New York-Style Pizza Dough

Dissolve sugar into the warm water and stir in yeast. Weigh flour into mixer bowl and stir in the salt. When bubbly, pour yeast into the flour and stir with the dough hook on low until fully incorporated. Cover and rest 30 minutes. Add olive oil and knead for 9 to 12 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and let dough rise for an hour or so.

Divide dough in half, forming each half into a ball. Brush lightly with oil, and place dough balls into sealable containers (at least 1½ quarts each). Refrigerate 24 to 48 hours.

Turn a dough ball out onto a floured surface. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to come to room temperature, about 1 to 2 hours. (If you have a very cold refrigerator, the dough may need to rise a few hours more.) Place a pizza stone in the middle of the oven. Pre-heat to 475° F for at least 30 minutes so that the stone can get sufficiently hot.

Start lightly pressing a ridge for the crust around the dough’s circumference. Use fingers (not palms) to press into the center of the dough, starting to flatten and stretch it. Flip the dough over and continue stretching with just the fingers. Pick up the dough and gently toss between hands, rotating the dough, letting gravity stretch it. Keep flipping and stretching the dough until the disk reaches the desired size.

Generously dust a pizza peel with corn meal and reform the dough’s disk onto it. Working quickly to avoid sticking, add sauce, then cheese, then toppings. Jiggle the peel to fully loosen the pizza. Open the oven and jiggle and slide the pizza off the peel onto the pizza stone. Bake until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is browned (7 to 12 minutes).

Topping Notes: Sauce should be room temperature to prevent a gummy dough texture. Freshly-shredded low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella congeals best. Slice vegetable toppings thinly so that they can be cooked in the short bake time. Pre-cook raw meats and any toppings with high moisture content (e.g., mushrooms, fresh-sliced tomato). Broil for a minute or two toward the end of the bake to enhance the char.

Yield: two 1‑pound dough balls for two 16‑inch pizzas. For 14‑inch pies, you’ll need 12‑ounce dough balls: 412 g flour, 253 g water, 1¾ teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil. You can use the larger recipe ball for the smaller pies, of course, though you’ll get a little thicker crust.