I’ve been making a lot of this NY style pizza dough recipe …. The obsession started a while back, and I’ve finally found a recipe that I love the best! After years of experiments (and I mean years!), I am now using this recipe based on recommendations from the many fine pizza makers at www.pizzamaking.com and the Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann.
Making pizza dough at home
Making NY style pizza dough is definitely somewhat of an art form. There are so many variables that can be changed aside from the ingredients alone. For example, these variables include:
- oven temperature
- temperature of the water used to make the dough
- proofing methods (room temp vs cold rise)
- order of adding the ingredients (yes, this makes a big difference!)
- mixing time
- use of autolyse
- use of poolish (I don’t do this or the one before, although I have in the past)
And then of course, the toppings which can be simple or as complex as you’d like. But don’t worry too much about all of this – my method is easy and straightforward. Plus, you will make better dough than 99% of the pizza chains out there. You will not want take out anymore!
My favorite pizza dough: the big secret is how you proof the dough
My all-time favorite dough is NY style dough, which really is classic pizza dough that is stretched out into a thin crust pizza. This type of pizza dough contains water, flour, salt, instant yeast, and olive oil (and sugar especially when baking in a home oven, to help browning).
After it is mixed, it is proofed (left to rise/ferment) in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 72 hours (it can also be frozen). I’ve used the dough up to 5 or 6 days afterwards, so you can essentially prepare dough for the week.
This recipe produces a crisp yet foldable crust that is tender, light, and flavorful and will make enough for four 14-inch pizzas. You can easily double or half the recipe to make 2 or 8 pizzas.
Fourteen tips for success when making NY style pizza at home:
Tip 1: Choosing the flour
Use high-quality flour – I like to use King Arthur’s all purpose or bread flour; higher protein (ie, bread) flours work best. However, I prefer all-purpose flour because I like a lighter, airy crust.
Tip 2: Adding the yeast
Do not add instant dry yeast (IDY) directly to cold or cool water – you may shock the yeast (add the IDY to your flour instead) (please note that IDY differs from active dry yeast, which must be activated by adding it to water).
Tip 3: How much yeast?
Use only enough yeast to “get the job done” – yeast eats the sugar in your flour to produce its leavening effects – I find that if you use too much, your dough will be tasteless (this is just my opinion); however, it is a fact, that too much yeast can make your dough taste bad. Most recipes out there, some of them in well known, published books contain too much yeast!
Tip 4: Cold ferment that pizza dough!
Always use your refrigerator. The best NY style doughs “ferment” or “cure” in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours and up to 48 72 hours. This is called a “cold rise” (vs warm rise on your kitchen counter).
The refrigerator is used to retard (or slow) the dough’s fermentation, allowing that distinctive flavor to come through (ever wonder why some pizza crust tastes different than others, despite the fact that they are both made from just about the same exact ingredients? – this is a big reason why!)
When your dough rises too quickly, the flavor will not develop optimally. Slow rise = MUCH better flavor.
Tip 5: Weigh those ingredients!
Use a scale to weigh the flour instead of using a measuring cup – it is much more accurate and will yield superior results. I’ll admit, I resisted doing this for a loooong time. Just do it. You’ll be glad you did and your dough will be more consistent and much improved.
Tip 6: Add oil last
Mix the oil in as the last step, after the flour has all been incorporated. This is important to allow the flour to hydrate properly.
Tip 7: Flour your dough balls
Before tossing or opening your dough balls, flour them *very* well on each side (if you are a beginner) to ensure they do not stick to your counter or pizza peel. I sometimes use a bit more flour after I begin spreading them.
Tip 8: Keeping those rims a bit puffy
Take care not to “degas” the rim of your pizza as you are spreading your dough! Do NOT ever use a rolling pin! There are many different methods to spread/open your dough ball. I hope to add a few pictures someday of this process.
Tip 9: Baking pizza in a home oven
Ensure that your oven is preheated for a sufficient amount of time (about 1 hour) and bake the pizza within 6 to 8 inches of the top of your oven (ie, your broiler) so that the tops browns sufficiently in conjunction with the bottom of the pizza.
Do not place the stone near the bottom of your oven. I made this mistake for too many years.
After your stone has been preheated sufficiently, the heat from the stone will cook the pizza from the bottom and you can switch the broiler on if you find you need more browning on the top (I now use the broiler to bake my pizzas…more on this sometime in the future).
If you find that your cheese is browning well before your rim attains sufficient color, use partially frozen cheese (ie, place shredded cheese in the freezer while the oven is heating up) and cold sauce or you can drizzle just a bit of olive oil on top of cheese.
Tip 10: Use a pizza stone or steel
Use a pizza stone if you have one. The stone with draw moisture out of the dough and produce a beautifully crisp crust. I use a pizza steel because my stones kept breaking.
Tip 11: Use just the right amount of sauce
Do not use too much pizza sauce – it will make your pizza soggy
Tip 12: Find the right kind of cheese
Do not use low fat cheese to top your pizza or pre-shredded cheese (the former will not melt sufficiently and the latter contains additives that prevent the cheese from sticking together and therefore does not melt very well). The best is low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella.
