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.
Excellent. I will never have to pay New York style Pizza ever.
Sorry, but this pizza looks like the old Appian Way pizza-in-a-box and also looks underdone. Unfortunately, you only post 2 similar photos leaving it to our imaginations what actually resulted here with you. What did the underskirt look like? Was a slice stiff and crisp, or did it have some or a lot of flop. Personally, I hate stiff, crispy pizza. I don’t need my pizza crust to behave and sound like a tostada.
I’ve been making pizza for a long time at home with a lot of good and bad results. I do and will keep putting my stone on the bottom rack for up to two hours at 550°. BUT, I do also use the broiler. Home made pizza is not a set it and forget it process, so I rotate and keep an eye on it especially when the broiler kicks in. The type of pizza and the hydration you use are big factors which determine things during the baking. I was shocked that you brought up your broiler yet just gave terrible instructions to simply bake the pizza for 4-6 minutes on 500. I found this lazy of you since you do possess the knowledge of how the broiler can greatly enhance your pizzas!
Recipes like this end up being vague on the whole, as to what you’re gonna get out of the oven. You should consider making videos. They tell the real process and finished results. I recently found a master pizzaiolo who’s a native Italian, Vito Iacopelli, on YouTube. He runs a pizza shop on Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles. His videos have tons of free tips and secrets on making pizza, Neopolitan and thin crust, and I have learned so much from him, especially the use of overnight poolish. I now achieve the style and result I have been searching for and I highly recommend checking him out if you want a much more superior pizza experience over what you’ve been doing at home!
Fine if you had some suggestions, but to call her lazy was really nasty.
Gary, glad you found a pizza recipe that you like…Vito makes neopolitan pizza, which is great but differs significantly from NY style pizza. I like NY style, Detroit style, and neopolitan style (which isn’t easy for many home bakers – I have a Blackstone oven that reaches 800 to 900 plus degrees). Sorry you don’t like my NY style recipe but glad you found something you like. BTW, this is my personal blog and constructive feedback is allowed but I don’t tolerate rude. Thankfully I don’t have to (which is a great thing about having your own blog). And so….if your comments get any nastier they won’t appear here any longer – but I’ll let this stand in case people want a source for neopolitan pizza dough (Vito). I use PizzApp for those doughs which let me calculate a recipe based on what time I need it – it’s great! But it’s not NY style
I could not help but respond to Gary’s post. If you Gary are in such awe of Vito why are you still searching other sites such as this and commenting to boot?? Your negativity and disrespect to Marie is appalling. This pizza dough is great. If you don’t like it or anything about it just move on . There is no need to tell the world how much you have learned from another website. Grow up.
Makes perfect pizza every time! I definitely recommend reading all of the tips and watching the video of how to stretch the dough. All solid advice! Thanks for the great recipe! Everyone loves it!
wish there was a 4.5. The technique of cold raising the dough for several days was new to me and I’m blown away by the results. I’ve made pizza dough from dozens of recipes and this is clearly the best. The only problem I had was, after weighing the ingredients the dough itself was seriously sticky. I kneaded in some flour after a couple of days which helped and while the dough had an incredibly silky quality to it, I think the initial ratio of flour to water was incorrect. It would be great if you had pictures of what it should like. The best pizza I’ve ever made!
Hi Marie, I will be cooking on a big green egg. Temp will likely be 600-700 degrees. Should I remove sugar and/or oil? Also, which flour will be best? I enjoy it more crisp. Thank you!
Hmmm, that’s a tough one. Typically I will use my recipe for pizza up to 550 F and I am currently using just flour, salt, yeast for. neopolitan pizza in my blackstone which reaches 800 F plus degrees. I use Caputo 00 flour When I can find it since it’s manufactured for high heat. I’d say try both (With and without sugar/oil) and see what you prefer – either way I don’t think you can go wrong. I’ve baked my NY style dough in Blackstone and it came out good
I love, love, love this recipe. Is there any way to make it gluten free? Can I substitute in gluten free flour?
Oh I have no idea 🙁 sorry!
Can you add a preferment (Biga) to this dough to give it more complexity? If so would you recommend taking the ingredients to make the Biga out of the total for the recipe? Greatly appreciate your response, thanks!
Sure – I’ve never tried it…for me, the slow rise provides enough fermentation/flavor. It’d be an interesting experiment to compare the doughs
This man will greatly enhance your pizza game. Especially with poolish and biga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhtCfoVY8jk
This recipe tasted amazing and so did your sauce recipe! This was our first time making pizza and highly recommend this recipe.
