How to Make a Classic New York Cheese Pizza

A New York cheese pie at home comes down to four things: a cold-fermented dough stretched to 14 inches, a thin coat of sauce, whole-milk mozzarella you shred yourself, and a steel or stone that has soaked up heat for close to an hour. Get those right and a home oven at 500 to 550°F (260 to 290°C) turns out a crisp-bottomed, foldable pie in 6 to 15 minutes.

This is the assembly-and-bake half of the job. It assumes a ball of our New York-style pizza dough and a container of homemade pizza sauce are waiting in the fridge.

Why this method works

A New York pie is meant to bake for several minutes, not seconds, so a home oven at full blast can make a good one. The oven air isn’t what crisps the crust, though.

A preheated slab of steel or stone dumps stored heat into the dough the moment it lands, setting the bottom before the cheese overcooks. Everything else protects that balance: thin sauce so the center doesn’t steam, dry mozzarella that won’t flood the pie, and a high rack so the top browns about as fast as the bottom.

Ingredient notes and substitutions

Dough and sauce

A 14-inch (36 cm) pie takes one 380 g (about 13½-ounce) dough ball, the size our dough recipe makes. That formula runs 62% hydration, 2.4% salt, 2% olive oil and 2% sugar; the sugar helps the crust color in a home oven and the oil keeps it tender. With a 1-pound (454 g) store-bought ball, pinch off about 2½ ounces (75 g) first, or the crust bakes up thicker and breadier.

For sauce, ⅔ cup (160 ml, about 5½ ounces or 155 g) covers a 14-inch round thinly enough that the dough shows through in spots. That is the 14-inch portion in our sauce recipe. Go heavier and the center turns soupy. Use the sauce cold or at room temperature.

Low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella, shredded at home

Low-moisture mozzarella is the firm, vacuum-packed block, not the fresh ball sold in liquid. Its federal standard of identity caps moisture at 52 percent and requires at least 45 percent milkfat in the solids, so it melts into a stretchy layer instead of weeping.

Choose whole milk over part-skim. It melts smoother and stays supple, where part-skim tends to turn rubbery.

Shred it yourself on the large holes of a box grater. Bagged shreds are dusted with anti-caking agents such as potato starch or cellulose (check the label), which keep the strands from fusing into a smooth, glossy layer. Six ounces (170 g), about 1½ loosely packed cups, covers the pie without burying the sauce.

Grating cheese, oregano and oil

Two tablespoons (12 g) of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano add salt and savory depth; use a little less Pecorino, which is saltier and sharper. Two teaspoons (10 ml) of olive oil drizzled on before baking add gloss and help the rim color. Dried oregano goes on after the bake, the way slice shops leave it in a shaker on the counter.

Get the steel or stone truly hot

Set the steel or stone in the upper third of the oven and heat the oven to its maximum, 500 to 550°F (260 to 290°C). Up there, heat radiating from the oven ceiling browns the top while the slab crisps the bottom. Baking Steel’s own cheese-pie method uses the same top-third position and a 45- to 60-minute preheat at 500°F. Leave enough headroom to work the peel.

Then wait. The preheat beep means the air is hot, not the slab. In an America’s Test Kitchen preheating test, a stone heated at 500°F for 45 minutes read 451°F and gave only moderate browning after 10 minutes of baking; a full hour reached 509°F and produced a well-browned, crisp bottom in the same time. Give a steel at least 45 minutes and a stone the full 60.

Our pizza stone vs. pizza steel comparison covers which surface to buy.

Launching the pie without a wreck

Stretch on a lightly floured counter, not the peel; our guide to stretching dough without tearing it covers the knuckle method. Then dust a wooden peel with semolina, which is coarse enough to roll like tiny ball bearings under the dough, and shake-test before topping. If the dough doesn’t slide, lift the stuck edge and toss more semolina underneath.

Top the pie in under 2 minutes, because wet dough glues itself to wood the longer it sits. Shake again, set the peel tip at the back edge of the steel, tilt slightly and pull back in one quick motion. Hesitating halfway is how pies fold over on themselves.

How to tell when it’s done

Go by color, not the timer. A New York pie is evenly browned rather than leopard-spotted like a Neapolitan: a golden rim with maybe a couple of darker bubbles, and cheese mottled red, white and light brown rather than a flat white sheet.

• Underside: Lift an edge. It should be evenly deep golden to light mahogany, with a few darker freckles and no pale patches.
• Rim: Puffed, golden brown and firm when tapped.
• Cheese: Bubbling to the center with scattered light-brown spots. Small orange beads of fat are normal.

If the bottom is done but the top looks pale, broil for 1 to 2 minutes. King Arthur’s New York-style pizza recipe builds a broil into every bake: its pies start on a lower rack, then move to the top rack for 2 to 3 minutes under the broiler until charred in spots. Starting high in the oven, this pie needs less. If your oven tops out at 500°F (260°C), expect the long end of each time range and lean on the broiler.

Resting, slicing into 8, and the fold

Move the pie to a wire rack for 2 minutes. A rack lets steam escape from underneath, where a cutting board would trap it against the crust. The short rest also lets the cheese set so it doesn’t slide when you cut.

Sprinkle on the oregano, then cut 8 slices with four firm passes through the center using a wheel or rocker knife.

To eat it the New York way, fold each slice lengthwise so the crust creases into a trough. The crease stiffens the slice, so the tip stays up instead of drooping. If yours still flops, blame too much sauce or cheese, or an under-browned bottom.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Soupy center: Too much sauce or cheese. Stick to ⅔ cup of sauce and 6 ounces of mozzarella.
• Cheese won’t stretch: Pre-shredded or part-skim. Shred a whole-milk block.
• Pale, soft bottom: The slab wasn’t hot enough. Preheat the full hour and let it recover 5 to 10 minutes between pies.
• Burnt bottom, pale top: Move the rack up a notch, drop to 500°F (260°C), or use the broiler finish.
• Stuck to the peel: Too little semolina, a hole in the dough, or too long on the peel.

Variations

• Garlicky: Grate half a small garlic clove into the olive oil before drizzling.
• Tangier melt: Swap 1 ounce (28 g) of the mozzarella for shredded provolone. Our guide to the best pizza cheeses explains how other cheeses behave.
• One topping: Keep it to one or two. Thin toppings like pepperoni barely change the bake time.

Storage, make-ahead and reheating

Shred the cheese up to a day ahead and refrigerate it airtight. Don’t sauce the dough ahead, or the sauce soaks in and the pie sticks to the peel.

Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, or within 1 hour if it’s above 90°F (32°C), per the FDA’s safe food handling guidelines. Eat them within 3 to 4 days, the window the FDA’s refrigerator and freezer storage chart gives for cooked dishes.

Food frozen at 0°F (−18°C) stays safe indefinitely, so the freezer limit is about quality: wrap slices airtight and eat them within 1 to 2 months.

The FDA lists 165°F (74°C) as the target for reheated leftovers. A hot skillet or preheated steel restores the crisp bottom far better than a microwave; our guide on how to reheat pizza compares the methods.