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I love pizza so I wanted to make my own.  My dad has done it before, so I asked him to show me how to do it.  This is a guide from a 12-year old to making your own homemade NY-style pizza.

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Overview

The first step is making the dough.  This is easy.  The full recipe is here.  You just put the ingredients in the food processor and mix them until a ball forms.

You do need to knead the dough some with your hands.  It needs to pass what my dad called the windowpane test.  You are supposed to be able to stretch it enough so that you can see through it like a window.

The only thing is you need to start early.  We started in the morning, but my dad said next time we will start the day before.  The dough will rise.  One recipe made three pizzas.  This was cool because you can try different toppings.  Be sure and check out my dad’s recipe which I used.

The sauce is also easy to make.  You just put the ingredients in a pot and let it on low heat for a long time.  I also used my dad’s recipe which you can find here.

Cole Cooks: Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe

Fun Diego Family loves pizza.  We are even crazy enough to try cooking pizza at home.  We have developed a couple of different pizza sauces over the years.  This homemade pizza sauce recipe is for a cooked tomato sauce. This is one of our homemade pizza sauce recipes.  This is the sauce we use to […]

NOTE: My dad said there is also a recipe for a pizza sauce you don’t cook that is even easier to make.

Shaping the dough is both the hard part and the fun part.  I have a video of me doing it but I need to edit some mistakes.  Basically, you push it down and stretch the edges out as far as possible with your knuckles.  You just need to be sure to use a surface coated with flour so it doesn’t stick.

It will start to form a circle and then you can start tossing it.  My dad showed me how.  Basically, you put the dough on your two fists and toss and spin it.  Try not to drop it, as I did once (luckily it didn’t hit the ground).

It comes out sort of like a circle but not exactly.  The edges are a little thicker than the center.  My dad told me to make it super thin because the crust expands a lot.  He was right.

My dad said the hardest part was getting the pizza from the wood peel to the oven.  He showed me how to do the first pizza, but I did the next two.  I actually did a better job than he did.

You want to put cornmeal on the pizza peel and then put the dough.  You also want to make sure you put the dough on the peel before adding toppings.

I did three pizzas.  One was my favorite, margherita which has basil.  The second was pepperoni and the third was Mexican cheese.  They were all delicious.

One thing is we cooked them for about 12 minutes.  I think I would only cook them for maybe 8 minutes.  The crust was a little tough.  But my dad likes it that way.

NOTE: My dad said to mention the special pizza steel we used to cook the pizza on.

Making pizza is a lot of fun but messy.  There was flour all over the kitchen.  I vacuumed the floor so my mom would not get mad.

Full Homemade NY-Style Pizza Recipe

Homemade NY-Style Pizza

This is our recipe for a Homemade NY-Style Pizza.  Unlike many pizza styles, It can be done in a regular oven.

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

  

• 1 Pizza Dough Ball see recipe
• ½ cup pizza sauce more or less to preference (see recipe)
• ½ pound mozzarella cheese more or less to preference
• toppings

Instructions

 

• Remove dough from refrigerator at least two hours before rolling. Place in bowl covered with plastic wrap and let rise and come to room temperature. At least one hour before cooking place baking steel or pizza stone on middle or bottom rack of oven and heat to 550° F.
• Place dough on clean surface lightly dusted with flour. Press out dough with hands or use spin and toss method. Work gently from outer edge and pull and stretch. With spin and toss you center the dough on your knuckles and gently toss and spin it an inch or two in the air. Stretch in between tosses. Only stretch on outer edge and flour fingers frequently.
• Dough should be about 12 to 14 inches and diameter. It does not have to be a perfect circle. Get the dough as thin as possible. It should just be a little thicker on the outer edge. Place cornmeal or flour on a wooden peel. Place dough on peel.
• Add sauce to dough spreading evenly. Leave a ¼ inch around the border with no sauce or cheese. Add cheese and spread evenly to cover sauce. Add desired toppings.
• Slowly slide pizza from peel to baking steel/stone. Set timer for 10 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and continue cooking until cheese is melted and crust is crisp and slightly charred.
• Carefully remove pizza from oven. Let cool for 3 minutes. Slice and serve. If you don’t eat immediately reheat individual slices in oven for 2 to 3 minutes.

Keyword Homemade NY-Style Pizza

Make sure and check out the tools we use to make pizza!

Tools for Making Homemade Pizza

At Fun Diego Family we love pizza.  On occasion, we like to make our own pizza as a family project.  We have invested in some special equipment for pizza making.  This article is a guide to some of the products we use for making homemade pizza. Overview Pizza making is not a simple task.  At […]

New York Style Pizza Dough Recipe

Cole Cooks: New York Style Pizza Dough

My favorite type of pizza is New York style thin crust pizza.  This is actually a pizza you can make at home because you don’t need the 700-degree plus temperatures required by Neapolitan pizzas. This is the recipe for New York Style Pizza Dough. Go To Recipe This recipe came pretty much direct from the […]

Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe

Cole Cooks: Homemade Pizza Sauce Recipe

Fun Diego Family loves pizza.  We are even crazy enough to try cooking pizza at home.  We have developed a couple of different pizza sauces over the years.  This homemade pizza sauce recipe is for a cooked tomato sauce. This is one of our homemade pizza sauce recipes.  This is the sauce we use to […]

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