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.
I made this recipe about 5 times using King Arthur Bread Flour (6.5 cups), and it was always perfect. By far the best crust I’ve used for pizza! However, I decided to purchase a kitchen scale last week to make the process easier. After making the dough using 17.4 oz of water and 28 oz of KA Bread Flour, it was much stickier than it was before, and the balls almost completely flattened in the fridge. The dough wasn’t workable, but ended up tasting alright, even though i couldn’t make the pizza’s as big as I would have liked and had to use a rolling pin to get it bigger than 8 inches.
I tested the scale tonight, and the water seemed to weight out correct. 17.4 oz = about 2.25 cups. However, each cup of King Arthur Bread Flour weighed 5.6 oz, so I actually had only used 5 cups of flour instead of 6.5 when it turned out too sticky. I made it again tonight and used 17.4 oz water and 36.4 oz of flour, and it turned out as firm as it had in the past, and was perfect. Am I missing something, or could my scale be that far off even if it is weighing the water correctly? I’ll just be using 36.4 oz from here on out as the dough is absolutely perfect with the 6.5 cups, but was just curious how I could be off this much from the recipe.
Hi Jason – I’m glad to hear that the recipe came out well using the cup measurements. Here is the master weight chart from KA: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/master-weight-chart.html One cup of their bread flour equals 4.25 ounces. Does one cup water weigh 8.34 ounces on your scale? Either way, the important part is that you found a way to make perfect dough:)
Hi Marie!
I divided the dough in 4 and placed in plastic bags for 2days. When I took them out they hadn’t kept their shape and were in an oval shape. when I tried taking the dough out in was a bit of a gooey mess. At this stage could you reshape the dough back into a ball or should you not do that? and if so what can i do to make sure the dough doesn’t turn into a mess.
Thank you very much!
Hi Marcus – it depends on how “gooey” the dough is. you can certainly reball each portion using a little more flour to prevent stickiness. After you reball each one, you can lightly coat the dough with oil to prevent sticking and put them back in fridge for another day. They won’t (and shouldn’t) hold their shape but they should not be so sticky that you can’t handle them. it’s really hard to say without knowing what you did differently but my guess it either too much water or not enough flour?
Thanks for the reply. When I say gooey I dont mean it was unworkable, a bit flour on it was fine to work with. in fact I made the pizza with it and it was amazing! I just mean when you take the dough out to roll it the pizza, it has no shape. Whenever I see people in restaurants and even your video link above, when they roll a dough its always in a nice round shape. I was trying to roll the pizza out without re-shaping the dough and i was forced into this triangular shaped pizza 😛
Hi Marie- I LOVE this dough recipe! Thank you so much for your blog. For Memorial Day I want to grill individual pizzas. Do you think 16 individual balls would be the right number from this recipe?
Hi Marie:) You’d need about 5 ounces of dough for an 8 inch individual pizza. So, about 50 ounces of dough for 10 pizzas. The recipe I give above makes a total of 46 ounces so I’d say more like 9 pizzas. you can make them a bit smaller – 4.6 ounces each and stretch to 7.5″ each
I was just curious…My oven does not heat to 550 degrees and I do not have a pizza stone…will the pizza cook well on a regular pizza pan at a lower temperature? Thanks!
It will still be good! You can improve it down the road by purchasing a stone..
Wow. Perfect. Hole in one. Easy instructions, I don’t have a scale to weigh out flour, Gold Medal flour worked fine, did Not use full envelop of yeast, DID let the dough chill over night 18 hours, DID sit out get to room temperature little over 2hr. Cookie sheet worked great… Trust me this is Bill Clinton Good Recommendation “choked pig” pesto aoli mozzarella real bacon bits and artichoke marinated hearts diced finished with chopped fresh basil & sour cream sauce(credit to vegasbytheslice.com, right by Mandalay bay resort Las Vegas )
Hi Bob-that topping sounds amazing! I’m going to try it soon. Thanks for sharing the link. Yum!! I’m always looki g for ways to change the toppings up.
Marie, Im having an issue with the pizza Im making. It seems like the sauce gets so hot and the cheese melts so fast it almost becomes a liquid before the crust can fully cook. I took your advice of freezing the cheese before hand and it still seems like the cheese cooks too quickly. Im using a “low moisture, part skim” mozzarella which is the generic store bought cheese. Have you ever had this problem? Should I look for another type of cheese or should I do something different with the oven?
No – I haven’t had that problem. You can also try using cold sauce and maybe you need to lower the shelf a bit if the top is cooking too quickly? It’s really just trial and error because everyone’s oven is a bit different. Low moisture cheese is good to use, otherwise you could really end up with a soupy mess. I tend to prefer whole milk mozzarella as I think it melts much better but that shouldn’t cause what you are describing. You may also be using too much sauce if the top is turning liquid. Try less sauce, cold sauce with the slightly frozen cheese, and if still having a problem, lower the oven shelf a bit.
Problem solved. Thanks! I used less sauce and made sure the cheese was frozen all the way. Once I grated the cheese I put it in a container in the freezer for several hours. Went back and broke it up to make sure I could spread it on the pizza later. The sauce stayed in the fridge until the second I was ready to put it on. Worked great!
Hi marie, How much oil should I really use when mixing a 50lb bag of flour? And how would you add it..Thanks!