If you must use pre-shredded cheese, I’ve found that adding the sauce on top of the cheese helps with the melting. Also, do not use too much cheese; apply it sparingly so that you can achieve that mottled NY pizza appearance.
Tip 13: Flour your pizza peel
Use semolina or flour on the bottom of your pizza peel to prevent the pizza dough from sticking but be careful not to overdo it because it will burn.
Tip 14: Learn to launch that pizza
Give the pizza peel a few very small quick jerks to make sure the pizza will easily slide off your pizza peel before attempting to transfer pizza to the oven, and more importantly, rub flour into the peel before placing the dough on top.
How to stretch the pizza dough
A nice video (from The GoodFellas Pizza School of NY), showing how to stretch the dough:
Questions? Please see my NY Pizza FAQ
The Best New York Style Pizza Dough
Ingredients
- 6 cups (6 cups) flour, all purpose or bread 28 oz (796 grams)
- 2 1/4 cups (2 1/4 cups) water 17.4 oz (493 grams or mls) Luke cold
- 1 teaspoon (1 tsp) instant dry yeast (3.5 grams)
- 2.5 teaspoons (2.5 tsp) salt (15.6 grams)
- 2 teaspoons (2 tsp) sugar (7.8 grams)
- 1 tablespoon (1 tbs) olive oil (11.8 ml)
Instructions
To mix the dough
- Place water in mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix salt and yeast (and sugar if using) into flour
- Combine flour/salt/yeast mixture into water and mix until all the flour has been incorporated.
- After flour has been totally incorporated, add oil and knead for about 4 to 5 minutes (see note)
- Test final dough temperature, which should ideally be between high 70s to low 80s (optional)
Diving the dough and letting it rise
- Divide dough into 4 equal pieces (using a digital scale if possible; each ball should weigh 11.5 oz [~326 grams]), shape into a ball, and place in greased, sealed quart-sized container or oiled/greased freezer bag and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours (After much experimenting, I have concluded that I like 3 days best but day 2 is good too).
Assembling and baking the pizzas
- The following day, remove your dough balls within 1 hour or less of baking and allow the dough to come to room temperature. (the dough will tend to blister more if the dough has not been allowed to come to room temperature however, I often bake coldish dough without problems, just some bubbling)
- In the meantime, place your pizza stone in oven and preheat at 550 degrees (depending on thickness of your stone and your oven's power) for at least 1 hour
- Open each dough ball using care not to degas, transfer to a pre-floured pizza peel (or on parchment paper), and top with your favorite sauce, cheese, or other toppings.
- Transfer pizza from peel to oven or slide parchment paper onto preheated pizza pan/stone and bake for 4 to 6 minutes each until browned on top and cheese has melted but not burned.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Try these other pizzas and this NY pizza sauce:
Buffalo style (one of my absolute favorites)
White with prosciutto
White with spinach and feta
Pizza sauce
Yvette says
This is the best pizza crust recipe. My teenage nephew is picky about his favorite food, pizza, and he loves my homemade pizza using this recipe. So I taught my sister how to make it, who Hates to cook, and now she regularly makes a large batch of dough and throughout the week, makes pizza and garlic breadsticks from it. The longer it sits, the better it tastes! My nephew is happy and none of us have ordered takeout pizza in a long time, our homemade pizza is better than any pizzeria in our area. So thank you again Marie from all of us, so glad I ran across your website!
Christopher says
The battery in my scale is dead and we all know what a chore it is to find a new one. But I’ve made 2 batches now. First one seemed a bit too wet and hard to work with but cooked beautifully. 2nd one seemed just right but despite long time on stone, little browning and too dense/doughy. Flavor is great though. Any suggestions other than buy a battery?
Marie says
It really depends – how long was it in fridge? did you use the sugar? The sugar really helps the browning and the longer you keep the dough, the less browning because the yeasts eat the sugar up over time. Browning is also influenced by how you bake it – did the bottom get brown but not the top? if so, move the pizza closer to the top of the oven. I always bake within the top third of my oven. You can keep going higher to see if it helps. Doughy maybe it was too thick and not stretched enough or not baked long enough?
Christopher says
Thank you for the tips….reheated my stromboli last night and was perfect so perhaps i just wasnt patient enough. But seriously….this is by far the closest I’ve gotten to Eastern Pa pizza shoppes. The cold rise is the secret. Who knew?
Peter says
Quick question, if I want to half the recipe, should I half all the ingredients? Because 1/2 a teaspoon of yeast seems very little, and the same for some of the smaller ingredients. Thank you
Marie says
yes, half everything including the yeast.
Rebecca says
Just a word of caution: If you use the sliding scale bar to scale the recipe down, it only changes the volumetric measurements in the recipe, not the by mass measurements. I wanted to half the recipe but used all of the volumetric measurements and still ended up with a boat load of pizza dough since the mass measurements never got scaled. Definitely not a bad thing since that just means more pizza!
