NY Style No-No List

I feel like I do not have a good NY style post on this blog. The one that exists is decent, but it's very outdated, and I have learned a ton since posting it. I would like to post a new one, with lots of good pictures, but I can barely move anymore. I have been making NY style pizza about every other day for the last two or three weeks, but it's now very difficult for me to photograph them, and I may never make another one after tomorrow.

The following is a post I wrote to start a thread on pizzamaking.com. Regardless of what you may already think, this post contains the most helpful information you will ever receive about NY style...

It just occurred to me that knowing what not to do may sometimes actually be more helpful to some people than knowing what to do. So here's a short list of things I consider what not to do with NY style, along with explanations.

• DO NOT bake on screen or pan. They don't do this in New York; they do this at Domino's. There are plenty of reasons why, but the fact that they don't do it in New York is reason enough not to do it at home. You're not going to get the same results by doing something considerably different. Just by putting a thin piece of metal (2 mm?) between your pizza skin and your hot stone keeps that heat from reaching your dough for a considerable amount of time, which does not happen when you bake directly on hot stone, like they do in New York. Not only do screens insulate, but they also lift your pizza to a zone of much lower temperature than the surface of the stone, while stealing heat from the stone.
• DO NOT re-ball. Also not done in New York; first of all because this is something that can easily be taken care of through effective dough management. In business you don't have the option to do work you have already done. If you do, you don't stay in business (because that is inefficient, which means it costs money that wasn't supposed to be spent). If one can't stay in business by being inefficient, it's impossible to have an entire industry doing the same thing. More importantly, though, the fact that your dough has blown is a very clear signal that it has fermented more than it was supposed to.
• DO NOT bulk ferment. This is not done in New York. By doing this, you totally change the pizza to something not even close to NY style. In a commercial setting, this also makes it infinitely more difficult to manage the dough, or to keep the dough consistent throughout the time you use a single batch. Bulk fermentation works with some pizza styles, but not NY style.
• DO NOT bake at extremely high temperature. I won't bake NY style pizza above 550° (580° stone temperature) anymore. I'm not sure where people got the idea that NY style pizza bakes at a temperature above 600°, but experience has taught me over and over that if I do that, I cannot replicate the pizza I have eaten in New York. Even though I have a ton of respect for Scott (scott123), my NY style improved significantly once I stopped worrying about a 4-minute bake time. I am inclined to think a 7 or 8-minute bake time is much more appropriate.
• DO NOT cook your sauce. No need to explain this one. Cooked sauce is simply gross.

If you do any of those things and your NY style seems to be missing something, it's probably because you do at least one of those things.

Now, I'm just some guy from Ohio who has never worked in a pizzeria in New York, so you have my permission to disagree with what I've said.

Can you add to this list? If so, go ahead, even if it disagrees with something I've said. I can handle it.

Mighty Pizza Oven grill insert

Below you'll find a bunch of pictures of pizzas I baked in the Mighty Pizza Oven grill insert (or MPO), and here's a thread I started on pizzamaking.com to highlight pizzas I've baked in the MPO. I think the MPO thread shows all these same pictures, except I've also said a lot about most of these pizzas on pizzamaking.com, and I've also shared many (or most) of the dough formulas and dough management strategies I used to create the pictured pizzas. The thread also contains a lot of input from Bert, the inventor of the MPO, which I think is definitely worth reading.

This is the only pic I've taken of the Mighty Pizza Oven in place on my grill. See note at the very end of this post.

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From 4/18/14: This is probably my favorite pic of any NY style pizza I've made and photographed.

"MPO can be used at any temperature, so far I had best success at temperatures below 800s. Neapolitan is MPO last challenge, once I figure that out, MPO can be used for anything you want. No other pizza oven or pizza oven insert can do what I have been able to do with MPO."

That quote is from Bert, to me, in this post on pizzamaking.com. It may come off as a little arrogant at first, but it's not. Having had many conversations with Bert over the last two or three years, I can assure you there is almost nothing arrogant about him. He was just being straight with me when he said that. And from what I can see, based on my own use of the MPO, the entire quote above is simply a matter of fact. I've written many hundreds of words below, but my hundreds of words cannot communicate the message within Bert's three sentences above.

