Making New York-style pizza at home

For the dough:

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ cup warm water

2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

5 cups bread flour, plus more as needed

Bloom the yeast in a stand mixer bowl with the teaspoon of sugar and ¼ cup water. When it’s frothy, add the rest of the ingredients and mix with the dough hook until a smooth ball comes together. It should be only slightly sticky; if it’s very sticky, add additional flour. Divide dough into four equal parts, roll each into a smooth ball and place in its own, well-oiled bowl.

Age in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours or up to a week.

For the sauce:

1 28-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes

¼ cup olive oil

½ teaspoon sugar, or more to taste

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Remove tomatoes from their canning liquid and discard the liquid. Squish or blend the tomatoes until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Makes enough for four pizzas.

For the cheese:

6 ounces whole-milk, low-moisture mozzarella per pizza

Grated parmesan for dusting

Assembly:

- Place pizza stone on middle rack and preheat oven on its maximum temperature for one hour.

- Use convection setting, if available.

- After pre-heating, stretch pizza dough and place on a well-dusted peel (stone-ground whole-wheat flour works best).

- Top with sauce, dusting of parmesan, and then the mozzarella.

- Bake for 5-6 minutes.

- Rest on cooling rack before slicing.

UPDATES:

Some updates since I made this video:

1) I have been going with a wetter dough lately. Wet doughs, counterintuitively, seem to get crispier. I figure that's because they're more pliable, which allows more steam to escape during cooking.

If you want a precise recipe with weights, look elsewhere. I don't like getting out my scale unless I have to. I can judge hydration pretty well by feel, and I reckon you can too with a little practice. I still think 2 and 1/4 cups water + 5 cups flour is a good starting place. Add more flour until it reaches a stickiness that you can handle.

The only downside to extra hydration is that the dough becomes sticker and harder to work with. Part of the reason I went with a pretty dry dough when making this video is that I was worried about the pizza sticking to the peel while I got all the shots I needed.

2) I have started not only taking my tomatoes out of their packing liquid, but also washing them off under running water in a sieve. It's crazy, but that really makes a difference in a raw tomato sauce like this.

The packing liquid is just so bitter. And I've been experimenting with different tomato brands. With really good tomatoes, I don't need the tomato paste. I would rather not use paste.

3) Many commenters have mentioned some affordable home pizza ovens that intrigue me. I think I'm going to give the Uuni a try and report back. Ultimately, my pizza still lacks the very distinctive flavor you get from baking at a thousand degrees.