The Best New York Style Pizza Dough and 14 Tips for Success!!
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 late great 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 (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) – this is the big secret. 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
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.
Essential Equipment
Please note that as an Amazon affiliate, we earn a small commission if you purchase a product at no additional cost to you.
I adore my baking steel; it’s transformed my home pizzas into restaurant-quality and better. You will love this! A kitchen scale streamlines measurement with remarkable accuracy, while a pizza peel is essential for smoothly sliding pizzas into the oven. And proofing boxes provide an optimal storage for pizza dough fermentation, enhancing flavor, texture, and elasticity.
Please visit our SHOP page for more recommended tools and equipment to make restaurant-style NY-style pizza at home!
How to Stretch the Pizza Dough
A nice video (from The GoodFellas Pizza School of NY), showing how to stretch the dough:
How to Freeze Homemade Pizza Dough
- After mixing dough and dividing into balls, place dough in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
- Place dough balls on baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (~ 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight).
- Wrap frozen dough balls individually in plastic and store in zipper-lock bags for up to 4 weeks.
- When ready to bake, transfer unwrapped dough into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours before making pizza.
- Bring dough to room temperature for 20 to 60 minutes before baking (less time for hot kitchen/summer and more time for cool kitchen)
Pizza Dough Calculator
Need more dough? Less dough? Try out our new Pizza Dough Calculator to calculate the weights to get it just right!
Have More Questions?
Please See My NY Pizza FAQ
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📖 Recipe
The Best New York Style Pizza Dough
Equipment
- pizza stone or pizza steel for baking
- Standing mixer optional or hand knead
- kitchen scale highly recommended instead of volume measures
Ingredients
Original Recipe for Four 14-Inch Pizzas; want to make more or less? Use the pizza dough calculator
- 6.5 cups (796 g) all purpose flour or bread flour (weighing is most accurate!)
- 2 1/4 cups (493 g) water barely cold water (17.4 oz per 2 1/4 cups)
- 1 teaspoon (3.5 g) instant dry yeast
- 2.5 teaspoons (15.6 g) salt
- 2 teaspoons (7.8 g) sugar
- 1 tablespoon (11.8 g) olive oil
1 Pound of Dough (~454 grams) (use the pizza dough calculator to make more or less dough)
- 2 1/4 cups (274.5 g) all purpose flour or bread flour
- 3/4 cup (170.2 g) water
- 1/2 teaspoon instant dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
Instructions
Mixing 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)
Dividing and Rising
- 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).
Assembly and Baking
- 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
- Use of weight based measurements is highly recommended instead of US Customary. You will need a kitchen scale.
- METRIC amounts DO NOT correspond exactly to the US Customary amounts because, for example, 796 grams equals 6.4 cups (and most can’t measure 0.4 cups or 0.22 cups). Recipe was based on grams.
- Use the Pizza Dough Calculator
- If you want to use the dough the next day, knead a little more (slow speed for about 8 to 10 minutes)
- If you have time to let the dough rest for 3 days, knead for 4 to 5 minutes, low speed or hand knead.
- After mixing dough and dividing into balls, place dough in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
- Then, place on baking sheet lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper, cover loosely with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (~ 2 to 3 hours or up to overnight).
- Wrap frozen dough balls individually in plastic and store in zipper-lock bags to store for up to 4 weeks (longer may work, but results might vary).
- Before using, transfer unwrapped dough into the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours before making pizza.
- Bring dough to room temperature for 20 to 60 minutes before baking (less time for hot kitchen/summer and more time for cool kitchen).
- calculate your own using baker’s percentages: 62% hydration, 0.4% yeast, 2% salt, 1.5% oil, and 1% sugar or use my new pizza dough calculator.
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
Just wanted to let you know that the pizza dough was wonderful!!!! Done on a stone in a gas grill, crispy and tasty! Thanks for the great recipe and tips!
I love to do pizza on a grill too from time to time especially when the weather gets nicer! Glad to hear you liked it!
LOVED this dough 🙂 Thank you so much! still perfecting the rolling out, etc, maybe post a video on how its done?
I’ve been meaning to do this forever! Hopefully, someday..
great thanks the best pizza ever,,,,,,antoni from greece
Thanks, Antonis!
