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
William Cummings says
I have been in the pizza business most of my life. I like trying new recipes, and this one I am planning on using for my personal wood fired pizza. I have set my recipe a side for now and been using this one with a couple of modifications first substitute salt with garlic powder (not garlic salt) , 2 add 1 tsp Italian season, 3rd 1 tsp of Roman cheese. Hopefully, you will enjoy.
Marie says
Hi William, so no salt at all? I’ve never tried any pizza dough or bread without salt…what does eliminating salt do for the dough? I can see how the cheese would add the flavor in place of salt but I thought salt needed for strengthening dough too?
Brandon says
I have a wood fire pizza oven and have cookEd Napoletana style pizza but wanted something more with a crispy crust. My question is what time in the pizza oven should I shoot for?
Marie says
That would all depend on the temp of the oven. Traditional NY style pizza isn’t baked at nearly as high temps as Neopolitan pizza. Using hime oven with a baking steel or stone, I’d shoot for a 5 or 6 minute bake at 500 degrees (12 or 14 inch pizza).
Brandon says
Ok, sorry it autocorrected temp to time. Yeah I would cook the Neopolitan at 750deg + but wasn’t sure for this style in the wood fired oven.
Thanks for your time!
Brandon says
What temp**
Chris says
I really enjoy this recipe. Would replacing the water with beer work to achieve a “beer crust”?
Marie says
I have no idea. I’ve never tried it but maybe a fun experiment?
Germán Díaz Jaramillo says
Marie good morning definitely will try to make that recipe, thanks for that.
Could you please help get the dough calculator seems very helpful, unfortunately the link doesn’t work for some reason.
Once again thanks
Marie says
It could be if you’re using a cell phone…I don’t think it will work unless you use a desktop. Frustrating I know since phone is so convenient. Try from a desktop and print for keeping in your kitchen 🙂
Vince says
Hey!! I’m so excited to make this recipe. But I accidentally bought fresh mozzarella. It’s a ball with some liquid inside. I was going to grate this and use it for my pizza but I looked online and it says it might make the crust soggy because of high moisture.
Any suggestions or should I try and use the cheese in something else and go find the right stuff?
Thank you!!!
Marie says
Personally, I would use the fresh mozzarella to make a capresi salad or maybe use it for baked ziti or lasagna to use it up. I’d probably use low moisture preferably for the pasta dishes but the fresh won’t hurt. I use fresh mozzarella to make Neapolitan pizza which is baked at super high temps (800 f plus) and so the Electra moisture is welcome. For NY style, use whole milk, low moisture (Polly-O and Trader Joe’s are consumer brands that have received high grades for their meltability)
MissyO says
I am excited to try this today! The dough has been in my refrigerator since a Friday morning! Is the dough supposed to rise and get big in the refrigerator?
Marie says
It grows- but typically not a lot maybe 30% or so
Chris says
Best dough recipe I have ever tried! Great job! I did a 3 day cold proof and had 2 left over balls so I left them in for 5 days to proof and they were even better than the 3 day!
Grant says
Hi! I believe you have stressed to be very careful to not disturb the air bubbles within the dough when shaping the fermented dough into a pie because it’ll make the pizza floppy. However, I had this incident where I squeezed the dough back into a ball in my hands to reshape it because I messed up and the pizza actually turned out better than any I’ve baked before. It had this very nice crisp to it and I didn’t do anything else different. That said, I tried to do it again by re-balling the dough but the pizza came out of the oven with a large bubble in the middle of it. Not sure why it worked the first time.
Marie says
It sounds like you re-balled the dough which can give it a nice crisp. I’m wondering if the dough was still pretty cold the second time when you got a big bubble? Baking coldish dough will increase the bubbling
Tabitha says
Can I use this recipe for Stromboli?
I have been using this recipe for pizza for about 3 years now. Have it saved under my favorites. Yet, I have never tried it with Stromboli. Yet I am about to. 🙂
Marie says
yes, absolutely!