We weighed every ingredient and the dough balls to the gram. The only question I have is that when we tried to form the pie (like in the video) it kept shrinking back in and was very hard to spread. Did we do something wrong?
Sometimes dough can hard to stretch if it’s not relaxed or if maybe it needs a bit more water – if you balled the dough soon before trying to stretch this could make it difficult, or it can be that you needed just a touch more water (tablespoon or so)….
Thank you so much! I have been looking for a great pizza dough recipe ever since I left America after working in 2 pizza restaurants there. Can you please let me know if you have frozen the dough and if so what is the best method.
Tracey NZ
Optimally you should let us rise in the fridge for one day (24 hours) before freezing but it can go straight to freezer as well. Portion the dough into 4 doughballs, wrap each in plastic wrap, then place them in a larger freezer bag and freeze. The night before or morning of pizza day, remove dough from freezer and place in refrigerator (still wrapped). About an hour or hour and a half before you want to bake, remove dough from refrigerator, unwrap, and place dough on countertop making sure to flour each side of the dough balls very well (dough will be extra sticky from freezing).
Hi Marie,
Just wanted to thank you for the BEST pizza dough recipe I’ve ever found……and I’ve been making pizza for the home for over 50 years……I have made this pizza dough recipe three times already……and each time it gets better. I made a pie last night with a large ball I had frozen for a week or so…..defrosted it in the fridge for 3 MORE days…..etc…..and it was the best so far. In my experience I think that leaving the initial dough for 3 days and 4 is optimum and a must. I let it “cure” in the fridge for 4 days. I’ve been using regular UNBLEACHED all purpose flour thus far….but I just got back from the store and snagged a bag of King Arthurs BREAD flour finally……..curious to see it there is a noticeable difference. Take Care……Gary.
Awesome dough and the video on stretching the dough was a huge help.
How should you freeze dough? Should it go in the freezer after going through the cold rise for 24-72 hours? And how should it be thawed?
Optimally you should let us rise in the fridge for one day (24 hours) before freezing but it can go straight to freezer as well. Portion the dough into 4 doughballs, wrap each in plastic wrap, then place them in a larger freezer bag and freeze. The night before or morning of pizza day, remove dough from freezer and place in refrigerator (still wrapped). About an hour or hour and a half before you want to bake, remove dough from refrigerator, unwrap, and place dough on countertop making sure to flour each side of the dough balls very well (dough will be extra sticky from freezing).
Hello! I planned to try this tonight, but I was planning to use Type 00 flour because I had read that this flour is better for pizza dough. Will this not yield the same results? Should I use regular bread flour instead?
Thanks so much!!
Some people swear by 00 flour and I use it also but only when baking in my Bkackstine oven which reaches 900 degrees…for NY style I use bread or AP flour. Maybe try it with 00 flour and then again with bread flour to see what you prefer…
Hi! We have never been able to make a thing enough crust for my husband, so I’m very excited for this recipe! Thank you also for the video, that is extremely helpful. We are cooking it in a pizza oven insert for our smoker – it gets to over 900 degrees. I will be using 00 flour. Do you still add sugar To your dough when you bake it in your Bkackstine oven?
Hi Tami, I do not add sugar or oil to my dough for my blackstone oven typically but you can definitely do so if you wish. The heat is so high that you don’t need the sugar to help brown the crust in the Blackstone
“00” Caputo flour makes a better pizza. I recently bought a ton of it and what a difference.
Try it, crank your oven to 550, use the broiler, too, and have fun!
This recipe is the real deal. I never made hand tossed home made pizza. This came out so well that the family said no more store bought. Incredible. 7 minutes on a pizza stone at 550. Awesome!
Not gonna rate it until I make the pizza but am hoping it will be yummy. My dough is in the fridge and doesn’t seem to be rising very much. Is that typical?
That is typical yes…
Thanks, I tried it but need to do a better job stretching. Probably had it unevenly stretched and with a super hot oven it was like a messy volcano. It was however a mighty delicious volcano :-). I’m gonna pay much closer attention to the video. Taste and crust texture were fantastic!
I had a few of those in the beginning too!
Can I do half bread flour and half all purpose ?
Yes definitely
This is our go-to for homemade pizza! All the tips are important!