WHAT IS THE MPO FOR?

Without saying much, it's for making pizza of any style, outside and on the grill. It is capable of producing basically every style of pizza, including at least two styles that simply cannot be made in most home ovens.

I think Bert's primary goal was to create a tool capable of producing Neapolitan style pizza, for people who don't have a wood-fired oven (which is almost everyone). Neapolitan pizza requires temperatures of around 1,000 degrees, but the heat needs to be both above and below the pizza, which is an impossible thermal environment to create in basically every baking vessel other than well-crafted wood-fired ovens.

Real Neapolitan pizza bakes in about a minute. That can only be done in wood-fired ovens, by someone who really knows what they're doing. (In the case of Neapolitan, that person is not me.) I believe Bert has broken the 2-minute barrier with the MPO, and he has posted at least one video proving it. As far as I know, only one other "pizza gadget" has done that, and that pizza gadget costs about twice as much as the MPO. Furthermore, if you have the other pizza gadget (Blackstone), it's like having a second grill taking up space on your patio. The MPO doesn't take up any extra space and is easy to carry back and forth between the patio and the house, where it should be stored.

Video: Demonstration of how to set up and use the Mighty Pizza Oven.



Video: Pizza in less than 90 seconds with Mighty Pizza Oven.


[Bert's YouTube video library]

The MPO is not just for people who want to make Neapolitan style pizza without building or buying a wood-fired oven. Rather, it's for people who would like to make any style (or all styles) of pizza; some of which (particularly NY style) simply cannot be done very well in most home ovens. Furthermore, the MPO doesn't heat up your house and force you to crank up the AC.

Here are the basics of why the Mighty Pizza Oven can help you make infinitely better pizzas than the pizzas you bake in an unmodified grill (which will almost always blacken the bottom of the pizza before the top of the pizza is even close to being done):

• The MPO has two stones; one that functions as an oven floor and one that functions as an oven ceiling.
• You place one stone on the grill grates. This stone has the same function as the stone you use in your oven.
• The second stone is held in place about 1" to 2" above the pizza (it's adjustable), where it absorbs and stores several hundred degrees of heat, then radiates the heat back down to your pizza, thus providing top heat that normally does not exist when you bake pizza in a grill. This is why the pizzas pictured below have fully melted cheese, as well as nice browning of the crust, while the pizzas in my NY style post have white crusts and the cheese/toppings aren't really done.

I feel I should reveal right away that I did not pay for my MPO. Rather, Bert offered me one, for reasons I have probably figured out (but have not confirmed). Basically, Bert respects my pizzamaking skills and he knew I was unlikely to ever buy an MPO, mostly because I'm always broke and because I prefer to bake pizzas that are bigger than the MPO's 13" stone. I assume he gave me the MPO partly in hopes that I would make some exceptions, then share my results here and on pizzamaking.com. But this much is true: Bert did not ask me to say anything anywhere.

After Bert sent me the MPO (in March 2014, I believe), I quickly figured out that there is a very easy way around the small stone issue, which changed everything for me because it allowed me to make the same size pizzas I normally make. All I had to do was swap the MPO's 13" stone with my 15.75" stone, which just fits inside the MPO. Before I tried it, neither Bert nor myself thought the MPO would work very well with such a large stone blocking air flow and keeping hot air from rising to above pizza level. But you know what? It worked just fine. Which means there is plenty of bottom heat and top heat when I use my 15.75" stone in the MPO.

After seeing my good results with the bigger stone, Bert also did some experimenting with a larger stone, and I believe he said it worked just as well for him as when he uses a smaller stone. So maybe future versions of the MPO will come with a bigger bottom stone. As long as the results with the larger stone match the results with the smaller stone, I think it would be a good idea to make a larger stone standard with the MPO. However, to me the MPO did seem to take a little longer to heat up with a bigger stone inside it. I'm not sure if that's what Bert experienced when he tried the bigger stone. Regardless, it doesn't take very long for the MPO's stones to reach baking temperatures.

