New York, New York, it’s a helluva town! I recently attended a conference for the hospitality industry, and one of the questions I heard was, “What is New York cuisine?” Of course, there were a multitude of answers that included every culture that ultimately pinned New York cuisine as a melting pot.

All of this is true. But if you were to ask anyone on the street, “What’s the first food you think of when you think of New York?” I’m betting the answer would most likely be PIZZA – and a slice at that. How do you define New York pizza? This question for the ages is continuously evolving.

Pizza in New York is so varied. Just like New York cuisine is a blend of different cultures, New York is a city where you can find almost every type of pizza from thin and crispy to soft and pillowy to every pan style you can think of and everything in between.

But the New York slice is one that defines the New York pizza scene.

Even the slice is extremely varied. For the “old-school” slice that is cheap and quick, you’ll find recipes that contain lower hydrations in the mid- to high-50 percentiles and flours that range in protein contents but hover around 13.5-14.5 percent. When talking about New York style pizza, the flour I most commonly hear about is always the bromated variety. It is a high-protein, high-gluten flour; bromate is an additive that helps soften the dough, which makes it easy to stretch. Bromate is outlawed in some states because it has been found to cause cancer in certain quantities. If you are looking for it, be advised to check the bags.

If you talk to some of the old-school pizza shops, they might mention using eggs or milk in their pizza dough, but it is not a common practice these days – especially since the cost of dairy and eggs has risen so much recently. Since classic New York pizza is cooked in a gas deck oven, we are looking at lower cook temperatures. Some doughs may have a small amount of sugar added, but not all pizzerias use it. Flour naturally has some sugar present, so it isn’t always needed as an additional ingredient. Oil is another ingredient you may or may not hear about being used, as it is an additional cost that isn’t always needed. Remember, a lot of OG pizzerias started in New York came from bread backgrounds, so original recipes are going to carry certain similarities to bread, which normally do not contain fats, aside from focaccia.

For the toppings, ingredients normally are simple and to the point. A slice of plain (aka plain cheese) is probably ordered most frequently, and it hits the spot every time.

For the “new-school” slice, I’m seeing blended flours

– small percentages of fresh milled flour – various kinds of mozzarella and cheeses, and ingredients that would be considered a little more outside the box, showing the influence of different cultures. Dough recipes are evolving with higher hydrations, inclusion of preferments and the blending of techniques that come from bread but also blending different pizza styles to create new hybrids.

With the advancement of oven technology, electric ovens have really taken off in the pizza scene. Nowadays, it is common to find an electric oven in a slice shop, whether alongside a gas oven or by itself. Electric ovens can reach higher temperatures and even have steam capability, which has really changed the game for pizza. Ultimately, whether “old school” or “new school,” the quintessential triangular slice should be folded when eaten and crack but not break.

Today’s New York slice is not solely triangular. Although this is the slice most associated with New York pizza, let us not forget about the square. Squares always have been found in New York, and you can find them at places like Prince Street for the old school and Mama’s Too for the new-school Sicilian square slice. You also may find it named sfincione, but this is specific to the toppings, which include tomato, breadcrumbs, anchovies and pecorino cheese. Delicious!

At the end of the day, I am a proud Bay Area Californian who’s been making pizza for almost 20 years. I am not a New Yorker, nor would I ever claim to be. If you want to know the nitty gritty, I recommend reaching out to someone like Scott Wiener, owner of Scott’s Pizza Tours, who can literally school you on the history and evolution of pizza in New York. Bring a notebook!

Here is an Old-school New York Pizza Dough Formula:

100% high-protein, high-gluten flour

55%-58% water

0.25% instant yeast

2% salt

1%-2% olive oil

Here is a New School New York Pizza Dough Formula:

100% flour

10%-20% Biga or Poolish starter

65%-68% water

0.05% instant yeast

2% oil

2%-2.5% salt

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, California.

The post New York Character | Knead to Know appeared first on Pizza Today.

John Updike famously said, “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” In my lifetime of visiting New York City, and the 14 years that I have I called the city home, I think I can safely say that your average New Yorker feels that people eating pizza anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.

Anthony Falco, International Pizza Consultant and former “pizza czar,” Roberta’s, Brooklyn

There is a confidence and braggadocio about all things New York City —  and pizza is no exception. It’s indisputable that there are thousands of pizzerias in the five boroughs. It’s also true that there is a culture of pizza here unique to the world, but what is true New York-style pizza? It’s a difficult question, really, but one I have given much thought to. You could say pizza by the slice is the true New York pizza, but what about the famous coal-fired oven pizzerias that only do whole pies? You could say it’s the stone-lined gas deck oven, but today some of New York’s best pizza is coming out of electric or even wood-fired ovens.

So where is the common ground? What defines NY-style pizza? While not everyone will agree, and since I wasn’t born in the city I’m sure certain people will leave my opinions on the sidewalk with piles of ubiquitous garbage, I’ll state my opinion after years of making pizza in New York, and making New York-style pizza around the world.

What is New York Style Pizza?

