My crust is super thin???

[realityinabox]

Hey Guys,

So I've been dabbling in making pizzas in my spare time.  I start out pretty well, but it seems that the more pizzas I make, the thinner and thinner my crusts are getting. 

Using Peter Rhinehart's NY style crust recipe (following it step-by-step with no real modifications), KASL, IDY, I am getting doughs that are on the verge of windowpaning just from pulling them out of the fridge and picking them up to flour a bit.  I am afraid I am going to tear the dough, but it stretches that far without me even trying. 

Is this what is supposed to be happening?  Am I expecting the wrong thing out of the dough, or am I doing something wrong in the making it process?

I just pulled it out of the oven, it looks decent.  I'll post pics in a minute.  I have a feeling that I'm actually looking for an American style rather than a NY style. Is NY style suppose to be that thin?

[realityinabox]

Here are some pictures

[UnConundrum]

I don't think it's too thin;  looks about right to me.  I'll take a bit

[Pete-zza]

realityinabox,

For comparison purposes, you might want to take a look at this thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8100.msg69678.html#msg69678.

In Reply 7 in the same thread, at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8100.msg69678.html#msg69678, I converted the Reinhart NY style dough formulation to baker's percent format. As you will see from that baker's percent formulation, it has a high hydration (almost 65%), a large amount of yeast (IDY) for the recommended fermentation method/period (almost 0.71%), a lot of oil (about 6.3% oil), and a fair amount of sugar (about 2.8%). This combination is what was responsible for the extensive extensibility of the dough you prepared. On this point, you may also want to take a look at this thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8488.msg73497.html#msg73497.

You didn't say what size pizzas you made, but the Reinhart recipe instructions says to use each of the dough balls to make a 12" pizza. If you made 12" pizzas, they would still be on the thin size and with a fairly small rim because there isn't a great deal of oven spring. I attribute this result mainly to the high amounts of oil and sugar used. As I noted in Reply 7, I liken the Reinhart NY style more to a thin American style than a classic NY style that contains less yeast, no sugar and little or no oil. A classic NY style is even thinner, with a thickness factor in the general range of 0.08-0.105 (depending on whether the NY style is the "elite" style or the "street slice" style).

Peter

[Pete-zza]

realityinabox,

I thought that I had tried the Reinhart NY style dough recipe before so I did a search for it. It is at Reply 112 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,524.msg17203.html#msg17203. At the time, I didn't know that the recipe was for 12" pizzas, so I just came up with my own version--for a 16" pizza with a somewhat thinner crust. My baker's percents conversion calculations weren't as accurate as they now are, because I have better tools now, but I think you will get the general idea.

Peter