MODIFICATIONS I'VE MADE WITH THE MIGHTY PIZZA OVEN

As I've already said, I took the MPO's 13" stone out of the grill and replaced it with my 15.75" stone. Also, because I pretty much never want my bottom stone to be hotter than 600 degrees, I covered the bottom of the stone with aluminum foil. This reflects heat very effectively, which helps keep the stone from getting a couple hundred degrees hotter than I want it. After receiving some advice from Bert, I moved my MPO to the far left side of the grill so the MPO is above both burner #1 and burner #3 (straight behind the first and third knobs on the grill, from left to right). Every part of the grill that's not directly below the MPO is covered with aluminum foil, to nudge hot air into the MPO instead of letting the hot air escape into the sky (where there are no pizzas). You do not close the grill's lid when using the MPO.

The MPO in action after taking Bert's advice to move it to where it is above both burner #1 and burner #3. The MPO's handle does not get hot at all. (Thanks to Susi Q, a German couchsurfing guest, for taking this picture).

You may wonder why I cover the bottom of the stone with foil instead of just turning the gas lower. Well I have a good answer: If I turn the gas lower, it keeps the bottom stone from getting too hot, but it also keeps the top stone from getting hot enough, which I don't want to happen. The most difficult part of baking great pizza on a grill, even with an MPO, is rooted in the fact that there is not enough heat above the pizza, in relation to the heat below the pizza. By using foil to limit the temperature of the bottom stone (instead of limiting the temperature by turning down the heat), the grill is still able to fully heat the top stone.

As far as I know, Bert does not line his bottom stone with foil when he bakes in the MPO. Which I suppose is the main reason why the pizzas on Bert's MPO heat management page don't look as done on top as my pictures in this post. This happens because even though Bert and I both reach about the same degree of top heat during our bakes, Bert's bottom stone probably gets at least 200 degrees hotter than my bottom stone. Which means Bert's crust finishes a couple minutes faster than my crust finishes (which is exactly what he wants). However, the conditions that make his crust finish faster do not make the top finish any faster. So if Bert was to leave his pizzas in the MPO for as long as I do (to make sure the top of his pizzas bake fully), he'd most certainly end up with black (badly burned) bottom crust. The biggest reason why Bert chooses to continue baking on such a hot stone is because Bert's primary objective is to figure out how to perfect Neapolitan style in the MPO (which should bake in 60-90 seconds), while I generally do NY style in my MPO (which should bake in 4-5 minutes.)

None of what I just said means Bert is doing anything wrong. Rather, he's just trying to figure out a way to do Neapolitan right, which is not easy, even with expensive wood-fired ovens. I'm sure he'll keep trying until he finally does it. And that's one of many reasons why I think Bert is cool as hell. It's also the only reason why I've started considering trying to do Neapolitan style myself, even though Neapolitan has never interested me before. Because, like I said, all other pizza styles can already be done very well in the MPO.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS

To be clear, I did not create this post because I felt any kind of obligation to provide MPO exposure for Bert. Rather, I decided to create this post because: 1) The MPO is a really good piece of equipment (probably better than every similar pizzamaking device on the market); 2) The MPO has helped me create NY style pizzas of a quality that I simply have not been able to duplicate using any other consumer-quality oven or grill; 3) I like how Bert operates and I want to see him rewarded for all the good things he does to improve the MPO and help its owners best understand how they can make modifications for their unique style of pizzamaking; and 4) (I forgot 4, but it'll come to me eventually).

Also, Bert shares a ton of tips and other helpful information on the Mighty Pizza Oven web site. One cool thing about reading how both of us use the MPO is that Bert and I don't use it the same way. That doesn't make either of us wrong; it just gives you more than one perspective and a lot more opportunities to learn how to make the MPO create incredible pizzas that you may not be able to produce without an MPO.

I want to add that the MPO is not manufactured by a big company with big company resources. Rather, this is all Bert. He used his own money to have a certain amount of MPOs manufactured, and he's done everything on his own. Shortly before I published this post, I believe Bert said he had sold all the MPOs from the first batch, and that the MPO2 is now in production. So if you're looking to buy one shortly after I published this post, there may not be any available right away. If so, all I can say is be patient. I think Bert has earned a break from trying to make a career out of his hobby, and you'll probably be very satisfied if you wait for the MPO2 to become available.