First things first, like the skyscrapers and personalities of the city, it is big. NY-style pizza tends to be 16 to 20 inches with the classic NY slice being cut from an 18-inch pie. Anything less just won’t look right on a paper plate. And speaking of paper plates, NY pizza is for people on the go, that means eating it quick, with your hands, almost always standing up.

It’s thin, but not paper thin like the cracker style crust found across the Hudson in New Jersey. And it’s crisp, but with some pliability — it shouldn’t shatter when you take a bite. The sauce should be simple, fresh and slightly sweet with a balance of acidity, my choice for achieving this is the California tomato.

The mozzarella should be stringy, but not too wet, and it should form a cohesive unit with the sauce. This amalgamation of sauce and cheese adheres to the dough, and it doesn’t slip off when it’s lifted to the mouth like its Neapolitan cousin. In practice this means a “low moisture” mozzarella, essentially a more aged version of fresh mozzarella (sometimes it’s whole milk, sometimes part skim, or sometimes a blend). Fresh mozzarella is totally acceptable too, just less prevalent than low moisture.

Toppings should be judiciously applied and not overloaded like they do in certain windy cities. In fact, one could say that the most true example of the New York pizza is the humble “plain slice”: tomato, mozzarella, oregano, and maybe a little pecorino or Parmesan.

So let’s summarize; a NY-style pizza is big, it’s thin but not paper thin, crispy but still flexible enough to fold without cracking, and the toppings should be a cohesive amalgamation and applied with restraint and simplicity. It shouldn’t be too fancy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use quality ingredients. It should always be cooked directly on the stones of the oven floor, be that gas, wood, electric or coal.

How to Make New York-style Pizza

So now that we have defined what New York Pizza is, how do we make it? Well, I’m going to be completely honest … I have no idea how to make a proper NY-style pizza. I have never trained or worked at a proper old school New York style pizzeria. I came up cooking in wood-fired ovens, I was cooking small, new-school Neapolitan-ish pizzas fast and hot and topped with globs of fresh mozzarella, definitely the same galaxy but still worlds apart. About five years ago I started playing with NY-style pizza. I thought I would just come in with what I knew, crank the oven all the way up and start kicking butt. That is not what happened. I learned very quickly that NY-style pizza is actually one of the most difficult styles to master. I knew what I wanted the pizza to be like, but I wasn’t sure how to get there. I went into the laboratory, aka my kitchen in Brooklyn, and I started playing around with different flours, temperatures, cheese blends and so on. Eventually I got something I liked, and since then I have helped open NY-style pizzerias as a consultant in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bangkok, Miami and Bali, with more in the works. Every one of these takes on NY-style pizza has been a different approach, from all naturally leavened, a hybrid of sourdough and commercial yeast, and even all commercial yeast. The reception has been great and these are some of my favorite pizzas to eat anywhere.

In the last few years a growing number of pizza consulting inquiries want to do NY-style pizza. And in the last year, the pandemic has proven this style to be built for durability. It holds up well for takeout, delivery, people on a budget, as well as people looking to splurge on a meal they wouldn’t normally make at home.

Anthony Falco’s New York-style Pizza Dough Recipe

So let me share with you a recipe that you can try if you are interested in bringing New York-style pizza to your pizzeria. The ingredients are important for this pizza. I prefer a high-protein American bread flour. You can add in small amounts of semolina (durum wheat) at 5 to 10 percent if you want to up the crisp levels on a flour with less protein.

For the water, it’s true that New York has great tap water, but so does Palm Springs, California! If you have great tap water in your town use that, otherwise a well filtered or spring water from a delivery service should do just fine. New York City tap water is low in total dissolved solids with very little chlorine, and just the right minerality, but it’s not magic, so don’t go crazy thinking about it. If it tastes good as drinking water it will taste good in the pizza.

For olive oil, I highly recommended a California extra virgin olive oil. It’s fresh and clean and really works well with this style of pizza. Also, I like sea salt for my pizza and I think it makes a huge difference, but kosher salt will also work. If you only have iodized table salt you need to get rid of it and upgrade your salt game.

The recipe will call for a starter. If you don’t have a sourdough starter you can use a commercial yeast pre-ferment (aka poolish, biga or sponge). Some people don’t like sourdough in NY-style pizza. That’s their opinion, but mine is that it is delicious. Do whatever you want to do and never listen to the haters. These are all just guidelines — follow your dreams.

When topping the pizza you should always start by making a classic plain pie. I recommend a tomato sauce of uncooked California tomatoes, seasoned simply with sea salt and extra virgin olive oil. For mozzarella a blend of low moisture whole milk and part skim mozzarella is great, but if you want to use fresh mozzarella, that can work too. I’m a big fan of the mozzarella down first method, splotching the tomato on top with a little space between, and finally some oregano (wild Sicilian is always my first choice) and a little hard cheese (a pecorino or grana works great). The key is a balance between the toppings so that they all come together on the pie in a cohesive way, clinging onto rather than easily slipping off of the dough.

And for my final thoughts before you try the recipe is that it is my interpretation of NY style, it’s not authentic or the ultimate or anything like that, it comes from loving this style of pizza and trying to make it through my lens as a pizza maker. I hope you enjoy it and add this style to your repertoire. Go to the recipe now. 

