You can make a Neapolitan-style pizza with the bread flour already in your cupboard. The result won’t be identical to one made with Italian 00, and in some ovens you may even prefer it. What changes is the texture, a little of the method, and how closely you’re trying to follow the Naples tradition.
The short answer, by oven
| Oven | Bread flour | 00 pizza flour |
|---|---|---|
| Home oven on a steel or stone, 500–550°F, 6–10 min | Works well. Chewier and sturdier; browns more readily if malted | Works well at about 70% hydration. Softer and more delicate |
| Outdoor pizza oven, 750–850°F stone, 1–2 min | Works, but the crust is chewier than tradition | The traditional choice: stretches easily, bakes tender |
The temperatures and times are the bake protocols the site’s Planner uses for Neapolitan-style pizza.
What actually differs between them
Not much protein. King Arthur lists its bread flour at 12.7% protein; Caputo lists its blue Pizzeria 00 at 12.5%. On paper they are nearly the same.
The wheat and the milling. American bread flour is milled from hard wheat. Caputo’s Pizzeria bag is a soft-wheat 00 flour, and “00” itself is an Italian grade based on ash content, not on fineness or strength (more in the best flour for pizza dough). Ken Forkish notes that higher-protein flours make a more elastic dough with a less delicate texture once baked, while Caputo’s blue bag makes extensible gluten that stretches easily.
Malt or enzymes. Many American bread flours have a little malted barley flour or a baking enzyme added. King Arthur’s current bread flour bag lists an enzyme, which it says is added for improved yeast baking, rather than malt. Malt gives the yeast and the crust more sugar to work with, and in a 6-to-10-minute home bake that helps the crust color. Caputo lists only wheat in its Pizzeria flour.
Strength you can’t read off the bag. Italian mills publish a strength number, W, that American bags don’t. You can’t reliably convert protein into W, so don’t assume bread flour is “stronger” by a fixed amount. Reading Italian flour specs explains why.
Why 00 isn’t required at home
The case for 00 comes from the Naples oven. There, the EU’s specification for Pizza Napoletana bakes the pizza at about 905°F (485°C) for 60 to 90 seconds, and the AVPN’s current public recipe uses 1 liter of water for 1.6 to 1.8 kg of flour, about 56 to 63% of the flour weight by our calculation. A soft, extensible dough suits that bake.
A home oven is a different job. Forkish’s answer is to keep 00 but raise the water to 70% of the flour, so the crust stays soft and light through a bake of about 7 minutes at 550°F (290°C). The site’s Planner uses the same 70% adaptation for home ovens. Bread flour handles that longer bake well too; Modernist Pizza says a very good pizza can be made with almost any bread or all-purpose flour. Which you prefer comes down to texture: 00 for a softer, more delicate crust, bread flour for a chewier, sturdier one.
Swapping bread flour into a 00 recipe
- Add a little water if the dough feels stiff. Forkish notes that higher-protein flours usually absorb more water. Start with 1 to 2% more than the recipe says and adjust by feel until the dough is as soft as it would be with 00.
- Give it time. A slow, cold ferment relaxes a more elastic dough. Modernist Pizza notes that a dough made two days ahead is easy to shape however strong its gluten, because it has had time to relax. Forkish’s 24-to-48-hour dough, refrigerated after a couple of hours at room temperature, is a good model.
- Warm it before stretching. Cold dough fights back. Forkish lets refrigerated dough balls sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour before shaping.
- Stretch patiently. If a round springs back, cover it and let it rest for a few minutes, then continue. See how to stretch pizza dough.
- Check the bag before adding malt. If the ingredient list already includes malted barley flour or an enzyme, you probably don’t need more. If it doesn’t and your crusts come out pale, the diastatic malt guide explains how to dose it.
Blending the two
You don’t have to choose. Forkish blends flours in his long biga dough: bread flour or Caputo’s stronger red bag for the biga, which ferments for a long time, and Caputo’s blue bag or all-purpose flour for the final mix. He also notes that some pizzerias blend Caputo’s blue and red bags. A 50/50 blend of King Arthur bread flour and Caputo Pizzeria works out to about 12.6% protein, by our calculation from the two makers’ labels.
When 00 is the better choice
- In an outdoor pizza oven. At 750 to 850°F with a one-to-two-minute bake, a soft 00 pizza flour gives the tender, easily stretched dough the style was built around. Malted bread flour also adds sugar for browning that a bake this hot doesn’t need.
- When you’re following the Naples rules. The EU specification calls for common wheat flour with a strength (W) of 220 to 380 and 11 to 12.5% protein. Typical American bread flour sits at or just above the top of that protein range, and isn’t sold with a W figure. The AVPN standard covers the full rules.
- When you want the most delicate crust. If bread flour gives you a crust that’s sturdier than you like, a 00 pizza flour at about 70% hydration is the change to try.
For the home-oven method in full, see Neapolitan pizza at home.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is bread flour the same as 00 flour?
- No. They are classified by different systems. Bread flour is an American category based on protein and is usually milled from hard wheat. 00 is an Italian grade based on ash content, which tracks how much bran and germ remain; it says nothing about strength. Caputo's 00 flours alone run from 12% to more than 15% protein.
- Will bread flour make my Neapolitan pizza too chewy?
- It will be chewier than the same pizza made with 00, because bread flour makes a more elastic dough. A longer cold ferment and a little more water soften it. Whether the result is too chewy is a matter of taste; some people prefer the sturdier crust in a home oven.
- Can I mix bread flour and 00 flour?
- Yes. Ken Forkish uses bread flour or Caputo's red bag for the biga in his long-fermented dough and Caputo's blue bag or all-purpose flour for the final mix, and some pizzerias blend flours to get the handling they want. A 50/50 blend of King Arthur bread flour and Caputo Pizzeria is about 12.6% protein by calculation.
- Do I need to change the hydration when switching from 00 to bread flour?
- Usually a little. Higher-protein flours tend to absorb more water, so start with 1 to 2% more water than a 00 recipe calls for and adjust by feel. For a home oven, Forkish and the site's Planner both use about 70% hydration for Neapolitan-style dough.
- Should I use bread flour or 00 in a portable pizza oven?
- 00 is the better match. At 750 to 850°F the pizza bakes in one to two minutes, and a soft 00 pizza flour gives the tender, easily stretched dough the style is built around. Bread flour works but bakes chewier, and if it's malted it adds sugar for browning that such a hot bake doesn't need.
- Which bread flour should I use for Neapolitan-style pizza?
- Start with an ordinary bread flour rather than a high-gluten one. King Arthur's bread flour, at 12.7% protein, is close to Caputo Pizzeria's 12.5%. High-gluten flours of around 14% protein are better suited to New York-style pizza.
Sources
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016), chapter 2 (Neapolitan-style pizza in a home oven), chapter 4 (flour, Caputo’s blue and red bags) and chapter 6 (the Saturday, 24-to-48-hour and biga doughs).
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1, pages 278–279 (flour choice, the W number, 00 flour and strength).
- European Commission, Regulation (EU) No 97/2010, Pizza Napoletana TSG, annex II: flour characteristics, baking temperature and time.
- Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana: public Neapolitan pizza recipe (water and flour quantities). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Caputo: published specifications and ingredients for “00” Pizzeria Flour. Checked October 14, 2026.
- King Arthur Baking: Bread Flour product page and packaging (12.7% protein; ingredients). Checked October 14, 2026.