New York Style Pizza

New York Style Pizza

(America)

makes 1 14-inch pizza

Whenever I long for my childhood in New York my taste buds turn to a New York style thin crust slice.  This variation of pizza is a direct descendant of the original Neapolitan “pie” brought to America by Neapolitan immigrants.  This is the pizza preferred by New Yorkers, the original . . . bought by the slice and handled with a “New York fold”, true New Yorkers would never dream of eating it with knife and fork.  The slices are crisp on the bottom, slightly charred, the next thin layer is soft and chewy and topped with a spicy, cooked tomato sauce loads of shredded cow’s milk mozzarella toppings of your choice and small pools of good quality extra-virgin olive oil.  

                                                                  Prep time:             1 hour 45 minutes

                                                                  Sauce cook time:   15 minutes

                                                                  Bake time:             11 minutes

                                                                  Total time:              2 hour 11 minutes

Ingredients

 New York Style Pizza Dough:

7 ounces warm (105 ° F) water

.16 ounces active dry yeast 

.2 ounces honey

.53 ounces extra-virgin olive oil

10.6 ounces (about 2 cups) bread flour, plus additional for work surface

.16 ounces Kosher or sea salt

note: to make more than one pizza the bakers ratio is: flour=100%, water=67%, honey=2%, yeast=1.5%, salt=1.5%, and olive oil= 5%

Spicy New York Style Pizza Sauce:

8 ounces canned San Marzano tomatoes, finely hand crushed or pureed

1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus some to drizzle

1 heaping tablespoon dehydrated onions

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

standard topping:

5 to 8 ounces cow’s milk mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preparation

New York Style Pizza Dough:

1.  In an appropriately sized measuring cup, combine the water and honey stir to combine.  Stir in the yeast and let sit for about 10 minutes. 

2.  Meanwhile place the flour and the salt into a sifter and sift it into the medium bowl of a stand mixer.  Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the olive oil and the yeast mixture.  Turn the mixer, fitted with dough hooks, to medium (4 on a Kitchen Aid^© stand mixer) and turn it on.  Continue kneading (mixing) until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball around the dough hooks (scrap the sides of the bowl to move flour into the path of the hooks as needed), the dough may still stick a little to the bottom of the bowl but that is ok.

3.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured flat surface (if the dough is really sticky sprinkle with flour until it is just a little tacky) and knead until smooth but still slightly tacky (add flour gradually as needed to reach the slightly tacky state), 3 to 5 minutes.

4.  Lightly oil a large mixing bowl with about 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil the ball on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours*. 

*note: if you are making multiple pizzas, after the dough has doubled in size divide the dough into equal sized portions for immediate use or place each portion in its own resealable bag for maturing.  

Spicy New York Style Pizza Sauce:

1.  In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, bring the olive oil to the ripple state, add  the dehydrated onions, the basil, the oregano, the crushed red pepper flakes**, and the granulated garlic  and cook, stirring constantly, until the  herbs are fragrant, about 2 minutes. 

2.  Reduce the heat to low and add the crushed tomatoes/tomato sauce, stirring constantly until the tomatoes combine with the herbs and begins to caramelizes, about 3 minutes.  Raise the heat and bring to a simmer.  Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt, black pepper, and additional red pepper.

3.  Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes over low heat.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

  

*note:  for more than one pizza increase ingredients proportionally

**note:  if you're not sure of how spicy you like your sauce start with 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes and adjust seasoning during cooking.

Constructing and baking the pizza:

1.  Place an appropriately sized pizza stone on the top shelf of your oven and pre-heat the oven to 550° F or as high as your oven will go, to attain the highest temperature allow the oven to preheat for 1 hour.

2.  Place the risen dough ball on a flat, lightly floured work surface and flatten it into a disk, then with your fingertips and palms, press it into a thinner disk of dough approximately 14-inches round and 1/8-inch or less thick (if necessary use a rolling pin to achieve the thickness [don’t worry if the pizza isn’t perfectly round . . . that’s called “rustica” and it’s the way “real” Italian pizza looks in Italy]).  Sprinkle flour over the surface of this thin disk (this will become the bottom of the pie when you place the disk on the peel in the next instruction).

3.  Distribute some flour over the surface of a pizza peel (this will act as “ball bearings” and allow the dough round to move easily over the surface of the peel) and transfer the formed pizza base onto the peel (shake peel to insure pizza moves freely).  Evenly spread 4 to 6 ounces of the Spicy New York Style Pizza Sauce (depending how “wet” you like your pizza) over the pizza base leaving about 1-inch un-sauced margin around the edge for a crust, now evenly distribute the mozzarella cheese over the sauce* and finally sprinkle a little extra-virgin olive oil over the pizza.

4.  Gently shake the peel to insure the pizza moves freely (if it doesn’t gently lift the edges of the pizza that are sticking and distribute additional flour until it does).  Using the peel slide the pizza onto the stone and bake the pizza until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the bottom crust is well browned (a little charring is good!), about 9 minutes depending on how hot your oven is.  After the pie has baked for 9 minutes turn the broiler to high and broil for 1 or 2 minutes until the crust begins to brown around the edges but don’t allow the cheese to char.  Remove from the oven, slice into 8 wedge shaped slices and serve. 

5.  Return the oven to bake at 550° F and repeat, if you are making more than pie, with the remaining dough, pizza sauce, and cheese.

*other toppings can be added at this time