A New York pizza dough differs from a Neapolitan one in the addition of sugar and oil. The sugar helps feed the yeast during refrigerated fermentation and promotes browning (via the Maillard reaction), and the oil helps tenderize the dough—helpful during the relatively longer bake times of a New York pie.
There are two recipes here. I prefer the one at top, which uses diastatic malt powder in place of sugar. DMP is like a home baker’s secret weapon, promoting a strong rise, rich color, and nice texture. You can rest easy in that it comes recommended by noted pizzamaker and industry macher Tony Gemignani in his book The Pizza Bible. You can buy DMP on King Arthur Flour’s website (if it’s not out of stock) or on Amazon.
The second recipe uses sugar, which most people will have on hand. (If you don’t have sugar on hand, I honestly don’t know why you’re even thinking of making pizza at home, hahahahaha. I kid. Sort of.)
Quantity and thickness
I’ve posted this recipe scaled to make four dough balls, because when I make NY-style pies at home, I don’t get out of bed for anything less. There’s no point. The work required to make four is incrementally more than that for a batch of one or two dough balls. So, either blow it out and have a fun pizza night with family and/or friends, or make a one or two pies one night and freeze the remaining dough for another session.
These doughs are about 325 grams each, which, if stretched to around 13 inches, will make a goldilocks-thick pie. Not too thin, not too thick. Want a thinner pizza? Scale down the recipe.
How to scale it down? Use the handy Expanded Pizza Dough Calculator at Pizzamaking.com.
Using a stand mixer or food processor
If you have a stand mixer or food processor, this dough will work fine there, too, with some caveats:
Stand mixer: Measure dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, whisk together. Measure water into stand mixer bowl(it’s easiest to just place the empty bowl on your kitchen scale, tare the scale, and weigh the water directly into the bowl). Lock the bowl into the mixer base, and add the dry ingredients. Using the dough hook, mix on lowest speed until dough pulls away from side of bowl and starts to “climb” the dough hook. At this point, the mass of dough will have “cleaned” the sides of the bowl and there should be little residue left clinging to it. Continue with Step 7 below. (Note: a Cambro 4L round container is ideal for refrigerating dough during the “bulk fermentation” period.)
Food processor: If your machine has a dough blade and/or dough speed, use those. Weigh out ice water into a pitcher or large, 4-cup liquid measure. Weigh out oil into a small container. Add the weighed dry ingredients to the processor bowl. Give ’em a whirl to blend them. With machine running, add ice water through feeder chute. Next add the oil. Process until dough forms a mass and begins to “ride” up over the blade, about 60 seconds. Continue processing until dough starts to look smooth and takes on a sheen, about 30 seconds more. Continue with Step 7 below.
Freezing dough
If you need to freeze dough, just throw it in a round Glad Big Bowl container and place it in the freezer. It will keep indefinitely. I mean, maybe not a year, but I’ve certainly thawed, risen, and baked a dough a month or two later.
Thawing: Move dough from freezer to fridge the morning before you want to bake pizzas. That should be plenty of time to thaw. Remove dough from fridge 2 hours before you plan to stretch your first pizza. It needs to come to room temperature for easy stretching.
New York-ish Pizza Dough (with Diastatic Malt Powder)
Ingredients
- 788 grams bread flour (King Arthur Bread Flour recommended)
- 12 grams instant dry yeast (IDY)
- 12 grams sea salt
- 5 grams diastatic malt powder
- 496 grams cold water
- 39 grams olive oil
Instructions
- Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together to combine. Make a well in the center.
- Weigh out the water in a separate container and add into the well of the flour mixture.
- Weigh out the olive oil and add to the well.
- Using a dough whisk, wooden spoon, or your hands, begin stirring in the flour from the sides of the well, mixing it in gradually until all the flour is incorporated.
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let dough sit for 15–20 minutes.
- Turn out dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface, and knead until smooth, elastic, and kind of “shiny” looking, about 10 minutes.
- Place dough into a large covered container and refrigerate for 48 hours.
- After the initial 48-hour "bulk ferment," remove dough from container, weigh into four equal portions (no worries if they are a little more or less than 325 grams each), and ball dough. Place dough balls in individual round containers and refrigerate 24 hours more (Glad Big Bowls work well for this).
- Two hours before you plan to cook your first pizza, remove the containered dough from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Stretch and top as desired.
New York-ish Pizza Dough (with Sugar)
Ingredients
- 782 grams flour (100%)
- 12 grams yeast (1.5%)
- 12 grams salt (1.5%)
- 15 grams sugar (2%)
- 492 grams cold water (63%)
- 39 grams olive oil (5%)
Instructions
- Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together to combine. Make a well in the center.
- Weigh out the water in a separate container and add into the well of the flour mixture.
- Weigh out the olive oil and add to the well.
- Using a dough whisk, wooden spoon, or your hands, begin stirring in the flour from the sides of the well, mixing it in gradually until all the flour is incorporated.
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let dough sit for 15–20 minutes.
- Turn out dough onto a clean, lightly floured work surface, and knead until smooth, elastic, and kind of “shiny” looking, about 10 minutes.
- Place dough into a large covered container and refrigerate for 48 hours.
- After the initial 48-hour "bulk ferment," remove dough from container, weigh into four equal portions (no worries if they are a little more or less than 325 grams each), and ball dough. Place dough balls in individual round containers and refrigerate 24 hours more (Glad Big Bowls work well for this).
- Two hours before you plan to cook your first pizza, remove the containered dough from the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Stretch and top as desired.