The first bunch of pics below are NY style, followed by several deep dish pics and several Donatos style pics. I will probably eventually have more to say in this post. So if you like it, check back.

In the following pics, if a picture has no link in its caption, it means I already shared the appropriate link in one of the previous few pics of the same pizza. The only exception is the first Donatos style pizza, which I apparently did not share on pizzamaking.com. Also, there is lots of additional information about many of these pizzas in the pizzamaking.com posts immediately following the posts in which I shared pictures. Particularly there is a lot of interaction between Bert and myself. Very helpful stuff.

Pic 1 (3/26/14): First pizza I ever baked in the MPO (on the 13" stone, which is why there is so much black around the outside). From what I remember, this one was even blacker on the bottom (because I did not cover the bottom of the stone with foil).

Pic 2 (4/2/14): Not a great-looking whole pizza, but the next few pics are the same pizza, and I really like those pics.

Pic 3 (4/2/14)

Pic 4 (4/2/14): I think this is a very good crumb shot.

Pic 5 (4/2/14): To me this is a beautiful upskirt shot.

Pic 6 (4/3/14): This is not a very good looking pizza, but I like the pic because it demonstrates what a NY style pizza made of slightly overfermented dough looks like. (It's pale and it has a "flap" from where there was a large bubble in the dough.)

Pic 7 (4/3/14): Same overfermented pizza as just above. Note how pale it is compared to most of the others.

Pic 8 (4/9/14)

Pic 9 (4/9/14)

Pic 10 (4/9/14)

Pic 11 (4/9/14)

Pic 12 (4/9/14)

Pic 13 (4/9/14)

Pic 14 (4/11/14)

Pic 15 (4/11/14)

Pic 16 (4/11/14)

Pic 17 (4/11/14): I'd call this the proper NY style droop.

Pic 18 (4/13/14)

Pic 19 (4/13/14)

Pic 20 (4/14/14)

Pic 21 (4/14/14)

Pic 22 (4/19/14):Very nice.

Pic 23 (4/19/14): This is probably my favorite pic of any NY style pizza I've made and photographed.

Pic 24 (4/19/14)

Pic 25 (4/19/14)

Deep Dish

Pic 26 (4/15/14): This pic would be great if I had used enough cheese on this pizza.

Pic 27 (4/15/14)

Pic 28 (4/15/14)

Pic 29 (4/16/14): This one doesn't look particularly great because I put too much sauce on it, but I remember this pizza being excellent.

Pic 30 (4/16/14)

Pic 31: (4/16/14)

Donatos style, sorta

Pic 32 (5/3/14): Apparently I did not share this one on pizzamaking.com. Not sure why.

Pic 33 (5/3/14)

Pic 34 (5/3/14)

Pic 35 (5/3/14)

Pic 36 (5/3/14)

Pic 37 (5/3/14)

Pic 38 (5/7/14)

Pic 39 (5/7/14)

Note at the very end of this post: I think it's worth noting that the grill in the very first pic was being thrown away by my parents' neighbors when my mom noticed it at the end of their driveway and asked if she could have it, to give it to me. In other words, all the pizzas in this post were baked in a grill that its original owner considered trash. Also, note the yellow device on the right side of the grill (in the first pic). The yellow thing is Bert's old IR thermometer. I had never used an IR thermometer before I had this one, but I quickly realized an IR thermometer is one of the most important and most useful pizzamaking tools you can own. This one helped me realize the temperature settings on ovens are pretty meaningless, as are the thermometer displays on grill lids. For example, with my old oven set at its max temp (500, calibrated +35), my stone wouldn't get any hotter than 520 degrees, while with my new oven set at its max temp (550, calibrated +35), my stone reaches at least 635 degrees on the bottom rack and at least 750 on the oven floor. I didn't mention the temp of the stone when the stone is on my previous oven's floor because it is not possible to put the stone on the floor of my old oven (due to the presence of electric heating elements).

Ryan's New York style (baked in a grill)

I'm still drafting this post. I have plenty to add, and a ton of revising to do, so check out what I've already drafted and come back later to see what I've added.

