The Best New York Style Pizza Dough and 14 Tips for Success!!

This NY style pizza dough recipe has been winning over home pizza makers for nearly 15 years, earning rave reviews from professional pizzaiolos and native New Yorkers alike. Many years ago, my own quest for the perfect crust lead me to this tried-and-true formula based on wisdom from the pizza masters at www.pizzamaking.com and the late great Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann. With thousands of successful bakes and countless testimonials from both pros and Big Apple natives who say “this is the real deal,” this recipe continues to help home bakers achieve that authentic New York pizzeria experience in their own kitchens.

Important Variables

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!

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.

Stretching the Pizza Dough

A nice video (from The GoodFellas Pizza School of NY), showing how to stretch the dough:

Freezing the 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)