Making New York-style pizza dough is achievable when you have the right ingredients, tools, and follow the proper steps for mixing, kneading, and rising. With patience and attention to detail, you can create a thin, chewy crust that’s perfect for your favorite toppings. Perfect for making Homemade New York-Style Pizza!
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🍶 The Ingredients
Using the right ingredients is crucial for crafting authentic New York-style pizza dough, ensuring the perfect balance of flavor, texture, and chewiness. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and variations) below.
👉 More About the Ingredients
- Flour – Nothing is more important than using the right flour. All-purpose won’t work. Seek out a high-gluten (high-protein) flour. We use High Power Flour (Pendleton); however, this comes in a large 25-lb bag. King Arthur High-Gluten flour is a great option.
- Diastatic malt powder – This will help you get a nice brown on your crust. This is ideal when using a conventional oven at 500 to 550°F. If using a pizza oven (850° to 900°F), no need to use it. We use Baker’s Club.
- Yeast – Regular Active Dry Yeast is recommended. We want the yeast to feed on the sugar in the flour slowly. This will result in a better-tasting crust with exceptional structure. Instant Yeast is not recommended.
See the recipe card (with video) below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Expert Tip
Be sure to check the date on your yeast. And then when you add the water, if the yeast rises to the top, it’s dead. You’ll need to discard the yeast and get new, fresh yeast. This is critical for achieving perfect pizza dough.
⚖️ The Tools
Having the right tools is essential for making perfect pizza dough with the ideal texture and crispness.
- Digital scale – Necessary for measuring the exact right amount of flour. Weighing ingredients is much more precise than measuring by volume.
- Palm scale – You’ll need this for weighing yeast and other ingredients. It should register to 0.01 grams.
- Stand mixer – You can knead the dough by hand (from start to finish), but a stand mixer makes life much easier.
- Straight-edge dough cutter – This is also called a “bench scraper.” It’s perfect for cutting the dough evenly and cleaning your counter.
- Round-edge bowl scraper – This makes getting the tacky (sticky) dough out of the bowl so much easier.
- Half sheet pan – Or, two quarter sheet pans.
- Extra-Wide Plastic Wrap – Extra wide makes wrapping the dough in the pan easier, but regular size works well, too.
- Tape Measure – For ensuring your pizza dough is 13 inches in diameter.
- Large Rectangular Pizza Steels – You’ll want two of these. Large pizza stones work, too.
- Extra-Wide Pizza Wheel – This makes getting the pizza in and out of your oven much easier.
- Rocking pizza cutter – A pizza slicer is perfectly fine, but the cutter will give you more precision when slicing the pizza.
Something to Consider
All of these tools are investments that you will use repeatedly throughout your pizza-making life. They are not that expensive, and a lot less money than an actual pizza oven!
👩🏼🍳 How To Make Pizza Dough Poolish (Starter)
- Step 1: Whisk the yeast in a small bowl with the warm water.
- Step 2: Add the flour to the yeast/water mixture.
- Step 3: Use a rubber spatula to incorporate the flour into the yeast water.
- Step 4: Cover and let rest at room temperature for 18 hours.
👨🍳 How To Make Pizza Dough in a Mixer
- Step 1: Whisk the yeast in a small bowl with the warm water.
- Step 2: Combine the flour and malt in the bowl of a stand mixer and slowly add the ice water with the dough attachment.
- Step 3: Add the yeast water and mix for 15 seconds.
- Step 4: Mix in the poolish for 1 minute.
- Step 5: Mix in the salt and mix for another minute.
- Step 6: Mix in the oil for 2 minutes.
Expert Tip
The poolish will be very tacky, even sticky. Dip your fingers in the cold water and then use your wet hands to transfer the poolish from the bowl to the mixer.
🧑🏾🍳 How To Make New-York Style Pizza Dough
- Step 1: Use a bowl scraper to remove the dough from the bowl.
- Step 2: Knead the dough on an unfloured surface for 3 minutes.
- Step 3: Cover with a damp kitchen towel for 20 minutes.
- Step 4: Divide the dough.
- Step 5: Form the dough into smooth balls by stretching the dough up (or down)on the sides and then sealing.
- Step 6: Place on a sheet pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours.
👉 You are now ready to make New York-Style Pizza!
Ready to make the best pizza dough this side of Central Park? Go for it!
And when you do, be sure to take a photo of it, post it on Instagram, and tag @HowToFeedaLoon and hashtag #HowToFeedaLoon!
New York-Style Pizza Dough
This New York-style pizza dough recipe highlights the importance of using the right tools and quality ingredients to achieve the perfect texture, while allowing a 72-hour fermentation for authentic flavor and chewiness. The result is pizza perfection!