Anthony Falco is an international pizza consultant.

The post New York-style Pizza: New York State of Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

It is estimated that 70 percent of the pizza consumed nationally is based on the New York-style pizza that evolved in response to the product’s equipment and cultural differences that Neapolitan immigrants encountered when they settled in New York over 100 years ago. The result of that adaptation is a pizza that, for many, sets the standard as America’s gift to the pizza landscape.

Until recently the prevailing wisdom was that excellent New York-style dough could only be made in New York. Theories about water, climate, altitude and other variables combined with a sprinkling of myth and pseudo-science to create legend that was repeated as truth.

Spurred on by industry leaders such as Tony Gemignani, the craft of pizza making has adopted science and baking principles to push us into a new era where high-quality pizza of every style is now being made in virtually every corner of the world. One need look no further than International Pizza Expo to see the success that pizza makers from diverse areas have had in international competition. As a case in point, allow me to introduce you to 2017’s NY-style Caputo Cup winner: Dr. Derek Sanchez. Dr. D is a physical therapy practitioner who has combined his penchant for science with his love of pizza to create incredible NY-style pizza sold from a mobile pizza operation called MiaMarcos (named after his children) in San Antonio, Texas. Derek shocked the pizza community by dominating the Northeast Pizza and Pasta show in competition against some of the best pizza makers from the New York area.

Surprisingly he did it with dough that he made in Texas and brought with him on the plane to Atlantic City.

Best of all he won with a simple cheese pizza: no tricks, no razzle dazzle. Just high-quality ingredients backed by sound scientific principles. Sanchez took time away from his medical practice and pizza business to share his thoughts in a Q&A.

Define the characteristics you strive for in your dough? 

DS: Our target is light, full of air, crispy yet tender, great structure, foldable and fermented to just the right flavor profile. I have made every mistake in the book in my quest for my target dough.

Have your methods changed over time? 

DS: My methods have not only changed over time, they change all the time! I have the luxury of having my own lab built at home. Our methods have to change due to our environment. MiaMarcos is in a pizza trailer. The constantly changing environment makes us constantly change our methods. It has taught us so very much. We could make excellent pizza dough on a volcano or in a rain forest if we had to. We are not afraid to change everything if it means a better pizza. Over the past 13 years of research we have changed flour, water, salt, olive oils, mixers, ovens, room temps — you name it and we have changed it all to better our outcomes. You have to be able to be wrong if you’re going to be right.

What do you consider the most crucial component of this dough, and why?

DS: Attention to detail in every way. Of course you need great flour, salt, oil, water and time. I choose the products made by people who are passionate about them as we are about our pizza.

What tools and equipment do you consider essential to making your dough? 

DS: Your hands, nose and mind. You have to understand the feel and smell of your dough. When you start getting close to your desired outcome you must place into your memory how your dough feels and how it smells along with charting everything. We know when our dough is right by touch, smell and sight. As far as hardware I have used and experimented with it all. Hand, stand mixer, food processor, HCM machine, planetary, fork mixers, and now spiral mixer. Each produce different characteristics and styles of dough.

What is your preferred baking temperature and cooking method?

DS: 550 to 625 F for 6 to 8 minutes. We bake directly on the stone and turn it at 3 to 4 minutes.

Any useful tricks of the trade?

DS: There are no secrets or tricks. If you want to make a great pizza you have to put the time in. There is no school that can teach you passion. There is no one that can teach you effort and attention to detail. There is no substitute for hard work. Greatness comes from hard work, passion and a blessing of talent.

What defines you as a pizza maker?

DS: I do what it takes to get things right.  I enjoy the truth of things. I do that in both of my professions. In one of them, people’s lives depend on it; the other people’s joy, taste buds and stomach depend on it. I use evidence and truth in both. So I suppose truth defines me as a pizza maker.   

Final thoughts, philosophy or personal observations?   

DS: All of the research, time, money, dedication, travel, books etc. has been to make a great cheese pizza! Sometimes I think, “Am I crazy or am I perfectly sane and just passionate about pizza?”

Here is a basic New York style pizza dough formula from sanchez:

High protein flour — 100%

Water — 61%

IDY — 0.3%

Sea salt — 2.6%

Olive oil — 2%

Test batch:

25 pounds high protein flour

15¼ pounds water at 60 F

1.2 ounces IDY or 3 ounces fresh yeast

10½ ounces sea salt

8 ounces olive oil

Add the water and yeast to bowl and combine 2½ pounds of flour (10 percent of your total flour). Mix to incorporate. Let sit 20 minutes.

Add the rest of your flour with the salt. Mix for 4 minutes on slow speed. Slowly add the olive oil until blended well (3 to 4 minutes depending on your mixer).

Portion and ball your dough, cover and cold ferment for 24 to 48 hours.   

Before using, remove dough from cooler and let it reach at least 55 F.

John Arena co-owns Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.

>> Explore Pizza Dough Recipes for Top Trending Pizza Styles including Detroit, New York, Grandma, Sicilian, Chicago Thin and Deep Dish. <<

The post Knead to Know: New York-Style Pizza Dough appeared first on Pizza Today.