New York Style Pizzas

I've decided we will have more pizza nights because we all love pizza and everyone eats it without complaint.  Can't beat that right.  However, since I don't like having the same thing over and over, I've decided with this new pizza more often plan that we will try different pizzas.  DH wanted to try and even thinner crust pizza today, but I decided to flip through the our favorite pizza book, American Pie,  (I love this book.  It is purely pizza, but also a lot of story about trying the pizzas, and where he found them.  Great book!)   The first interesting recipes I came to that were not using Neapolitan or Neo Neapolitan crusts (which we use most often around here) were the New York style.
 I chose 2 pizzas with different style toppings, but both with the same crust.  They were both very tasty.  I really liked the sauce and cheese pizza.  I thought the crust turned out a bit thicker/sturdier than it was supposed to - It was supposed to the the flimsier type that you have to fold the point back up on the pizza to pick it up.  Ours weren't.  I think part of the problem is that they really didn't end up getting cooked at quite 12" round.  I rolled them out that large, but my pizza peel is not that large.  I was still plenty happy with the result.
The pizzas I made were New York style sauce and cheese - this one had mozzarella, parmigiano-reggiano, and a medium-sharp cheddar (I used a white cheddar)  I loved the flavor of this pizza.
The second pizza was a New York style white pizza.  This one had a white cream/onion sauce and was topped with ricotta.  I'm not the hugest fan of ricotta - it's a texture issue, but the flavor of this pizza was great.  DH suggested making it another time with mozzarella, and that would be wonderful  The white sauce was excellent.
I did make a third pizza of just pepperoni and mozzarella.  I wasn't as impressed.  For all of these pizzas I made a marinara sauce from the book (with slight modification to the garlic and salt (other than cutting the recipe in half)  I guess after all of the flavors in the first cheese pizza, the  plain mozzarella pizza was just that - plain.  This picture is of the sauce and cheese pizza cooked.  It was so pretty going into the oven that I added a picture of that too.  There is also a picture of the white pizza below.

Dough
Ingredients

• 4 1/4 cups (22.5 oz) unbleached, bread flour (book called for 5 - 22.5 oz. was about 4 and 1-2 Tablespoons, but I found the dough too sticky and added another 1-2 Tablespoons - definitely start with 4, or just weigh it.)
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups room temp. water (I actually used lukewarm today because of my tardiness in starting my dough.)

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in mixer with dough hook until ingredients gather into a ball.  Let rest 5 min.  Mix again for 2 min or until dough clears on sides of the bowl and sticks just a little to the bottom.  
2. Divide into 3 equal pieces.  Place in a zippered freezer bag or plastic tub with lid.  Let sit at room temp for 15 min then put in fridge overnight.  (If you don't have time for that like I didn't, let sit at room temp for 1 hour, then put in fridge for 2.  - I actually only got them in the fridge for about 1 hour, and they still turned out fine.)
3. Remove dough from fridge 2 hours before you plan to use them.  

Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 15 oz. can tomato puree
• 3/4-1 cup water (depending on how thick you want the sauce)
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar or fresh squeezed lemon juice (I used 1 of each today.)

Directions

1. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl.

New York style sauce and cheese pizza

Ingredients

• 1 ball of dough from recipe above
• cornmeal for dusting peel
• 1/4 pound mozzarella cheese, coarsely grated
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 1/3 cup medium cheddar (white cheddar for us today.)
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon basil
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic herb blend
• 2/3 cup Marinara sauce

Directions

1. Place baking stone on middle oven rack.  Heat oven to highest setting for 1 hour.  If you are good, you can toss and spin the dough.  DH can do this, but I just roll it out.  Place on pizza peel that has been dusted with cornmeal.
2. In a bowl, stir together 3 cheese, oregano, basil, pepper and garlic blend. Spread marinara sauce over the surface of dough, leaving 1/2 inch border uncovered.  Spread cheese mixture evenly over the pizza.
3. Carefully slide the pizza onto the baking stone.  (The book says it will take 12 min.  Good thing I looked after 7.)  Bake 6-7 minutes or until crust is crisp and slightly charred on the edge.  (See pictures.)  
4. Remove pizza and let cool for about 3 minutes before slicing and serving.  

White Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, diced (I used 1/2 a medium)
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon minced thyme
• salt and pepper (may or may not have forgotten this.  If I used it, it was only a dash of each.)

Directions

1. In a heavy saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and saute for 5-6 minutes or until translucent.  Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute longer.  Add cream, lower the heat to med-low and cook for about 3 minutes or until the cream thickens and reduces slightly.  
2. Remove from heat and stir in thyme, salt and pepper.  Let cool completely before using.  

New York-Style white pizza

Ingredients

• 1  ball of dough from recipe above
• cornmeal for dusting peel
• 1 15 oz. container of ricotta cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 recipe of white sauce from above (make this first so it can cool.)
• 1 Tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley (wow, silly me just realized I threw this in the ricotta rather than sprinkling it on top at the end.  Oops.)

Directions

1. Same as #1 for the other pizza above.
2. Stir together ricotta, salt, thyme and pepper in a bowl.  Spread white sauce over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1/4 inch border.  Spread ricotta mixture over white sauce (this was quite thick.)
3. Same as #3 for the other pizza above.
4. Same as #4 for other pizza except sprinkle with parsley immediately after it comes out of the oven.