New York Style Pizza Dough Recipe

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A New York Style pizza dough is characterized by a light and thin crust with slight toughness or pull to the bite. The perfect New York crust has very airy pockets and folds in half without cracking. This style is easy to get close to but tough to master. Some say the New York City tap water is the key ingredient to making this famous crust texture that is so rarely found outside of NYC.

The following recipe makes enough for one 12″ pizza crust. If you need more than one dough you multiply the ingredients for as many as you need.

Ingredients

Yield: 1 – 12″ Pizza Dough
Serves: 1 Person

	%	Weight*	Volume
Water, cool	69	85g	2.75 ounces
Active Dry Yeast	1	1.25g	1/4 teaspoon
Sugar, granulated	3	4g	1 scant teaspoons
King Arthur Bread Flour	100	125g	1 level cup
Vital Wheat Gluten (optional)	1.5	2g	1 teaspoons
Salt, kosher	1.5	2g	1/2 teaspoon
Olive Oil	4	5g	1 teaspoon

* Use volume measurement for anything under 10 grams for digital scales measuring in 1 gram increments as measuring 5 grams on a 1 gram accuracy scale leaves you with a 20% possible variance at best.

Tools Used

Directions

Mix cool water, sugar and yeast in a medium bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes until dissolved.
Mix bread flour, salt and vital wheat gluten together thoroughly in separate bowl.
Add flour mixture to top of water along with olive oil.
Mix all ingredients with spatula until incorporated with no clumps of dry flour.
Cover and let rise at room temperature for one hour.
Remove the dough from the bowl. Stretch and fold in half twice. Repeat this 2-3 times more until the dough won’t stretch easily without tearing.
Place back in bowl for 20 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
Divide dough into 225g portions if you double the recipe at this time.
Remove the dough from the bowl again and create the final shaping of the dough ball by gently stretching the sides of the dough ball toward the bottom to create a taut surface around the outside of the dough ball with the seam being pulled to the bottom and pinched together.
Lightly coat the dough ball in flour and lightly flour the bottom of a proofing container. Place dough, seam side down, into the container and cover.
Refrigerate dough in container for one to three days.
See article on Forming a New York style Pizza and Topping a New York style Pizza for photo instructions.

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Nick B

If making this dough with Crisco, would the same amount (15g) be sufficient?
- http://www.brianyork.net/ Brian York
  
  Hi Nick.
  Yes 15 grams would be sufficient. Which should be one level tablespoon. However using Crisco is not the same as oil or butter fats. More closer to margarine. It also doesn’t contribute to the flavor. Feel free to try it but if you are asking this because you don’t have olive oil (or butter) then you can also just omit the fat altogether. If you do use the crisco warm it a bit so its more of a liquid when you add it otherwise it will act more like crisco / butter in biscuits / croissants making it somewhat flakey. Liquid fat evenly combines were as solid fats will not unless melted. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
  
  Thanks for giving this a shot! Would love to see how it turns out. Hashtag it with #thehomepizzeria
  - Nick B
    
    Hi Brian,
    
    Thank you for the feedback…I had already started to make it with olive oil so I followed the normal instructions. I really appreciate that you provided the weight amounts (made it much easier). The dough came out excellent but I need to work on the sauce and topping setup next. Is there a good spot for putting the dough in the fridge? I started late today and had to rush the dough (I basically halved the rise time and adjusted a bit by keeping the dough in the oven (Pilot light keeps it warmer).
    - http://www.brianyork.net/ Brian York
      
      Using weights is the only way to go! I’ve heard people try to use excuses like “you get a feel for it so scales aren’t that important”. However the dough with ingredients weighed on a scale can always feel slightly different initially but in the end it turns out exactly the same at which point is too late to start adding flour or water to get the right “feel”. Weights = consistent. As for the refrigeration or dough retarding. You can put it in there any time. I’m working on a new super simple dough method which calls for mixing the dough completely and letting it sit for 30 minutes covered. Folding it over on itself 4 times or so. Then refrigerating it. Once you pull it out the next day or two let it sit for about 45 minutes to warm up. Fold to shape your ball. Then let it rise about another hour till proofed while the oven preheats. So the short answer is you can put it in the fridge anytime after the first half an hour and get a consistent cool fermenting. Just make sure to take it out about 2 hours before you are going to bake it (approximately)
      - Nick B
        
        Great, I hope it’s throwing the ingredients into a Kitchen Aid and running it on low for some time…my kind of a recipe
      - http://www.brianyork.net/ Brian York
        
        Pretty close. I’ll reply to this thread when it goes up!
Nick B

I am making the dough again to fix my sauce error and I had a question regarding the 15 minute wait times. Since I’m using a KitchenAid with a dough hook…Can I just knead it on the slowest speed during those 15 minute intervals and the additional 5? Or would that break down things too much?
TS

Hi Brian first off awesome site! If you could I have a few quick questions? Regarding the Baking Steel product why would one purchase the 1/2 inch vs the 1/4 inch? Does it produce different or better results? Next I have used both fresh mozzarella(submerged in liquid) and also good quality whole milk mozzarella from Trader Joes and it seems the fresh made the pizza kind of soggy. Any suggestions? Finally should I let the pizza dough rise first one time before putting in reffrigertor overnight or does it not matter? Thanks again
- http://www.brianyork.net/ Brian York
  
  Thanks TS! Wonderful to hear.
  
