New York Thin-Crust Pizza

Ingredients

• For the dough
• 500 g bread flour or high-gluten flour (12–14% protein)
• 325 ml cold water
• 10 g fine salt
• 5 g instant yeast
• 15 ml olive oil
• For the sauce
• 400 g San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand; uncooked
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 clove garlic, finely grated or minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• For the topping
• 250 g low-moisture mozzarella, shredded; not fresh mozzarella di bufala

Method

1. 1
   Combine the flour, salt, and instant yeast in a large bowl. Add the cold water and olive oil. Mix until a shaggy dough forms, then knead on a work surface for 8–10 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky but does not tear. The dough is ready when it passes the windowpane test: a small piece stretched between the fingers becomes translucent without breaking.
2. 2
   Shape the dough into a ball, place in a lightly oiled container, cover tightly, and refrigerate for 24–72 hours. This is where the dish lives or dies: the cold ferment at low temperature builds the flavour compounds and the precise gluten network that will blister and char under deck-oven heat. At fewer than 24 hours the crust will lack character; beyond 72 hours the dough may over-ferment and weaken. At the end of fermentation the dough ball will have grown, will feel airy and slightly tacky, and will smell faintly sour and yeasty.
3. 3
   Remove the dough from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Place a pizza steel or stone on the top rack of the oven and heat to the oven's maximum temperature (ideally 290–315 °C; home ovens are limited to approximately 260 °C). Allow the steel or stone to heat for at least 45 minutes. Meanwhile, combine the crushed San Marzano tomatoes, salt, garlic, and oregano in a bowl; do not cook. The sauce should smell sharp and raw.
4. 4
   On a lightly floured surface, hand-stretch the dough ball by pressing outward from the centre with the fingertips, then draping it over the knuckles and rotating, until a round of approximately 45 cm diameter is achieved. The edge (the cornicione) should be slightly thicker than the centre. Do not use a rolling pin — the mechanical pressure expels the gas bubbles that produce the blistered crust. The properly stretched round will be nearly translucent at the centre when held to light.
5. 5
   Transfer the stretched round to a lightly floured pizza peel. Spread a thin, even layer of the uncooked tomato sauce across the surface, leaving a 2 cm border for the cornicione. Distribute the shredded low-moisture mozzarella evenly over the sauce. The layer of cheese should be consistent — neither bare patches nor clumps.
6. 6
   Slide the pizza onto the preheated steel or stone. Bake for 8–12 minutes. The pizza is done when the cornicione is puffed and shows irregular dark char spots, the cheese has melted into a golden, lightly browned even layer, and the underside of the crust is deep brown and crisp. Remove and rest for 2 minutes before cutting.
7. 7
   Cut into eight triangular slices. The structural test is the fold: lift a slice by its point, fold it lengthwise down the centre. It must hold its shape without flopping and must not crack. A flopping slice is undercooked. A cracking slice is too crisp to be pliable. The fold is the definitive sensory confirmation that the crust is correct.