The recipe is great. It makes a very chewy, flavorful dough even after 24 hours cold proof. I used it with my Breville Crispy Crust pizza maker, which, with the high temperatures, can ruin the texture of less robust dough. This held up amazing!
Rachael Abraham says
I tried this recipe and used a dough hook to kneed the dough. It does not look like my dough has risen much. I probably used the dough hook for 2-3 minutes to kneed and am using my dough 48hrs later. Any thoughts on why this happened?
Marie says
It really depends on the temp in your fridge – I’ve had dough that didn’t rise much and it’s still fantastic.
Lorin says
Stoked to try this out!
How much should I expect it to raise? It’s been in the fridge for about a day and it doesn’t seem to have risen much at all but I’m only used to the “regular” method where it rises at room temp and gets punched down.
Thanks!
Marie says
It really depends on the temp in your fridge – I’ve had dough that didn’t rise much and it’s still fantastic.
David says
I’m sorry, are you saying the cooking time is 4 to 6 minutes only? Is the cooking time based on a cheese pizza only? What if you add sausage on it? Doesn’t the sausage take longer to cook?
Marie says
Yes – keep in mind the pizzas are only 11 ounces each, baked one at a time at high temp, and my toppings are always precooked. You can definitely alter to your needs…and happy baking 🙂
C Silver says
What will happen if I refrigerate this in my mixing bowl without dividing it up? Or divide it into difference mixing bowls and cover with saran wrap?
I doubled the recipe.
Marie says
If you let the dough rise without dividing it, you should probably let the dough warm up at least a little before dividing it so it’s easier to handle. Also let the pieces rest after dividing for at least 20 minutes or so, again do the dough is easier to handle and stretch – If you can form nice round dough balls, your pizza will be nice and round.
Alex says
I’d like to make and use this in the same day. I’ve made it in the past but cold fermented for three days. If I let it rise for an hour or two, punch down, and then let it rise again will that be good enough?
It’s sent this website to friends and family and they really like this recipe.
Marie says
Alex, I’m so sorry I missed your question! Yes, I’ve made this the same day by making it in the morning and, depending on room temperature, letting it rise at least ~3 to 4 hours at room temp (less in winter and more in summer) – of course, not the same as letting it ferment overnight but good in a pinch! if the dough grows too much and you’re not ready to use it, you can always reball it. (link opens in new tab and shows what re-balling dough is)
Tony P says
I would like to make this recipe but I have fresh yeast.. is my conversion of about 1 tbsp of fresh yeast correct? Any other tips regarding using fresh yeast? Thanks in advance!
Marie says
Yes use 3 times the amount of dry to convert so it looks like it would be 1 tablespoon. I can’t find fresh yeast anywhere around me so unfortunately I’m not that familiar with it. You can read more on Red Stars site
Patricia O'Hara says
This recipe is just great. Has worked well for me many , many times with many folks now looking forward to my inviting them for pizza night. Now and then, though, the dough doesn’t show much (hardly any) yeast activity while in the fridge. I try to only lightly grease/oil the freezer bags but it seems to make the dough balls slippery. Is that the problem? Could you flour them and then seal in containers? Thanks!
Marie says
No that’s not a problem. you can flour the outside of the dough balls when you take them out or you could also try sealing them in containers. I would wait to flour them because if you add flour while storing the dough might absorb the extra, and change the ratio of flour to water in the recipe (depending on how much flour you would plan to add)
Erin says
I’m looking to give this a try this week and had a question. I made a different recipe involving significantly more yeast and I ended up refrigerating it simply because we didn’t get around to eating it not because I thought it was a great idea. Your recipe seems obviously benefits better from the slow fermentation based on the yeast ratio. My question is that the dough made with more yeast gave off the most alcoholic smell and I assumed it over fermented but maybe I was way off base. Have you experienced a similar smell with this dough? I tossed the other one and I’d hate to make another one and toss it if I got similar results. You don’t necessarily have to give me any answer as to why it happened I just wanted to know if I could expect that smell with this dough. Thanks in advance!
Marie says
I know exactly what you mean, and no this dough does not smell that way unless you keep it let’s say for six or seven days- then it’s still good as flat bread pizza 🙂
Erin says
Thank you so much for getting back to me. Made the first dough tonight after 26 hour cold rise. I left out the sugar. It was the best pizza I’ve made so far. The crust legitimately was better than pizza places near me. We moved to a more rural area and the pizza is so so. I love using a biga then a cold rise for my hoagie rolls so I love the convenience of using my fridge to let this rise as well. This will be my go to from now on! Also love that you are from Philly! Im born and raised from the suburbs!
Miren Sofia Jordana says
Hi! I really want to try this, however I only have active dry yeast and not instant yeast. What’s your recommendation for alterations in the recipe for that? Thanks so much! 😊
Marie says
Is it active dry yeast? That would be interchangeable with instant …
Fran Dobrowolski says
Best pizza recipe of all! I have trouble stretching my dough so the added video was a great help.
The steps are clear and logical. Closest I’ve been able to come to making the beloved NY Style thin crust pizza!