This classic, New York-style pizza dough recipe provides a delicious, thin, crisp crust every time.
The Ooni Koda is definitely the most popular gas-fired pizza oven ever released. Its smaller model, the Ooni Koda 12, is the perfect combination of affordable, easy to use, and portable for use at home. Because the Koda 12 is meant for personal pizzas, most traditional pizza recipes leave the guesswork up to you as to how much dough to use.
Our Ooni pizza dough recipe has been perfected over 50 attempts and is guaranteed to make sure your pizza night goes off without a hitch.
What makes this recipe so reliable?
Using a scale is highly recommended when it comes to any type of bread, including pizza dough. Being able to measure the ingredients in grams ensures that you will receive the same results every time.
What type of flour is best?
Using a high-protein bread flour over all-purpose or AA flour provides the crust with a stronger gluten structure. The increased strength of the gluten network helps the crust rise upwards, rather than out, to get those amazing pockets of air and a light, springy, yet still toothsome crust.
How wet should pizza dough be?
This recipe uses percentages in order to calculate the dough hydration. We have found through extensive testing that 65% hydration is the perfect sweet spot for an Ooni New York-style slice. This medium hydration dough is manageable enough to work with, while still being a high enough moisture content to result in a light, airy dough.
What makes this recipe “New York-style”?
New York-style pizza is famous for its thin, crisp crust that doesn’t droop when provided a slight bend through the crust. In order to achieve this effect, many factors need to be taken into consideration: flour, hydration, and additional ingredients.
Flour
New York-style pizza needs a strong gluten structure in order to stretch thin and develop a structurally sound crust. In order to achieve this, you need a high protein flour such as bread flour. Using all-purpose flour or AA flour will result in a softer, fluffier crust because of the weaker gluten structure the flours provide.
Hydration
New York-style pizza uses a medium hydration dough that stretches thin but isn’t so slack that it becomes delicate and easy to rip.
Additional Ingredients
Traditional pizza dough doesn’t call for oil or sugar, as adding these will inhibit the dough’s rise and cause the dough to burn at the extreme temperatures used in traditional pizza ovens. Because New York-style dough is cold-fermented and cooked at lower temperatures for longer, the oil and sugar allow the crust to brown and crisp, while also making for a more flavourful dough.
Can I bulk make the dough and freeze it?
Pizza dough is very freezable. Follow the recipe up until Step 5 and, instead of taking the dough out of the fridge, put it in individual containers or ziplock bags and freeze. Once frozen, the dough can be stacked for easier storage. Keep in mind, you will get a slightly less airy crust when using dough that has been frozen as opposed to fresh.
Best way to cook a pizza in the Ooni
Everyone has their own special way to use their Ooni. What I have found is that the dough and toppings tend to come out undercooked when cooking a pizza at full temp in the Ooni. Preheating the Ooni at full temp then dropping the flame down to low makes for a slower cook. This increased cooking time allows the crust on the bottom to cook through and crisp up while also crisping the toppings and browning the cheese.
Once you are done cooking the first pizza, remember to turn the Ooni back up to full heat while you prepare the second pizza to allow the oven to heat back up.
Ooni Koda 12 Pizza Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 279g bread flour (100%)
- 181g water (65%)
- 4.4g instant yeast (2%)
- 4.185g salt (2%)
- 6.417g sugar (1.5%)
- Olive Oil 14g (5%)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water. Then, mix in bread flour, salt, sugar, and olive oil until a shaggy dough forms.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 10min or until a smooth, supple ball of dough forms.
- Place dough in a large bowl, enough to accommodate a 2x rise. Cover, and place in the fridge for at least 24 hours. If you don’t have enough time, let the dough rise on the counter for 1 hour then place in the fridge until 1 hour before cooking.
- 1 hour before cooking, take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 2 equal pieces. If you are using a scale, these pieces should weigh 237 grams. Shape the divided dough into 2 separate tight balls by rolling the dough between your hand and the counter in a tight circle, using the stickiness of the dough to taughten the dough. Place on an oiled baking sheet and cover with a bowl or moist cloth.
- 20 minutes before cooking, preheat your Ooni Koda 12 pizza oven at full heat.
- Once the Ooni has preheated, place the dough on a well-floured surface and press into a 1/2" disk with your fingertips, leaving extra thickness around the crust. Once the dough has been evenly dimpled, flour your hands and pick up the dough ad let it hang off of your knuckles. Turn the dough over your knuckles, letting the weight of the dough stretch the dough until it has become thin and semi-translucent. There should still be a thick ring of dough around the perimeter for the crust.
- Place dough on a peel dusted with flour and cornmeal and add sauce, cheese, and toppings making sure the dough doesn’t stick to the peel by adding more flour and cornmeal if necessary. The dough should move freely when the peel is shaken gently back and forth, if it doesn't pick up the edge that is catching and add more flour and cornmeal.
- Turn Ooni heat down from full to low. Launch dough from peel into the preheated Ooni and rotate every 20 seconds until the crust has puffed and slightly charred and the cheese and toppings have browned.
- Remove from the Ooni and keep warm in a preheated 170f oven until ready to serve.