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
