As someone who grew up in New Jersey, but was lucky enough to live all over the world and country, I can confidently say that most places are god awful at making a good NYC-style pizza, which greatly upsets me. Since I tend to approach most problems with an engineering mindset, pizza was an inevitability at some point in my life. What started as an innocent dinner at a new local pizza spot that was just atrocius, turned into an all-night binge of reading forums, sub-reddits, and Youtube series about how to eventually solve this atrocity of an issue.

After a lot of trial and error, I now have what I consider to be a pretty great recipe and process that I would like to share with you, dear reader. I bestow this gift of knowledge upon you… Do not waste this opportunity. Also, you really don’t need a pizza oven, and I did use my regular oven as hot as it could go for awhile - it was just inefficient. But if you are just starting out, I would recommend that route with an ok pizza steel inserted.

Howe to Pizza - New York Style

Dough

Latest Revision = 425-450g dough balls for 16” pies, or 350-400 for bar-style paper-thin pies. I still think I want it to be a tad thicker or airier, but I’ll play with it.

  • 800g bread (I use King Arthur’s high protein found in most super markets)
  • 60% 500ml water
  • 3% 24g salt
  • 1.5% 12g sugar
  • 5%. 4g yeast
  1. Mix water and sugar, add yeast after to make sure it is active (some folks add oil, haven’t tried it yet).
  2. Add flour and salt together in a separate large mixing bowl, once combined, mix wet ingredients in slowly. Once it’s all in, mix the absolute fuck out of it until it’s a lumpy congealed mass that slightly resembles a dough-like substance
  3. Let sit at room temp for 20 mins covered with wet towel to let dough relax.
  4. Knead the absolute shit out of it for about 10 mins, keep hands damp. Add flour if needed, but only you have really developed a feel for what you are going for. Don’t mess with it the first dozen or so times you do this.
  5. If it doesn’t look right, repeat steps 3 and 4 again one or two more times.
  6. Split into individual loaves at desired amount.
  7. Let loaves sit covered in an oiled bowl in the fridge for at least 24 hours (preferably 48-72 but not longer unless frozen).

Cheese

Low moisture whole milk mozzarella. Don’t use part skim or high moisture - it will fuck your shit up. Found Galbani 2x2 packs at BJs that is great, but needs to be nearly frozen or it burns. Kraft and Sargento shredded have been great too.

Sauce

  • 28oz can large crushed cento tomatoes (all purpose)
  • 2-5g salt to taste
  • 2 tsp oregano
  • 1-2 tsp minced garlic (I like raw and it does not overpower the taste, but feel free to cook in oil then cool prior to use)
  • 2 tsp basil
  • .5 tsp black pepper
  • Strong dollop of olive oil
  • Optional 1 tsp sugar - I enjoy it more without it
  • Optional 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • Mix and blend to desired texture (I don’t blend the cento all-purpose ones)

Assemble and Bake

  1. Let dough sit at room temp for 2 hours or so (go like 3-4 if it’s less than 24 hours cold fermenting)
  2. Preheat oven as fucking raging hot as it’ll go (550 for my current piece of shit but really keep it maxed), ensure pizza steel and stone are on the second/third rack from the top for the entire time, and leave heating for at least 30 mins, 60 preferably. We want the stone/steel hot to cook the dough fast, but we want the broiler to hit the cheese simultaneously.
  3. Add semolina to your peel and work station to help with making it not stick, and stretch dough (good luck). Dough should be extremely thin and it should be translucent when you hold it up to light.
  4. Knock off extra semolina flour once stretched
  5. Make sure your oven and stone are ready and do not start your build until you are. You will build on a semolina floured peel to get it into the oven and waiting too long allows the dough to stick otherwise.
  6. Lightly crimp edges to form crust, transfer the dough, and build on pizza peel.
  7. Sauce is average (for the 175g dough, ⅓ of a ladle is pretty good), should still see dough with swirls and hot spots, never run sauce to the crust, leave 1/4-1/2 inch.
  8. Add dusting layer of pecorino romano (and more oregano or anything else you want).
  9. Spread mozzarella and again, leave room to melt and see sauce and dough
  10. Delicately shimmy pizza directly onto steel or stone, close oven, and watch diligently as it should cook in 5-7 minutes (you may need to rotate the pie if oven has hotspots).
  11. Remove, add parm, and let cool on rack for a few mins before cutting and serving. For max NYC taste and texture, place slices on pizza steel and reheat for 1-2 mins before serving.
  12. ENJOY!

Oven Notes

I bought a 16” Vevor Gas Powered Pizza Oven because I got so mad at the regular oven. It’s basically a bootleg Ooni Koda 16 with slightly worse insulation and gas regulation, but it holds temp like a champ. I hacked a cheap door on the front as well to retain heat.

I will pre-heat the stone on LOW for about 15 minutes on one side, then 10-15 minutes on the other side (should read about 600-700 in the back, then 500-600 in the front. Right when I’m about to launch the pie, I will do the following:

  1. turn the oven completely off
  2. wait a few minutes with the door open
  3. rotate the stone, launch the pie
  4. leave the door open
  5. then wait 2-3 minutes.
  6. check on the pie
  7. rotate the pie
  8. then cook for another 2-3 minutes
  9. at this point I turn the burners back on high to broil the cheese for about 30-60 seconds max.

Lately I have been using screens on launch to avoid burning the undercarriage. In that case it’s about 90 seconds on the front, then 90 on the back, then 30-60 seconds on the front and back off the screen. In this case it takes longer but it cooks way better without burning.

For those using a regular oven, get a decent stone or steel, pre-heat your oven as high as it goes (usually 500-550) with the steel/stone in for an hour. The general cooking method is the same, but keep the oven on instead of it being off, and it may take a little longer. The straw that broke the camel’s back for me with regular ovens is just how quickly it drops temperatures, so do not expect to cook multiple pies back to back.

Pan Pizza

I’ll write more about this another day, but I have been playing around with making pan pizzas as well. Best I’ve found is using cast iron pans, oiled to the max, with 350g dough balls at 70% hydration. That should be good for 14” pan pizza. Publix pre-made dough is pretty good for this tbh. Par bake at 450-500.

Fin.