Hi Jonathan – I haven’t worked on making commercial-sized recipes. I think that’s a totally different animal, so to speak. A great source to answer your questions can be found here: http://thinktank.pmq.com/
Hope that helps and good luck!
Hi Marie,
After a pizza disaster last night I searched and found your site. Will definitely try this next time. Do you have a specific recipe for the sauce? Mine was too watery.
Thanks
Chris
Hi Chris – I keep meaning to do a post on my pizza sauce – maybe this week:) Please scroll up to my reply to Randy on January 17th to get an idea of how I do my sauce…
Hi Marie
I use to make dough almost same way but haven’t tried proofing in refrigerator, yours sounds great. Planning to try this, I don’t have pizza peel and pizza stone. Instead of that can I use pizza pan mine got holes in the bottom does it work for this recipe. If I am using parchment paper instead of pizza peel should I remove the paper before placing in the oven and is there any time difference for pan and stone. one more thing do we need to cook 4-6 minutes in broil or bake mode.
Thanks in advance
Sure – you can use the perforated pan. The parchment paper can go into the oven if it makes the transferring easier for you. The bake time is in bake mode – the time will vary depending on your oven. Check it at 4 minutes, preferably by peeking with the oven light on, to check for browning.
Im planning on making 8 10″ pizzas for a party this weekend. How much dough will I need?
Hi Sarah – 37.5 ounces of flour, 23.7 ounces of water, 1 3/4 teaspoons of instant yeast, 1 tablespoon of salt, 3.5 teaspoons oil, 2.5 teaspoons sugar (sugar is optional to help browning of crust). Divide into 8 balls, approximately 7.8 ounces each. Good luck! 4.25 ounces of King Arthur flour in one cup; and use this for other brands: http://www.recipesource.com/misc/hints/flour-weights01.html
Thank you Marie! Im also going to make the full recipe above and cut that into 8 -7 inch pizzas for the kids. If I use parchment paper on a cookie sheet, is the cooking temp and time still the same?
Great Recipe! I love how quick it is and love the slow rise in the fridge. It worked perfectly for my busy life with two children under 5. This recipes tastes amazing and the whole family loved it. The only thing I did differently from the original recipe was add the sugar, but next time I’ll try it without just to see if there’s any difference. Thanks for sharing this recipe, it will be one I use on a weekly basis. I can’t wait to try different toppings than the normal ones on this dough. 🙂
I’ve been adding sugar at times too – I don’t find any taste difference, but it sure does give a lot of nice color to the crust after baking!
Please send the recipe and tips to me.
Thanks,
Di
Hi! I just added a feature where you can email yourself a post, which contains the the recipe as well. I hope this helps!
marone- you all forgot the most important part- if leaving out put a wet rung out towel over top the dough to keep it moist. Make sure the bowl is big enough ( I have made that mistake and found the towel stuck to the dough-lol ). Also to make authentic pizza dough from NY/NJ you must add sugar. and I have always done by hand except when making 150 pies at a time. Just let it rise and kneed it on a flat floured surface. Stone/marble/granite works the best. Also all get at bed-bath and beyond and stone pizza kit (about 30 -40 bucks) and put it in your oven and out the pizza directly on it. Yum. Ariate your dough too after flattening- I use a meat tenderizer-gently and take melted butter and paint on the crust ( you can add egg white if you want for browning) and if really fancy stuff crust with pizza cheese. Cheese must have parm-ramono-astigo-mozzella. Kraft makes a sprinkle version of it in refer section. Sergento makes the rest. Bon Apetite
Wow – 150 pizzas! Love the cheese combo u describe..
Hi Marie,
I kneed your help!!
I don’t have a mixer.. How long should I kneed by hand?? Will it work as well?
Is it time to buy a Kitchen Aid Mixer??
Great job on your post and responses.
Leo
Absolutely you can hand knead this…many folks prefer that to the KItchenAid
Hi Marie,
I’m having a party tomorrow night and am planning on make 8 pizzas… and a bunch of other food… So to help with preparation time I was thinking of either:
1) spreading out the doughs in advance in which they would probably sit out for about an hour before being topped and cooked,
2) or possibly even spreading them out and topping them until ready to cook (also possibly sitting out for up to an hour before cooking)…
Is there any issue with doing number 1? Should I cover the dough with anything? Is number 2 ok, or do you think the sauce would make the dough soggy?
I’m also planning on making 2 of them dessert pizzas that I tried at a local pizza place… in which nutella is spread on the dough and then its rolled up and baked. Do you think there would be any issue if I spread the nutella and rolled the pizza and let it sit until dinner was finished before putting it in the oven? It would probably end up sitting out for longer in this case – up to 2 hours…
Also, one last question…. when I take the dough out from the fridge… should I knead it all before or after letting it warm to room temperature?
btw, thanks for the great recipe!!!
Hi Rasha – I would probably cook the dessert pizzas ahead of time if possible. Or you might prepare them ahead and take out of the fridge about an hour beforehand. With regard to the pizzas, you can do as you say but don’t top them (I do think they will become soggy). They won’t be like a true NY pizza, but still good. Yes- I would cover the pizza with plastic wrap until you are ready to use – you might even want to refrigerate them so that they don’t sit out for more than an hour.
And NOOO, absolutely do NOT re-knead the dough when you take it out of the refrigerator, before OR after room temperature. YOu are going to lose all your precious gas bubbles. YOu should take care to open the dough ball very carefully, never using a rolling pin. Watch the video on this blog post for one example of how it’s done.