Pizza after a 5-minute bake on the grill. This is not my favorite pic, but other
people seem to think it looks good.
 

Beautiful color on this one. Nice texture, too, which wouldn't
have been there if I had used this dough a day earlier.

If you want to make NY style pizza the same day you make the dough, this post will not guide you there. I will eventually write another post for same-day NY style dough, but I want you to know right now that same-day NY style dough isn't nearly as good as a 48-hour or 72-hour dough.

This post is about NY style pizza baked in a grill (on a stone) 2 or 3 days after you mix the dough. This pizza can also be done in a home oven, but I usually make them on the grill because real NY style pizza is supposed to be baked in a deck oven at about 650 degrees, and the grill gives me similar conditions as a 650-degree oven. (Plus my oven sucks in just about every way possible.)

Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks when baking in a grill instead of an oven. First of all, the heat distribution is very uneven between the top and the bottom; there is a ton of bottom heat, but not enough top heat. Consequently, the bottom of the pizza almost always finishes well before the top of the pizza. If you allow the top to finish completely, you'll end up with a very overbaked (or burned) crust. Also, you lose a whole bunch of top heat every time you open the grill, and it takes a while for the grill to recover that heat. That means it's best not to open the grill while the pizza is baking, which is kind of impossible if you need to rotate, adjust, or check the pizza. Fortunately I've learned some tricks that help me get around this, and I'll share these tricks with you later in the post.

The grill does not forgive. If you're not an extremely experienced pizzamaker, it's really easy to mangle pizza on the grill. But even if you are an experienced pizzamaker, it's still easy to mangle pizza on the grill. This is evident in some of the pictures I've included in this post, as some of my pictured pizzas have very dark (burned) spots on the bottom of the crust and/or the outer edges.

I'm telling you this stuff because I don't want to mislead you into thinking you're gonna crank out a bunch of beautiful pies as soon as you start baking on the grill, because you probably won't. Still, I don't want you to be afraid to make pizza on the grill, because with a little practice you can make some of the most amazing pizzas you could ever imagine.

The great thing about screwing up is that mistakes always present wonderful learning opportunities. Before you will be able to make beautiful, delicious pizzas, you'll make dozens of pizzas that you won't really want people to see or eat. Don't worry about it, though, because even bad pizza is usually pretty good.

Here's the formula for this dough:

100% All Trumps bleached & bromated high gluten flour (General Mills)
58% Water
0.63% ADY
1.5% Salt
1.58% Oil

You can substitute all-purpose flour, bread flour, or any other high gluten flour to make this dough, but doing so will likely sacrifice almost everything that is great about this pizza. Needless to say, I highly recommend using All Trumps bleached and bromated flour if you're not afraid to buy a 50-pound bag from your local foodservice distributor (for less than $25). If you can't get All Trumps, at least try to find a bromated flour. (Actually, I think pennmac.com ships 5-pound bags of All Trumps flour, in addition to many other pizzamaking ingredients and tools.)

To make enough dough for two 14" pizzas, here's a recipe based on the formula above:

15.46 oz HG flour
8.97 oz Water
0.93 tsp ADY
1.35 tsp Salt
1.54 tsp Oil

Even though you normally want to keep your measurements as precise as possible, it's OK if you round these measurements to 15.5 oz, 9 oz, 1 tsp, 1.5 tsp, and 1.5 tsp. This recipe will make 25 oz of dough, which you will divide into two dough balls of about 12.3 oz. If 25 oz of dough is not the right amount of dough for you, use the formula above to come up with a batch size that's most appropriate for your needs.

Specialized tools you will need to make this pizza:

• A wooden pizza peel.
• A baking stone (cordierite) at least 1/2" thick. If you have a thin stone that came from a cook store or department store, it will probably break. Plus it's not very useful because it doesn't have much thermal mass.

