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 have made this a few times. I confirmed (with an item with a known weight) that my scale is working. When I weigh the flour, it often comes out significantly less than recipe suggests (4-5 cups) and so wet that I cannot knead. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks for helping me seriously up my pizza game!
Oh Wendy, that must be frustrating. I wonder what kind/brand flour you’re using? Are you making sure to zero out the bowl (or whatever container you’re using) before weighing flour? email me marie at feelingfoodish dot com and we can chat more
How sticky/tacky should the dough be when transferring it to frezzer bags?
try letting it sit for a few minutes and then folding it over into a ball – if that doesn’t help, use cooking spray on your hands and in the bag to prevent sticking. It’s hard to visually describe the dough.
Just need to thank you for this recipe! We use it 2 or 3 times a month for the last several years! We love it. Thanks! Also, thank you for the jump to the recipe feature 😘.
Would it be ok to make this on a pizza stone on the grill? Or does it really need that top broiler? Has anyone done this?
I usually do this by grilling pizza dough a few mins directly on clean grates and then flipping, topping and continuing to cook til done. if using a stone you must first make sure it can tolerate the high heat of the grill, elevate it (using a wire basket or empty cans), and then grill pizza after preheating your stone. In my experience if you place the stone directly on the grates the bottom of the pizza will cook much much faster than the top.
No mucking around…
This is the best recipe for homemade pizza dough. No arguments. The best. Period.
I should have written a review of this sooner because I’ve been making this for quite a while now after discovering this page. It’s just simply awesome, My wife, kids and everyone I’ve made this for has said that it’s streets ahead of pizza from the local pizzerias or the chain pizza delivery outfits.
One of the best recipes I’ve ever found, it’s magic.
Thanks Marie!
QUESTION: I’ve let the dough rise over night and then divided (I know your recommend dividing first). I’m concerned that (a) the dough feels very dense compared to other recipes and (b) each of my 4 dough balls weighs closer to 20 oz. Have I messed something up? I’m using KA All Purpose and I used measuring cups instead of weighing… Thank you!
Hi Bill, hmmmm…it sounds like something might be wrong. Each dough ball should be around 11 ounces – did you double the recipe?
I used this recipe to make pizza dinner for my family. It has been the best pizza crust I have made to date ever. I grew up in NY and had been eating NY style pizza since childhood. The crust was very comparable, however it was dry compared to NY style pizza. Also I oiled the dough for the second pie, and that helped it to cook better. I will tweak it next time, and possible add more oil to the pizza just before it goes in the oven to get the oily NY style pizza.
Thank you for such a lovely recipe and not keeping it a secret. It’s no longer a gamble on which recipe I will use next time. This is the one.
I don’t think I have ever in my life commented on a recipe blog post but here we are. I HAD to come back once I made this dough because it was literally PERFECT. I have been making 2-4 pizza dough balls every week for the last at least year. I can NEVER get it to come out how I want it. I have tried every recipe under the sun for sourdough, non-sourdough, neapolitan, etc, etc. Finally I found this page. Made the dough on Sunday, and cooked it today (Thursday) on a baking steel preheated to 550 for 1 hour. HOLY CRAP it was AMAZING. Thank you so much to the author, this is for sure my go to recipe from now on!! I wish I could attached some photos here.
I’ve been experimenting over the last few years with different pizza dough recipes in a search for the “perfect” New York style thin crust. This one sounds like it might be the one to settle in on. I’m anxious to try it.
Can “OO” flour be used instead ?? So many other authentic New York style recipes I’ve read about call for “OO” flour.
You can – sure. The brand that I buy (Caputo) is formulated for high heat so I don’t personally but you can try it both ways to see what you prefer. Some recipes even mix the flours 50/50
I didn’t use any scale or thermometer but this turned out perfect the first time! Thanks so much for this recipe! It’s my go-to recipe from now on whenever I am craving for authentic NY style. It’s chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside and foldable. I used parchment paper on my pizza steel with no problems, baked it on the 2nd rack from the top for 6 to 8 mins.
I used your pizza sauce recipe as well and it was awesome!
🙂🙂🍕🍕🎉🎉
I’ve never posted a review before but this was soooo good I had to. I love to cook and more specifically, I love to cook from scratch. I’ve made lots of pizza dough in my life and most have come out ok. This was the most authentic NY style pizza dough recipe I have found. I let the dough rise in the fridge for 3 days as suggested and used unbleached bread flour. There were no left overs. It was that good! I froze one ball of dough as a tester to see how it comes out. This is my new go-to pizza dough. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I’ve made this once before and my family loved this recipe. I had major issues transferring the pizza to the oven. I read that you can use parchment paper. The box says it is good to to 440° but this recipe is for 550°.
Do you have any suggestions on a temp/time difference? I’ll be using a cast iron pizza pan is that makes a difference.
We’re planning to make pizza tomorrow and then with the remaining dough make calzones Wednesday 😀
Other than practicing with a floured pizza peel I’d say stick to the parchment – according to Cooks Illustrated You can use up to 500 degrees which is a good temp to bake
Look no further for a pizza recipe at home ! I have tried several and this is the best. I only let it rise in the fridge for 24 hours because I was too hungry to wait for 3 days. But I still have a dough in the oven which I will use later. . And it Was the softest dough i have ever tasted. I used a toaster oven 220 degree. Celsius.
Thank you
My older brother found this recipe and made it for us when he visited and we all fell in love with it (we had been making yeast free pizza during the beginning of this pandemic because we couldn’t find yeast anywhere. It was good but gosh this pizza is far superior). We’ve been making this recipe every week/every other week.
We don’t have a pizza stone so we just drizzle some olive oil onto a baking sheet and cook our pizza on the grill since it’s still a bit too warm to use the oven. Takes about 10-15 mins or so to make it nice and crispy. However I’m curious…the first few times we’ve had the dough rest in the fridge for 3 days, the olive oil is fine/normal, but today I see that it’s kind of congealed? Is this normal? I’m assuming it’s still fine to use if I knead it a bit?
Hi Liz, glad to hear you like it! About the olive oil, it will congeal when refrigerated and unless it tastes bitter or sour it should be fine
We loved the recipe! Is there a way to make this for 12 inch pizzas instead of 14? It was delicious but we have a 12 inch pizza stone so hope there is a way to easily adjust?
Hi! I got your email and I think I was confused…you can simply stretch the dough out less (and end up with slightly thicker pizza) or use the link to the dough calculator (see notes in recipe card) using the bakers percents listed (see notes in recipe card). Also note that I believe the dough calculator link can only be used on a desk top or laptop computer (no mobile)
Perfect! Thank you!!
I adjusted the recipe for 12 inch pizzas to get 5 dough balls. I increased percentages 33%.
1058 grams flour
655.69 grams water
4.655 grams yeast
20.75 grams salt
10.374 grams sugar
15.69 ML Olive Oil
Each Dough Ball about 279 grams
I’m from Pakistan, been to NY so many times and every time I am there I try their Pizza, here in my home country pizza is different since it has a lot of local fusion and they like thick crust. But after trying your method for the dough the Pizza was spot on as I wanted.
My kids and wife loved it.
Thank You.
I adore this recipe and have shared this recipe and link 100’s of times! I’m from NJ so it’s hard to get this in MD. Now we just make it at home. Always a hit. Thank you so much to doing this. It’s been so awesome! Perfect balance of science and steps to do at home. So good!!!