The Best New York Style Pizza Dough and 14 Tips for Success!!
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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)
Pizza Dough Calculator
Need more dough? Less dough? Try out our new Pizza Dough Calculator to calculate the weights to get it just right!
More questions? Please see my NY Pizza FAQ
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The Recipe
📖 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 pizza dough calculator.
That is seriously the sexiest pizza I have ever seen. I want to bite it so bad!! Lol It looks just like Barro’s thin crust pizza (my absolute favorite pizza on planet earth). Can’t wait to try!!
I would love to try this but could you please tell me what the water temperature should be….thanks
I use room temp water (and I don’t take the temp). Because the dough goes directly into the refrigerator and we’re not making big batches, I don’t feel it matters too much. The key is not too hot or you’ll kill the yeast but warm enough to get some activity going during mixing.
In pizza parlor I worked in we used ice cold water to slow down the process rested a bit then we weighed them then panned them up and into cooler to slow rise for next day
How do you imagine a pizza stone draws moisture out of dough?
Not sure if you’re serious, but it’s because stone is porous. See definition below. Make sense now?
From Dictionary:
po·rous
adjective
(of a rock or other material) having minute spaces or holes through which liquid or air may pass.
synonyms: permeable, penetrable, pervious
I made this dough about six months ago although I really liked the flavor, it had almost zero elasticity. The only way I could get it to take shape was to roll it and even then it was way to thick for NY style Pizza. I thought I followed the recipe exactly but I must have screwed something up. Any thoughts on what that could be?
So if you let it rest in the fridge for a few days and it was very early if after you brought it to room temperature, I’d say to try holding back the salt for a few minutes and then add it just before adding the oil if you try to make the dough again. Sometimes it helps to simply let the dough rest and it allows you to work with it. Also try using higher protein all purpose flour (gold medal, King Arthur) instead of bread flour. edit: I just reread your comment and realized your problem is too little elasticity sorry! Perhaps a bit more kneading next time will allow the gluten to develop more and make sure you are adding the salt
The absolute best pizza dough recipe I’ve ever tried. Without a doubt, there’s not even a runner up!
The only thing I do differently: rather than divide the full amount into 4 balls I do 3 – I found that the full recipe split into 4 (or half recipe into 2) yielded either too small of a pizza or too thin of a crust. At least for my novice dough stretching abilities! But split into 3 it was the perfect thickness.
Question though: Is is fine to freeze the leftover dough balls after they’ve already risen the 3 days in the fridge? And, if so, what’s the best plan to get the prepared to be opened again when ready to cook? Take them back out of the freezer and put into the fridge the night before – and then take them out to room temp an hour before prepping?
Yes I freeze and defrost exactly as you describe and usually will place the dough in the refrigerator the morning of or night before the bake.
hi I did this recipe but I didn’t understand the way of temp as z70s to low 80s and how many time should l leave to test before place in refrigerator thanks
I’m not 100% sure I understand your question but I think you are asking how long the dough needs to rest in the refrigerator? I would say at least overnight. The water temp is not so hot that it will kill your yeast but warm enough to start some activity while mixing your dough.
I followed the recipe and directions exactly, including following ALL tips as well as the video for how to shape and stretch the pizza. The flavor was good but it was tough and never really seemed to get brown, although I baked it for 8 mins on 550 and then broiled for 1 min. What did I do wrong?
That’s really hard to say- what kind of flour did you use? Did you weigh or measure the ingredients? How long did the dough ride in the fridge?
Thanks for your quick reply, Marie. I used “regular’ Gold Medal flour and I weighed it versus measuring (Tip #5). Using the weighing method, I noticed that I did not use as much flour as I would have if I had measured it in cups. That being said, I did add additional flour, as necessary and shown in the video, to shape and stretch the dough. I then used parchment paper on top of the preheated stone to bake (fyi). In answer to your other question, I let it rise in fridge for abut 62 hours.
Its so hard to say…how much dough did you use to bake one pizza? The recipe I believe calls for about 11 ounces (14 inch for super thin, 12 inch for thin) in one dough ball, baked within the top 8 to 10 inches of the top of the oven and your stone or steel should be super hot, after a sufficient preheat. My first thought would be insufficient oven temp if your dough is not browning. did you add the sugar to your dough? you can feel free to email me (contact info on webpage) and we can troubleshoot more..
I’m stumped really – did you bake in small batches? How big were your pizzas or pizza and how much dough did you use? Are you certain your oven temp is accurate? Where did you place your pizza stone?
12-14 inch pizza pie don’t push it any further or dough will get holes and leak onto your stone if you can even get it off the peel. My advice is to start with a smaller pizza leave dough a little thicker to you master it Then stretch a little more. I make this recipe into 3 balls. Bigger pies but I got a big stone also have a big outdoor wood fired pizza oven custom built to fit a 18 inch pizza
With your oven, you really have to test the cooking temperatures and tiwm yourself. Manually check if the bottom of the crust is brown and then bring it up to the broiler to brown. At 500-550f, it usually takes me ~2min for my desired color on top and a around ~10min on the bottom. It really just depends.
Futhermore, it depends on your method. If you’re using a stone or steel, then it’s fine to place it in the middle or 8 inches from the broiler. If you’re using a pizza pan then place it on the bottom rack or floor of oven and then bring it top to brown. If you’re using a coated pizza pan then just the bottom rack and you’ll be limited to 450-500f sö that you don’t damage the coating too much.
Great advice! Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
I keep my flour in the freezer, will it make a difference when I make my pizza dough?
I don’t think so because this dough rises in the fridge.
Fantastic dough. I make it weekly and it’s always delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Greetings from Downunder ?
I built a brick pizza oven 18 months ago and have been experimenting with different Store bought and home made bases ever since. I have tried some “secret” recipes from local Italian friends but your recipe is the best. Thanks for your help, my friends and I truly appreciate it.
Just got a kitchen Aid mixer and I’m going to try your recipe for the first time. Any idea how long and what speed I should do the kneading with the dough hook?? Thanks
I would say on low speed
(2 or 4) for about 5 min or so.
Slow speed dough hook is best or you will burn up the mixer
How many 16″ pizza crusts down this recipe make?
In the FAQ section you’ll find a link to a calculator to customize the amount of dough. I believe as it stands this makes just under 3 pounds so almost three sixteen inch pizzas
3
Can semolina or 00 flour be used?
I’ve never tried semolina. 00 flour can be used depending on the protein content. I have used Caputos for bread and pizza with good results
00 is the best its the only flour I highly recommend it and it’s what I use. Best crust its what they use in Italy and my friends place in New York
Just had to comment and say Wow so good. Can’t wait to try it with proper resting and fridge rising.
Used room temperature tap water (not warm).
Did 1 hour raise in oven with just oven light on.
Then 1hour-90 min on counter (cold house, winter).
Stretched and baked and phenomenal!
Thanks for a great recipe.
I only have active dry yeast. How do I handle that for this recipe?
You can use it in place of instant dry yeast. I use 1:1 ratio to substitute for this recipe
When you say 1:1 ratio do you mean? 1 TSP per 1 Cup of Flour or Water? Thanks I’m new to making pizza dough, breads, etc…..
For example, for every 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast, you can substitute 1 teaspoon of instant dry yeast. 1:1 meaning you substitute the same exact amount of one ingredient for another (in this case yeast). I believe this is the only relevant example for a 1:1 substitution in this particular recipe. Does that help?
Yes, I figured that out after asking but thanks for clarifying for with this particular recipe
Add the active dry yeast to the water a minute or so before adding the water to the flour – that type of yeast needs to hydrate first