Has anyone tried making bread sticks with leftover dough from this? What would be the best method?
I’ve make bread from this dough and it’s good! Maybe even breadsticks?
I can’t wait to make this dough! I do have a question. Do I have to make with a stand mixer? Can it be done by hand? Thank you.
Yes, it can be done by hand – some people prefer it that way
Hi, my dough has been in the fridge for about 72 hours, I’ve got a few questions
(I used Gold Medal Flour for Bread)
1) What are the implications of too low or too high of a dough temperature after kneading? Mine read about 85-86 after 5 minutes of hand kneading.
2) My dough was not sticky at all. The only other time I made pizza dough, it was impossibly sticky (that dough didn’t turn out).
3) Is it important whether you leave the ziplock bag open or closed in the fridge?
4) Do you have a favorite sauce?
Hi Kyle – too high of a dough temperature usually means that the fermentation will occur too quickly compromising flavor. I’m not sure how much that would affect a cold fermented dough like this one but your temp wasn’t that far off. The NY doughs aren’t really sticky. The hydration (the percentage of water in dough) is simply not as high as other pizza doughs – that’s just the dough style. The ziplock bag should be closed to prevent the dough from drying out and a crust from forming. I’m always experimenting with sauce recipes. I have one on this site that has some good feedback. the most important part is usually high quality tomato sauce (I love Muir Glen or San Marzano. I’ve also used a Cento 6-in-1 that is amazing but hard to find. Hope this helps.
Hey Marie,
first off, awesome recipe. I’ve made this recipe so many times. One question though. I used freezer bags yesterday and one of them wasn’t sealed completely airtight. Does this make a difference?
Hi Morty – do you mean there was a bit of air left in the bag when you sealed it or do you mean some of the bag ripped or wasn’t sealed? If the former, I’d say no big deal. If it’s the latter, I would say it depends on how long the dough was in there. It has never happened to me so I can’t say for sure but if it’s only been a short time, you might be ok. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.
Excellent recipe! How would you modify it if you wanted to use a sourdough starter instead of instant yeast?
I’ve never used starter in this recipe. the only thing you’d need to modify is the amount of yeast but offhand I don’t know the conversion of starter to instant yeast
Love making this. Thank you for the recipe. While pizza parlor ovens have hot surfaces because they are on all day, I don’t like consuming the energy it takes to preheat a stone for an hour. So I use perforated aluminum pizza pans. The perforations don’t allow using cornmeal or semolina to prevent sticking, so I spray a little Pam on them before laying the stretched dough on. Another problem is that even though the pans are perforated, since aluminum does not conduct heat well, the crust is still underdone when the cheese can cook no longer. So after it bakes just enough to stiffen the crust, I slide it off the pan and directly on to the oven rack. The other option is to pre-bake it for a few minutes, take it out on the piel, put the toppings on and then slide it back in on the rack.
I also like a bigger pie, so I use 16″ pans. That requires an adjustment of ingredients. But the ratio is not 16/14 = 1.14. Rather it is 16 squared:14 squared = 1.3. That’s because a pizza is a really cylinder with a radius (r) and a height (h). The volume of a cylinder is pi × radius squared × height. So in a ratio of the volumes of the 16″ to the 14″ pizzas, snce the thicknesses (heights) are the same, all terms cancel out except the squares of the radiuses, leaving 16 squared/14 squared, or 1.31. Here is the ingredient conversion:
Original Mult x 1.3 for 16″ pizza
Flour (oz) 20 26.2
Water (oz)17. 22.8
Yeast (tsp)1 1.3
Salt (tsp) 2.5 3.3
Sugar (tsp)2 2.6
Olive oil (tsp)3 3.9
Thanks for all the great tips, James!
I have Sir Lancelot Hi-Gluten flour would that work better than bread flour? If so how much should I use?
Nancy
Hi Nancy – I don’t think for this pizza. I would use bread flour or even all purpose if you have one with a highish gluten content. Try the bread flour first, and then experiment to see what you like best. Higher protein flours have the potential to produce a really tough crust if you knead too much but if you don’t knead enough you don’t get proper gluten development.