To make this batch of dough, follow these instructions:

1. Measure 8.97 oz of 110-degree water, and pour about 2 oz of the water into your mixer bowl.
2. Measure 0.93 tsp ADY and add to the water in mixer bowl.
3. Stir the yeast water if you feel so inclined.
4. Measure 15.46 oz of flour.
5. Measure 1.35 tsp of salt and add to flour. Stir the flour to incorporate salt.
6. Check the yeast water. If it is foamy, add the rest of the water to the mixer bowl and move on to the next step. If it is not foamy, wait about five minutes. It should be foamy by then. If so, add the rest of the water and move on to the next step. If not, consider buying new yeast, but move on to the next step anyway because everything will probably work out.
7. Add the flour and salt to the mixer bowl.
8. Place the mixer bowl on the mixer and start mixing on speed 2 with the dough hook.
9. After the dough comes together into a shaggy mass (less than a minute), add 1.54 tsp of oil to the dough (without turning off the mixer).
10. Mix until the dough has a texture similar to cottage cheese. (With my mixer, this takes about 3 minutes.)






Dough after mixing for 3 minutes. Notice that it is not smooth like most cookbooks say
it should be. 3 minutes is an appropriate mix time for a dough that will be used at least
two days after mixing.



11. After mixing, let the dough rest for about half an hour. This is not a rise; it's just a rest.






Same dough after resting for half an hour.



12. Divide the dough into two pieces of about 12.3 oz each.






Dividing the dough into two pieces of equal weight (about 12.3 oz).



13. Give each piece of dough a few kneads and round into tight dough balls. (I know this instruction doesn't help you much, so I'll try to find a better way to explain this procedure.) Place each dough ball on the counter, seam-side down.






Two dough balls, rounded and ready to refrigerate. Notice how smooth this
dough looks compared to the dough in previous pics. It's the same dough.



14. Put the dough balls in some kind of air-tight setup, like plastic wrap, a bag, or a bowl. There are many different ways you can store your dough balls. I use plastic wrap to make sort of a book-like setup, as demonstrated in the next two pictures. Another way you could store the dough is in a very-lightly-oiled plastic bowl, covered.






This pic shows the first step of my wrapping method. At this point I spray a light mist of
nonstick spray on the top of the dough ball to make it easier to remove the plastic wrap later.






Dough ball with the plastic wrap folded over it, before refrigeration.



15. Once you've figured out how you prefer to store your dough, immediately put the dough in the refrigerator and leave it there for at least two days.
    
    

How to bake the pizza:

1. Remove dough ball(s) from fridge two hours before you intend to make pizza, and allow the dough to warm up at room temperature. (The dough will not warm up all the way to room temperature.) Since it's easier to remove cold dough from bowls or plastic surfaces, remove the dough and place it on a pan, as pictured below. Then cover with a bowl.






Dough ball after being removed from the refrigerator.






Dough ball on the pan, with a bowl covering it to keep it from drying out.






Dough ball after rising & warming at room temperature for about an hour and a half.



2. Make sure there is a baking stone in your oven or grill.
3. Important: If you'll be baking in the grill, line the bottom of your stone with aluminum foil. This will reflect some of the intense heat from the burner instead of allowing the stone to absorb all the heat. If you don't do this, your crust will be black within a couple minutes of baking, but the top of the pizza will not be anywhere near finished. (I can't say for sure whether it's better to keep the shiny side or the dull side of the foil exposed because I've never paid attention or thought about it.)
4. If you'll be baking in your oven, make sure there's a stone inside it, then preheat the oven at its max temperature beginning an hour before you intend to bake the pizza. If baking on the grill, insert your stone, then set the burners to high and pre-heat the grill and stone for about 45 minutes before you begin baking.
5. Before you begin assembling the pizza, remove your dough ball from its proofing pan, and coat the dough ball with flour.
6. Set the dough ball on your work surface (counter) and use your fingertips to flatten the dough.
7. There are many different ways to stretch NY style pizza dough. Since it's difficult to explain how to do this with text, I suggest that you watch a dough-stretching video on YouTube to learn. [Insert dough stretching pic (from bottom of this page) here.]
8. Once you've stretched the dough to the desired size, set the dough on your counter and add a large pinch of flour to the top surface of your wooden peel. Use your palm and fingers to distribute the flour evenly across the entire surface of the peel.
9. Place the dough skin on the floured peel.






