal on pizza dough is a long, cold rise. 12 hours by law to call yourself pizza napolitana. My Neapolitan pizza book has the following recipe as a base recipe. It also has other recipes, but this is the one they say is official. This is sight translated, so I hope for no errors.
400 g of hardwheat coarse flour plus 100 g for the kneading surface.
20 g fresh yeast
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 level tablespoon of salt
250 g of warm/tepid water.
Melt the yeast in a little warm water, add a tablespoon of the flour and mix it until smooth. Leave to bubble and prove for a half hour.
Make a mountain of the 400 g of flour. Make a volcano in the center and put the yeast mixture in it, the remaining warm water, the oil and the salt. Mix with the hands until the dough no longer sticks to the work surface and your hands.
Continue to knead the dough energetically, pulling, stretching and folding it for about 12 minutes.
Form a ball, put it into a floured bowl, covered with a wool cloth!!? (I put it into a giant ziplock bag with all air pressed out and well-sealed and throw it into the fridge.) and allow to rise in a cool/cold place for 12 hours. Remove the dough to a floured surface and knead and stretch again for some minutes, reducing its bulk.
Form it into a couple of disks not thicker than 1/2 cm with a slightly raised border. Put what you want on top of it.
Cook it in an oven preheated at least 25 minutes to from 250-280° C. That is from 482-536° F! It must have that heat shock to work. It should cook for about 25 minutes.
Don't overload the pizza or it will not rise when shocked by the heat, nor will it bubble up.
Mind you, I have moved on to an easier pizza dough that takes about 6 hours, because I never know 12 hours ahead that I am going to want pizza. I also find that perhaps because there are no dough conditioners, this dough can't be frozen before cooking. It's possible that if one left it long enough at room temp after thawing enough of the yeast will have survived to re-rise, but I have never had the patience to find out.

Of course I do not use rye flour because it isn't sold in Italy.

Rye flour is of course sold throughout northern Italy, in every organic food store, even in some chain grocery stores.

The Italian word for it is segale.

It is widely used here.

I agree with Diana, look for farina di segale and I'm pretty sure that you'll find it! In Umbria (as well as in the rest of central and southern Italy) you'd better try organic food stores or "natural" food stores (you know, sort of big erboristeria also selling diet food and grains) or big supermarket as it's a mostly northern Italian thing... actually in Alto Adige rye bread is the king!

Thanks again, all. And thanks Judith for copying in that lenghthy recipe.

I thought about that after posting, but I can tell you it sure isn't sold here! People are always asking about flours, and what one can get is 00, 0, Manitoba and integrale. And corn meal, of course.
In truth, when you live in ordinary places and to get something means you have to take the train to Florence or Rome, then IMO it isn't available here. It's available THERE.

Judith, you said it was not sold in Italy. I live in Italy and it is sold where I am, and throughout this region. That makes it an Italian product, maybe a regional one, but still Italian. And it helps in pizza dough with the consistency, IMO.

I have the opposite problem. Mine always comes out with too much chew and not enough crisp.

I never made pizza at home until I moved to California because my family has an Italian restaurant in NJ. It was opened by my grandparents over 80 years ago who were from Naples and Foggia and is now run by my uncle and his family. The restaurant is called "Federici's" (my mother's maiden name) and it's in Freehold, NJ. Alessandra and I concluded that we are not related (too bad) as our families are from different parts of Italy although you never know.

Federici's serve one of the best pizza's in NJ with a thin, crispy crust. When people who have moved away come back for a visit they even take them home on the plane at least they did before 911.

Anyone who is from back East and lives in CA will tell you that you just can't get a good pizza out here and it all has to do with the dough. They just can't seem to get the crust crispy enough. The only way to get it crispier is to bake and slice it and then reheat it the way they do in some pizzerias but that's not the same as a nice fresh bubbly pizza.

Marcia, I'm counting on Mozza for a nice crispy pizza.

Carole