  The Baking Steel Thickness:
  The thicker baking steel takes longer to heat up but retains more heat. I opted for the 1/2″ because I occasionally end up making 5 – 10 pizzas in a night. This gives me the ability to cook three pies in a row without a real need to let the Baking steel heat back up again. I have no scientific data on this as to the exact changes but I would estimate that the 1/4 would be good for two pizza’s back to back then it would need to let sit in the hot oven for 15ish minutes before using again just to ensure its came back up to the temperature of the oven. I did four in a row with mine when I first got it and the fourth didn’t get any color on the bottom, meaning that the cold dough had sucked enough heat out of the stone that it wasn’t over 350°F anymore. Now in this instance the next pie I added was about 20 minutes later with the oven at 550°F and it came out perfect again. The thicker baking steel does take longer to heat up so if you may very rarely cook more than two pies or don’t mind waiting 10-15 minutes between the 2nd and 3rd get the 1/4″ as it will save you some energy on the preheat and time. I let mine preheat for 60-75 minutes at 550°F before using. If you could cut that down to 45 minutes with the 1/4” over the course of 100 preheats that would be a decent savings in electric or gas (25-50 hours). Also another thing to keep in mind, if you plan on moving the baking steel in and out of the oven much consider the 1/4 as the 1/2 is much heavier. Mine, a custom 17×17″ weighs 45ish lbs. It’s a beast to get in and out of the oven and my toes and downstairs neighbor are always scared for their life
  
  Watery Mozzarella:
  I ran into this issue a few years ago with this fresh mozzarella I was getting from the deli which was sitting in water. One trick I found was to let it sit wrapped in a paper towel (still whole) or lay the slices on a paper towel until it’s fully saturated. That should pull out enough to avoid the situation. Lately I have been using either Whole Foods or the mozzarella that comes in the flexible plastic packing to avid this. However fresh mozzarella does have more moisture than the deli mozzarella but varies by brand. Try using a bit less by weight and don’t put much in the center where the close cuts will be. I also let mine cool for about two minutes before cutting. Let the cheese solidify back before cutting. Another option is to have a cheese cloth triple layered and wrap the ball of mozzarella cheese in it and start twisting the end until you squeeze out excess water.
  
  Proofing Before refrigerating:
  So there is ten billion ways to go about this. However I don’t let mine do a full rise. Really just hydrate and it does rise a little bit in the process. Maybe 20%. The thing I like about the fridge is it gives you a controlled temp unlike “room temperature” as 67°F vs 77°F is a huge difference in how yeast proofs and the time it takes. I have stuck with a 30 minute rise time, stretch and fold in half 4-5 times, then into the fridge. This gives me consistent reproducible results in the home without having to do any guess work. When you take it out 24 hours to a few days later. Let it warm for a bit (divide if doubled the recipe) shape into a dough ball, turn on your oven, and let it rise till its double / triple the size.
  - TS
    
    Brian thanks for your very thorough and timely answers. I definitely like your reasons behind the 3/4 size. There is also another thing I am wondering about which is cooking your sauce. Currently I am using a sauce recipe from Cooks Illustrated which is uncooked(pretty good) but does a cooked sauce like the one I found on your website have more flavor do you believe? Maybe I should give it a shot. Thanks again
    - http://www.brianyork.net/ Brian York
      
      I have have an uncooked sauce too.
      
      http://www.thehomepizzeria.com/recipes/san-marzano-tomato-pizza-sauce-recipe/
      
      They are different, one isn’t better than the other really. I do a variety of things with tomatoes for sauce though. I also love roasting tomatoes with salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil. Plum or cherry tomatoes. The key is to really try different things and see what you like best. Definitely try it and let me know what you think. If you want a really great tomato sauce find some Mortgage Lifter or Mr. Stripey tomatoes grown from someone’s garden south of about 40°N Latitude. Thats pretty much heaven.
      - TS
        
        It is funny you mention that because my wife and I have a friend who has an incredibly green thumb with an amazing garden. I believe she grows Mr.Stripey for some reason I remember her mentioning to us. Maybe she also grows the other one as well. Thanks again I hope your site is a huge success as I have now bookmarked it and will tell others that I know.
      - http://www.brianyork.net/ Brian York
        
        Hopefully you can get some and I greatly appreciate any sharing! Thanks
vj2651

Is there any kneading involved?