New York Style Pizza

 The addition of cheddar cheese makes it look oilier than it was.

I looked around online trying to figure out how to make thin, floppy New York-style pizza, and the most comprehensive advice I've seen so far comes from Serious Eats.  To start with, I needed to use a pizza stone instead of the pan I've been using, and in order to get my pizza on and off of the pizza stone, I needed a pizza peel.  Those items arrived from Amazon two days ago, and I'm making pizza today.  Since I already have a dough I like that sort of resembles the one in this recipe and a store-bought sauce I like enough that I don't care to make my own from scratch, I'm only making certain changes to my regular pizza recipe today to see what happens.  If it doesn't turn out like I want, I'll actually bother following the directions properly next time.  The real directions are below.  Notes of my changes are in italics.

Ingredients

• 22 1/2 ounces (about 4 1/2 cups) bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• .35 ounces kosher salt (about 3 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 15 ounces lukewarm water (I'm using Herbed Pizza Dough instead of these first six ingredients this time around.  If the texture isn't right, I'll follow the directions properly next time.)
• 1 batch New York Style Pizza Sauce (I'm just using store-bought organic pizza sauce this time.)
• 1 pound grated full-fat dry mozzarella cheese (about 4 cups), placed in freezer for at least 15 minutes (I had to buy this from the deli section at the store in order to find a brick of mozzarella that wasn't either "fresh" or part-skim.  According to Serious Eats' Pizza Lab, full-fat cheese that wasn't bought already grated is necessary for the gooey quality of a pizzeria pizza.)
• Whatever other toppings you choose -- I like onions, black olives, and additional cheeses such as sprinklings of Parmesan and Cheddar.

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in bowl of food processor. Pulse 3 to 4 times until incorporated. Add olive oil and water. Run food processor until mixture forms ball that rides around the bowl above the blade, about 15 seconds. Continue processing 15 seconds longer.
   
   
2. Transfer dough ball to lightly floured surface and knead once or twice by hand until smooth ball is formed. It should pass the windowpane test. Divide dough into three even parts and place each in a covered quart-sized deli container or in a (gallon-sized) zipper-lock freezer bag. Place in refrigerator and allow to rise at least one day, and up to 5.  (Hands down the best dough I've ever made -- thin, floppy, and delicious -- came from the portions I threw into gallon ziplock bags and the freezer directly after passing the windowpane test.  I let them thaw in the fridge for 24 hours before using them, then 2 hours at room temperature before stretching out the dough and making it into pizza.  I didn't do step 3 at all in those cases, and the dough was glorious.)
   
   
   
3. At least two hours before baking, remove dough from refrigerator and shape into balls by gathering dough towards bottom and pinching shut. Flour well and place each one in a separate medium mixing bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise at warm room temperature until roughly doubled in volume.
   
   
4. 1 hour before baking, adjust oven rack with pizza stone to middle position and preheat oven to 500°F. (15-30 minutes before baking, move grated cheese to freezer to get extra cold.) Turn single dough ball out onto lightly flour surface. Gently press out dough into rough 8-inch circle, leaving outer 1-inch higher than the rest. Gently stretch dough by draping over knuckles into a 12 to 14-inch circle about 1/4-inch thick. Transfer to pizza peel.
   
   
5. Spread approximately 2/3 cup of sauce evenly over surface of crust, leaving 1/2 to 1-inch border along edge. Evenly spread 1/3 of cheese over sauce. Slide pizza onto baking stone and bake until cheese is melted with some browned spots and crust is golden brown and puffed, 12 to 15 minutes total. Transfer to cutting board, slice, and serve immediately. Repeat with remaining two dough balls, remaining sauce, and remaining cheese.

[Edited 3/2/13: Serious Eats was dead-on about the cheese.  I had forgotten how it can actually leave pools of oil on top of the pizza.  My dough was still too thick, albeit floppier than before thanks to the pizza stone, so I'll be following the entire recipe next time to try to get the full New York Style effect.]
[Edited 5/20/13: The last time I made this pizza I followed the directions for the dough exactly.  It was EXPONENTIALLY better than before.  The windowpane test is important and does take a few minutes of kneading.  I only used one of the three pizza doughs immediately and put the other two in the freezer, and the ones from the freezer turned out even better.  See my bold-face notes above about that.  I will make NY-Style pizza this way forevermore.]