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Servings: 4
Calories: 471kcal
Video
Equipment
- See blog post for complete list
Ingredients
For the Poolish (Starter)
- 0.12 grams active dry yeast one-third of ⅛ teaspoon
- 47 grams cold tap water 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
- 47 grams high-gluten flour ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons
For the Dough
- 2.2 grams active dry yeast ¾ teaspoon
- 70 grams warm water 80 to 85°F, ¼ cup pluse 1 tablespoon
- 453 grams high-gluten flour 3½ cups
- 10 grams diastatic malt powder 1 tablespoon plus ¼ teaspoon
- 210 grams ice cold water ¾ cup, plus more as needed
- 80 grams Poolish
- 10 grams fine sea salt 2 teaspoons
- 5 grams extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp
Instructions
Make the Poolish (Day 1)
- Add the yeast to a small bowl and then add the cool water. Whisk vigorously for 30 seconds. The water should look murky. If the yeast granules float on top, the yeast is "dead" and should be discarded. You'll need to begin again with fresh yeast.0.12 grams active dry yeast, 47 grams cold tap water
- Add the flour and stir with a rubber spatula until fully incorporated. The consistency will be thick and resemble thick pancake batter.47 grams high-gluten flour
- Scrape down the sides and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature for 18 hours.
Make the Dough (Day 2)
- Weigh all the ingredients out first (heat the warm water just before adding to the yeast).
- Put the yeast in a small bowl and then add the warm water. Whisk vigorously for 30 seconds. The water should look murky. If the yeast granules float on top, the yeast is "dead" and should be discarded. You'll need to begin again with fresh yeast.2.2 grams active dry yeast, 70 grams warm water
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour with the malt powder using the dough hook attachment.453 grams high-gluten flour, 10 grams diastatic malt powder
- Remove 2 tablespoons of the ice-cold water (you'll use it soon). Turn the mixer on its lowest speed and then pour the ice-cold water (except for the 2 tbsp) into the flour/malt. Next, pour in the yeast/water mixture. Pour the reserved 2 tablespoons of water into the yeast water bowl and swirl it to dislodge any yeast that might be stuck to the bowl. Add it into the mixer. Mix for 15 seconds.210 grams ice cold water
- Stop the mixer, wet your hands with the cold water, and use your wet (clean) hand to transfer the poolish into the mixer. Mix on the lowest speed for 1 minute.80 grams Poolish
- Stop the mixer and pull the dough away from the attachment. Sprinkle on the salt and then lower the attachment and mix on low for another minute.10 grams fine sea salt
- Stop the mixer, pull the dough from the attachment, and add the oil. Lower the attachment and mix on low for 2 minutes.5 grams extra virgin olive oil
- Use a bowl scraper to transfer the dough to an unfloured surface. Knead the dough by hand for 3 minutes, until smooth (it will be a little sticky). Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for 20 minutes.
- Use the dough cutter (bench scraper) to cut the dough in half. Weigh the dough (you'll need 13 to 13.5 ounces). You may have extra dough.
- Working one dough ball at a time, use your hands to pull the sides of the dough either up or down, smoothing the dough as you work. Seal the dough at the end with your fingers, and repeat this process four or five times, until the dough is very smooth. Repeat with the other dough ball.
- Place the dough balls on one large sheet pan, or one each on a quarter sheet pan. Cover with a double layer of plastic wrap and then refrigerate the dough for 24 to 48 hours.
Notes
NOTE: Watch the video near the top of the recipe for visual guidance.
Read through the blog post for important information about tools, ingredients, and other essential steps for making successful pizza dough.
Weighing the ingredients is highly recommended.
You may need to very lightly flour your hands to form the balls of dough if it’s too sticky. You can also wet your hands with water to help you form the dough balls.
The starter (poolish) is sticky. The best way to transfer it from the bowl to your stand mixer is to wet your fingers and then use your hands to remove it from the bowl and place it into the mixer.
You can freeze the dough after you’ve formed it into balls. Place the balls on a small sheet pan and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before proceeding with the recipe.
Nutrition
Calories: 471kcal | Carbohydrates: 88g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 969mg | Potassium: 6mg | Fiber: 4g | Vitamin C: 0.003mg | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe? Take a Picture!Mention @HowToFeedALoon or tag #HowToFeedALoon!
NOTE: This recipe is from the brilliant pizza master Tony Gemignani and his award-winning book, The Pizza Bible.
DonD says
Hi Kris & Wesley, I made this dough recipe and it is absolutely the best pizza dough ever! If anyone is looking for a authentic NY dough recipe, stop looking because this is it. This makes the best crust ever. The taste is fantastic. This is the only pizza dough recipe I’m ever going to use from now on. My search is over. Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe.
Kris Longwell says
Yay!! You have no idea how happy this make us! When we published it, we weren’t sure if folks would be worried about the time commitment. But like you said, it’s not bad at all, you just have to plan it! Thanks so much for sharing and for the amazing review! That means the world to us!! Keep on making pizza!!!! xoxo