Classic NY Cheese Slice
The iconic New York cheese slice — hand-tossed, foldable crust with low-moisture mozzarella and a cooked tomato sauce.
Recipe by the Pizza Planet team · Published
The NY slice is more rules than recipe. Low-moisture mozzarella, not fresh. Cooked sauce, not raw. Bigger than Neapolitan, smaller than Sicilian. Bake longer at lower heat so the underside crisps without the cheese splitting. The benchmark to aim for is a slice that folds without cracking. The baking steel was the unlock — without it, home ovens just can't pull enough bottom heat. With it, six to eight minutes gets you a slice that would pass on Carmine Street. The dough is a straight King Arthur Bread Flour build at 12.7% protein — enough gluten to carry a 16-inch stretch without tearing.
Flour: King Arthur Bread Flour (12.7% protein) — read the review
Dough Formula
| Ingredient | Grams | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (12.7% protein) | 996 g | 100.0% |
| Water | 627 g | 63.0% |
| Salt | 19.9 g | 2.0% |
| Yeast | 5 g | 0.5% |
| Oil | 30 g | 3.0% |
| Sugar | 10 g | 1.0% |
Makes 4 balls of ≈422 g
Ingredients
Dough
- •4 balls Pizza dough (see formula above)
Sauce
- •400g Crushed tomatoes
- •2 cloves, minced Garlic
- •1 g Dried oregano
- •3 g Salt
- •2 g Sugar
- •14 g Olive oil
Toppings
- •300g, shredded Low-moisture mozzarella
- •40g, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
- 1
Make the dough: mix per the formula above, then follow the calculator schedule for New York — 27 h bulk/cold ferment before shaping (hands-on 20 min).
- 2
Cook sauce: simmer crushed tomatoes, garlic, oregano, salt, sugar, and oil for 20 min.
💡 NY sauce is cooked (unlike Neapolitan raw sauce).
- 3
Preheat home oven to max at 260-290°C (500-550°F) with baking steel for 45-60 min.
- 4
Stretch dough to 36-41 cm (14-16 in) — NY pies are bigger than Neapolitan.
- 5
Spread sauce, add shredded mozzarella edge to edge, sprinkle parmigiano.
- 6
Bake on steel for 6-8 minutes until cheese is bubbly and edges golden.
- 7
Let cool 2-3 min on a wire rack before slicing.
Tips
- →Hands-on time is about 28 minutes; allow the dough its full ferment — see the calculator schedule
- →Low-moisture mozzarella is key — fresh mozz makes it too wet
- →The fold test: a proper NY slice folds in half without cracking
- →A baking steel is the #1 home oven upgrade for NY-style
How to Make Classic NY Cheese Slice
Video coming soon
Shop this bake
Flour
King Arthur Bread Flour
The first bag to buy if you bake in a domestic oven. At 12.7% protein with added amylase on the label it gives you chew and colour at 250 °C, which is exactly what an unmalted 00 will not.
$14.32· as of Aug 30, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Ingredient
Cento All Purpose Crushed Tomatoes
Crushed in the tin instead of by hand, and sold as one can rather than a case — the low-commitment way in when a six-tin case is what stops you buying at all.
$2.99· as of Aug 30, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →Ingredient
Polly-O Low Moisture Whole Milk Mozzarella
Thick enough to cube for a Detroit rim, where shreds burn to lace — and four ingredients against a coating of rice flour, cellulose and natamycin that no bake removes.
$39.00· as of Aug 30, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Ingredient
SAF Instant Yeast
Instant, so it goes in dry with the flour: no warm-water step means no step at which the yeast can be cooked, which is where an active-dry dough most often dies.
Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Original Baking Steel
6.4 mm is the home compromise: enough stored heat to bake two pies back to back, in a slab that will never crack the way a cordierite stone eventually does.
$139.00· as of Aug 30, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Skyflame Aluminium Pizza Peel (14 × 16 in)
The single peel to own if you own one: thin enough to launch from, rigid enough to turn and retrieve with, at the size a home oven door takes.
$26.99· as of Aug 30, 2026
i
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.Affiliate link — we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Check price on Amazon →Read the review →Equipment
Greater Goods Single Sensor Baking Scale
One model behind one listing, on the maker's own page: 5 kg (11 lb) of capacity, reading down to 1 g. What the listing sends is what the maker documents — rarer here than it ought to be.
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Check price on Amazon →Read the buying guide →
If this goes wrong
Pizza base is pale and floppy
The surface of your base never got hot enough for long enough to brown. Bake on a fully preheated steel at maximum, bake it longer than feels right, and switch to a malted bread flour or add 1–2% sugar so there is something there to brown.
Cheese burns before the base cooks
The top of your oven is running far ahead of the bottom. Get the slab hotter so the base needs less time, move the pizza down away from the grill element, and use a whole-milk low-moisture mozzarella — it carries more fat and browns more slowly than part-skim.
Pizza dough won't stretch (springs back)
The gluten is tensioned, not broken. Cover the ball and rest it — 20 minutes if it is already at room temperature, 1–2 hours if it came out of the fridge — then stretch again in stages.
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