I thought I read a previous post saying if using KA Bread Flour you used more… maybe I read it wrong. Anyway I want to make only 1 pizza 14″ for me and my hubby using KA Bread Flour. Would this be right?
King Arthur Bread Flour 7 oz
Water, 4.35 oz (cool to room temp)
Instant dry yeast, ¼ teaspoon
Salt, ½ teaspoon
Sugar ½ teaspoon
Olive oil ¾ teaspoon
Do you put oil on the dough ball before refrigerating it? Thanks again.. Nancy
Yes, the amounts are correct. I usually spray a quart-sized bag or a small plastic container and then put the dough ball in it.
I have tried to make NY Pizza dough so many time with other recipes and it never works. Going to try yours…. I cut the recipe in half… and adjusted using King Arthur Bread Flour. Here is two questions.
When I put the dough into freezer bags for the frig do I put some oil on the outside of the dough?
Should I take the air out of the freezer bags?
Here is my ingredients:
King Arthur Bread Flour 18.2 oz (about 3.25 cups)
Water, 8.7 oz (cool to room temp) (slightly more than 1 cup)
Instant dry yeast, ½ teaspoon
Salt, little more than 1 teaspoon
Sugar, 1 teaspoon (optional)
Olive oil, 1 ½ teaspoons
Can you post what the ingredients would be for 1 pizza? Thanks wish me luck… been trying for years. Nancy
Hi Nancy – I don’t think the bread flour calculation is correct? Are you making 1/2 recipe of my NY pizza dough? If so, the flour should be 14 oz not 18.2 oz. Let me know what size you want to make your single pizza and I will give you the amounts. My stone only fits a 14 inch pizza, although I’d love to make a larger pizza.
If I’m cuting the pizza dough recipe in half do I cut the yeast to 1/2 teaspoon also? Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Nancy – yes, cut every ingredient, including the yeast, in half. Hope you like it!
It is absolutely perfect. I have made it and it was delicious. Altough, I put some corn in it and it was good. You sould try it! 🙂
Hi Kata – sometimes, I put cornflour on the bottom of the pizza peel and I like the flavor it gives! I did find that it burned though so I stopped using it. Do you add corn flour into the dough? Sounds good!
What would portion of water to flour be if I were using 00 flour. I have a wood fired oven and this flour is suited for high temps. Thanks
Honestly, I would probably search for a Neopolitan pizza recipe. From what I recall, the ideal dough for a wood fired oven is very wet – this dough is not very wet. If you’d like to give it a try, just substitute the 00 for the bread/all purpose and see how it works for you. It’s tough to say because I haven’t used 00 or a wood oven..
I used my normal bread recipe: Sugar and yeast, dissolved in warm water (I call it, “Waking up the Yeast”), once foamy add flour and salt (I also added: Garlic powder, Onion powder and Oregano), knead and add flour as needed until smooth. I forgot the oil. I then put my dough in the frig for two days (nice bubbling on the bottom). I pulled it out to warm it up and it stretched out really nice (using floured surface). I used a non stick 16 inch pan with holes in the bottom instead of a stone @500 degrees. Don Pepino sauce, whole milk mozz cheese. It was exactly like Ny style! I have always used my dough the same day I make it, it is more bread like, the pain of waiting a couple days really paid off, it was perfecto! This “cold rise” method would work well for a baguette as well, or even better, Stromboli!
P.S. I always used 2 1/2 tsp of yeast, I knocked that back to 1 and it worked perfect!
Hi Gordon! I hear ya -I also used to use too much yeast (at least for NY style), and I also love it much better after it ages in the fridge. Baguettes are next on my list!
Hi Marie,
I’m Monica from Indonesia.
You know I really feel happy that I found your website. And I found your pizza tips.
It is really help me to make my own pizza. And with your tips finally I can make delicious pizza.
You’re right with slow rise = much better flavor. I have tried this and this is be the way how I make my pizza now.
My husband and friends love it.
I posted pizza recipe and tips on my blog and link back to your website. But I use bahasa Indonesia. However I have google translate in there if you would like stopping by to see what an Indonesian made with your recipe.
Thanks for your tips Marie.
Monica
That’s great, Monica! That really makes me smile:)
nice pizza and marie you looks nice as well