Dough skin on a wooden peel, ready to be topped and baked. Notice
that there is not an abundance of flour on the peel.



10. Top the skin with sauce, cheese, and toppings.






Dough skin with a relatively light application of sauce.






Dough skin with sauce and cheese.



11. Give the peel a quick shake to make sure the dough is not sticking to it.
12. Peel the dough onto the stone in your grill or oven.






Me peeling a 16" pizza onto a 15.5" stone. Don't try this until you've
made a few thousand pizzas.






The pizza just after peeling it onto the stone.



13. If you're baking on the grill, and if you landed the pizza completely on the stone (without any dough hanging over the side), set a timer for 5 minutes.






The same pizza baking on the stone after a few minutes. Take note
of the foil lining the bottom of the stone.



14. When the timer hits 4 minutes and 30 seconds, open the grill and use a peel to lift part of the pizza so you can see the bottom. If your grill puts out the same temperatures as mine, the pizza should be just about done. A nice brown color is what I call done. It's your pizza, though, so it's your call.
15. If you baked in the oven at 500, it should take about 7 minutes for your pizza to finish baking.
16. When your pizza is done, remove it, cut it, and serve it.
    
    

    

    The same pizza just after baking. Notice that it wouldn't hurt for
    the top to be a little more done.

    
    

    

    Underside of the same pizza. One of my favorite pics.

    
    

    

    This is beautiful to me. That's the color I want my pizza crusts to be.

    
    

    

    Profile of a slice to show its thickness (or, rather, its thinness).

Tips: I like to expose dough balls to air for about an hour before I knock them down and stretch them. By doing this, the top of the dough ball dries a little, causing a light crust to form on the dough ball. The top of the dough ball becomes the bottom of the skin, and the dry bottom of the skin makes it much easier to slide the skin off the peel. The dried dough also creates a nice texture on the bottom of the pizza.

Things you need to know about NY style pizza:

1. Despite the fact that most "experts" almost always say to let dough rise (or bulk-ferment), then punch down the dough before you divide the dough and form dough balls, New York style dough is not supposed to be allowed to bulk ferment. We're not making bread here; we're making pizza. Instead of allowing the dough to bulk ferment after mixing, the dough should be divided, scaled, and rounded into dough balls immediately after mixing. Allowing the dough to bulk ferment makes a huge difference in the texture (or crumb) of the crust. Bulk fermenting creates a more intricate crumb structure, which many people prefer, but New York style pizza does not have an intricate crumb structure.
2. Celebrity chefs don't know what they're talking about when it comes to any style of pizza. Don't listen to them. Baking and cooking are two different things, and celebrity chefs are cooks, not bakers. I'd say the same thing about cookbook authors, with one difference: Although some cookbook authors probably do know about pizza, they're usually forced by their publishers to dumb it down, and their books are useless.
3. Don't even think about using the dough the same day you make it. (The best NY style dough is refrigerated for 2 or 3 days.
4. When you make dough that will be refrigerated for more than a day, you should undermix the dough. The gluten will develop while the dough ferments. So if you mix the dough to full gluten development, you'll end up with a tough, overdeveloped gluten structure. I mix my dough for 3 minutes. I used to mix it for 15 minutes, like most cookbooks and other resources instruct. But over a span of many years and a few thousand pizzas, I learned not to do that.
5. Never use a pan or a screen to make NY style pizza. Actually, you can use a pan or a screen if you want. Just realize that if you bake your pizza any way other than by peeling the pizza directly onto a stone, the pizza is not NY style. Instead, it will be a lame copy of NY style.
6. If you use a rolling pin, it's not NY style.
7. Window-paning is useless. I know Alton Brown seems like he knows what he's talking about, but when it comes to pizza or baking, he doesn't. He's a chef, not a baker or pizzamaker. If you can window-pane this dough, you have overmixed it.

Still trying to figure out whether to keep any of the following pics in this post.

Nice color, but a little dark in the spot on the left. That's one of the things you have to
deal with when you bake on the grill.

Undercrust shot, or "upskirt."

Topped and ready to be peeled onto the stone.

Ready to be removed from the grill.

Just after baking.

Another baked pizza.