Tianna says
The photo at the top. What type of cheese is this or how did you get it like that? I’ve had a pizza near our house that’s made very similar – the flavor is incredible and it looks so simple and minimal, and I can’t figure out why?!
Marie says
It’s mozzarella but some brands melt so much more beautifully than others! I think Polly O and Trader Joe’s get high marks for meltability and make sure to always use whole milk not part skim. Pre shredded cheeses also don’t melt as well…also, I may have drizzled some olive oil with the cheese too, just a touch.
Robin Boddy says
I just tried this dough recipe and I’m ecstatic! We moved from Buffalo NY, where excellent pizza and wings abound, to Kingman AZ, where’re the choices of pizza are bad to abysmal. What a relief to finally have good pizza again! Thanks!
Marie says
Yay! Glad it worked for you:)
Betty Johnson says
I’d love to try this recipe, but the quantity is too much for just the two of us. Can this dough be frozen?
Marie says
Yes you can freeze it or make half the quantity
Wes says
This pizza dough recipe is PERFECT! I have a Breville Pizzaiolo so I have to portion the dough balls into 175 gram portions to make 12” pizzas. I use King Arthur AP flour and get consistent, wonderful results each time. Thank you!
Steve E Schoor says
I have a question. You talk about using a stone or steel to cook with. All l have is a 14 inch cast iron pizza pan. Will my cast iron pan work with your NY pizza dough recipe?
Marie says
Absolutely! I recommend heating up the cast iron pan first and then sliding the pizza into the pan (using parchment paper) or you can try cooking on stovetop and then finishing under broiler
Steve E Schoor says
Thank you Marie. One more question for you. Can l use this recipe for making calzones?
Marie says
Absolutely! I’m not sure about bake time and temp though, it’ll depend on the size of your calzone. I’d estimate baking lower (say 400 degrees) for longer 13 to 20 minute range (start checking them early).
Eliz says
Great flavor and texture…. now to invest in a peel!
Wolfmonger says
Thanks for the great recipe. I continue to hone in my pizza making skills and this recipe has been great.
Wondering if or anyone has experimented with a cinnamon/sugar type dessert with this dough?
Make 3 pizzas and 1 dessert pizza.
Tips on how to spread dough for the dessert style?
Maybe don’t spread out the dough as thin?
Marie says
Yes if I have leftover dough I will fry it and rolls in cinnamon sugar
Marie says
Yes, exactly much smaller plus I personally will fry the dough not bake it. You can even make little doughnut holes if frying
Jeff says
I love this recipe. I have made it at least a 1/2 dozen times…. I use all purpose flour.
Also after the 2-3 day cold rise I have experimented with flour and cornmeal for my pizza peel. I find I prefer the cornmeal dusting better than flour. My gas convection oven only goes to 550 degrees so after I preheat, I make sure to leave that stone in there for an hour at least to maximize the heat. It cooks in about 5 minutes.
Also I have been experimenting with cheeses. Fresh mozzarella, low moisture part skim Walmart pre shredded mozzarella. I’m close to perfecting this for my taste but it just doesn’t ever get a Perfect score. Close! But I am chasing perfection!
I use a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes delallo brand. I add some EVOO to it. Pepper/salt/ some fresh basil. And bring to a simmer for my sauce.
Anywho, this is the best pizza dough recipe out there. Thanks!
Judy Cloeter says
Delicious!!!
Joe says
Fantastic recipe! Excellent dough used Caputo 00 Flour. This is absolutely the go to recipe for NY style crust. Used a meat tenderizer to make a thin crust for my better half, and threw a part of the dough into a pan pizza. Fantastic!
onecheck says
Marie,
The recipe looks amazing. What would you adjust in order to make 2 16″ pies?
Marie says
Try this 🙂
onecheck says
Thanks
Brandon says
I have a wood fire pizza oven and have cookEd Napoletana style pizza but wanted something more with a crispy crust. My question is what time in the pizza oven should I shoot for?