Best Pizza Dough Recipe - NY Style

NY Pizza Dough Recipe

This NY Pizza Dough is the start of an excellent Italian meal

Pizza is one of my all time favorite foods.  What can be better than homemade pizza!   This is the Best Pizza Dough Recipe I have come across! During all of my travels throughout the world, I have not enjoyed pizza anywhere else, as much as I have in New York.  This recipe comes from the Bronx, where I learned it from a friend, when I was a teenager.   He worked as a delivery boy for a pizzeria, and we always liked hanging out with him, because it usually meant free pizza!   This authentic Italian recipes is about as NY as it gets!

Here is a video of how I make the NY Pizza Dough

When I speak to folks who make pizza in New York, they say that the secret is the water.   I am not sure if that is true.  If you feel that your water may contribute to problems making bread dough, you can opt to use bottled or filtered water.  

This recipe is the most important part of a pizza, the pizza dough.  This Pizza Dough Recipe can be used for making not only Sicilian style pizza, but also Napoli style, and other various types of Pizza, like Grandma Pizza pie.

•  1 envelope active dry yeast
•  1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cup warm water (Not HOT!)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semolina flour (May be called Pasta Flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for coating dough

Directions

Dissolve the brown sugar in the warm water

After sugar is dissolved, and water is still warm, add the yeast to the water.   Wait about 15 minutes to see the yeast start to activate.

Note:  If you want to knead by hand, skip the Mixer/Bread Machine section and see the Hand kneading method.

Using a Mixer or Bread Machine

Put the water and yeast mixture into either your bread machine, or heavy duty mixer, such as Kitchen Aid, fitted with a dough hook.   Add the olive oil and remaining dry ingredients.

If you are not hand kneading, mix with your mixer starting slowly.  After the dry ingredients are wet, raise the speed and mix until a nice, smooth ball forms, about 15 -20 minutes with the Kitchen Aid mixer.   If you are using a bread machine, simply use the dough cycle.   If your bread machine's dough cycle has a rise portion of the cycle, end the cycle early, before the rise portion.

Now you should have a dough ball.   Go to the section called Dough Ball.

Hand Kneading Method

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the olive oil to the yeast mixture and pour into the well. Incorporate the wet and dry ingredients to form dough.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough using the heels of your palms, folding it over and over until it is smooth.  Add a little amounts flour as needed until the dough is no longer sticky. Shape into a ball.

Dough Ball Section

Shape the dough into a ball.  Coat with Olive Oil and place in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.    Place in the refrigerator overnight, or age for a few days.  If you don’t want to wait, refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Notice that we did not do the standard rise/punch down. Don't do that for Pizza dough.

Now, you can use this dough to make Pizza, Calzones, Pin-Wheels, Panini Rolls, or even stuffed rolls, such as: Chicken Rolls, Sausage and Pepper Rolls, Broccoli Rolls, Spinach Rolls….    Really anything you want.

I hope you enjoyed making this NY Pizza Dough Recipe!   You can use this pizza dough for a lot of authentic Italian Recipes.