Questions about front page recipe

[El Pistolero]

I have a few questions about the NY Style recipe on the front page of this site.  I used this recipe years ago, back when it was on the blue-crab site, and while I could be miss-remembering, it seems like it has changed a bit.

First off the dough recipe doesn't say how large or how many crusts it will make.  If I remember right, 16 oz. of HGF and 9 oz. water yielded two crusts around 13 inches, but the recipe doesn't really say.  When I mixed it up the dough ball seemed a little smaller than I remember...is two small crusts right for this recipe?

On to the sauce, the recipe used to call for running a 28 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes through a strainer or food mill...now it just says to blend it.  Using the food mill was a bit of work, but it did remove a surprising amount of seeds, pulp, and small pieces of peel.  Was I doing that work for nothing, or will I be disappointed if I just blend everything in?

Again on the sauce, I was never able to find the Redpack brand locally, so I always just used a generic brand of whole peeled tomatoes packed in water, not realizing that the Redpack is packed in puree.  I was pretty pleased with the sauce made from the generic brand, tho I felt it was maybe a little bitter.  I've ordered a case of Redpack, but it'll be a week until it arrives, and I need to make some pizza's today.  Should I just add a little sugar to the tomatoes I've been using, or would I be better off using something packed in puree?  I've got some 6-in-1 that I could use, but I don't know if that will yield a sauce that's totally out of line for a NY Style pizza.  Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help.

[Pete-zza]

El Pistolero,

By my calculations, the NY style dough recipe at the front page of the forum, at http://www.pizzamaking.com/newyorkstyle.php, makes about 25.73 ounces of dough. Based on typical thickness factors that apply to a NY "street" style, that amount of dough would be enough to make a single 18" pizza or two roughly 12"-13" pizzas.

I took the liberty of converting the recipe to baker's percent format, using the dough calculating tool at http://www.pizzamaking.com/dough_calculator.html, and came up with the following:

Flour (100%): Water (56.25%): IDY (0.66406%): Salt (0.92285%): Oil (2.97618%): Total (160.81309%):

453.6 g  |  16 oz | 1 lbs 255.15 g  |  9 oz | 0.56 lbs 3.01 g | 0.11 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1 tsp | 0.33 tbsp 4.19 g | 0.15 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.75 tsp | 0.25 tbsp 13.5 g | 0.48 oz | 0.03 lbs | 3 tsp | 1 tbsp 729.45 g | 25.73 oz | 1.61 lbs | TF = N/A

With the abovementioned dough calculating tool, and using the baker's percents noted, you can increase or decrease the amount of dough at will, and the tool will tell you the amounts of ingredients for your selected dough weight. For example, if you want to make 23 ounces of dough (enough for two 12" pizzas), the results would look like this:

Flour (100%): Water (56.25%): IDY (0.66406%): Salt (0.92285%): Oil (2.97618%): Total (160.81309%):

405.47 g  |  14.3 oz | 0.89 lbs 228.08 g  |  8.05 oz | 0.5 lbs 2.69 g | 0.09 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.89 tsp | 0.3 tbsp 3.74 g | 0.13 oz | 0.01 lbs | 0.67 tsp | 0.22 tbsp 12.07 g | 0.43 oz | 0.03 lbs | 2.68 tsp | 0.89 tbsp 652.05 g | 23 oz | 1.44 lbs | TF = N/A

As an alternative approach, you can use the thickness factor option of the tool, and enter, say, 0.10-0.105 for a NY street style, along with the abovementioned baker's percents and other inputs called for by the tool, and you can come up with the ingredients for any number and sizes of pizzas. As an example, if you want to make three 14" pizzas with a thickness factor (TF) of 0.10, the results would look like this:

Flour (100%): Water (56.25%): IDY (0.66406%): Salt (0.92285%): Oil (2.97618%): Total (160.81309%): Single Ball:

814.14 g  |  28.72 oz | 1.79 lbs 457.95 g  |  16.15 oz | 1.01 lbs 5.41 g | 0.19 oz | 0.01 lbs | 1.79 tsp | 0.6 tbsp 7.51 g | 0.27 oz | 0.02 lbs | 1.35 tsp | 0.45 tbsp 24.23 g | 0.85 oz | 0.05 lbs | 5.38 tsp | 1.79 tbsp 1309.24 g | 46.18 oz | 2.89 lbs | TF = 0.1 436.41 g | 15.39 oz | 0.96 lbs

Note: Thickness factor = 0.10

If you play around with the tool, you will see how easy it is to change things. Of course, when you change things, the instructions for making the dough may require adjustment also. You can also use the tool to compensate for minor dough losses in the bowl during preparation, by using the bowl residue compensation feature. I usually use 1.5% for the NY style dough.

As far as the tomatoes are concerned, many NY pizza style operators use the 6-in-1s. When I use those tomatoes, I either drain them a little bit or just use them out of the can, together with a bit of dried oregano and basil.

Peter