Some chew is the point. A New York crust made with high-protein bread flour is meant to have bite, and Ken Forkish counts high-gluten flour as part of what makes a New York pizza what it is. This page is for crust that’s tougher than the style you were making: a delicate Neapolitan-style rim that eats like a bagel, or a crust that’s leathery all the way through.
Three questions that narrow it down
- How did the dough behave when you stretched it? If it kept springing back, the gluten was too tight going into the oven. That points to dough that was too young, over-mixed or made with a strong flour. If it stretched easily, the problem is more likely in the bake.
- Where is it tough? Tough everywhere points to the dough or the length of the bake. Fine at the rim but chewy and gummy in the middle points to an underbaked center.
- What kind of tough? Dense, bready and rubbery points to the dough. Dry, hard and crackly points to a long or cool bake, or a dough with too little water for it.
| What you noticed | Most likely cause | Change next time |
|---|---|---|
| Dough sprang back; crust dense and chewy throughout | Dough too young | Ferment longer |
| Dough was tight straight after a long machine mix | Over-mixed | Mix only until combined |
| Crust chewier than the style; dough hard to open | Flour stronger than the style needs | A moderate-protein flour |
| Crust dry and hard all through, after a kitchen-oven bake | Too little water for a long bake | About 70% hydration for Neapolitan-style at home |
| Rim dark and dry; the bake ran well past the usual window | Baked too long or too cool | A hotter surface and a shorter bake |
| Rim fine; middle chewy, gummy or translucent | Underbaked center | Lighter sauce and toppings |
1. The dough was too young
Forkish is blunt about under-fermented dough. Cut the timeline short, he writes, and you get dough that is too elastic and difficult to stretch, and a bland crust that is dense and chewy. Time does work you can’t do with your hands: as dough ferments, enzymes in the flour gradually break down the gluten network, and the dough becomes extensible instead of springy.
A dough that rose quickly can still be young. Forkish’s signs of a mature dough ball are that it has expanded, shows small bubbles of fermentation gas, has gassy holes on the bottom when you turn it over, and feels soft, relaxed and easy to stretch.
Next bake: choose a longer schedule. The Pizza Planner offers same-day, overnight and two-day cold schedules for each style and works the timing back from dinner, including about two hours for refrigerated dough balls to warm up before stretching.
2. It was over-mixed
Forkish mixes most of his pizza doughs by hand, and gives the reason: mixing in a machine for too long organizes the gluten network too much, which makes the dough more elastic and the crust chewier. For his stiff, 64%-hydration New York dough, where a stand mixer helps, he mixes for about 90 seconds on the lowest speed and warns that over-mixing will make the dough too elastic and tough once baked.
Pizza dough doesn’t need to be smooth and silky after mixing the way a sandwich-bread dough does. Mix until there’s no dry flour, let it rest, and let time do the rest.
Next bake: mix only until the ingredients come together. See pizza dough kneading for hand and machine methods.
3. The flour is stronger than the style needs
Higher-protein flour forms a stronger gluten network. That gives a New York crust its structure, but Forkish notes that high-protein flours can also make dough elastic and hard to shape, and need a longer fermentation to break the gluten down a little. Most of his doughs for delicate, hand-stretched pizzas use 00 or all-purpose flour of moderate protein instead.
Next bake: for a Neapolitan-style or other delicate crust, use a moderate-protein 00 or all-purpose flour. If you want to keep bread flour, give it the longer schedule its style uses: the Planner’s default for New York dough is a two-day cold ferment. Best flour for pizza dough compares the options.
4. The dough was too stiff for a long bake
A kitchen oven bakes for minutes, not seconds, and the crust dries the whole time. Forkish’s example: a Neapolitan dough made to the traditional formula, at 55 to 58% hydration in his 2016 account, bakes in about 60 seconds in a 905°F (485°C) wood-fired oven. Bake the same dough for about 7 minutes in a 550°F (290°C) kitchen oven and it comes out crisp all the way through and a little dry. His fix is a wetter dough, at 70% hydration, for Neapolitan-style pizza at home.
The Planner follows the same logic. It uses 60% hydration for Neapolitan-style dough in a high-heat pizza oven and 70% for the home-oven version. New York dough stays at 64% in any oven, because that style is meant to be crisper and firmer.
Next bake: if you’re making Neapolitan-style pizza in a kitchen oven with a lower-hydration recipe written for a pizza oven, move up to about 70%. More on this in the pizza dough hydration guide.
5. It baked too long or too cool
The longer a crust is in the oven, the more moisture it loses. On a steel or stone at 500 to 550°F (260 to 288°C), the Planner expects a Neapolitan-style pizza to take about 6 to 10 minutes and a New York pizza about 8 to 12. If yours regularly needs much longer to brown, one common reason is a surface that wasn’t fully heated, so the pizza stays in until the crust has dried out.
Next bake: preheat the steel or stone fully at the oven’s hottest setting (the Planner plans 45 to 60 minutes; follow your steel’s instructions if they ask for longer), and pull the pizza when the underside is browned rather than at a fixed time. If it won’t brown in that window, see pizza crust not browning.
6. Only the middle is chewy: it’s underbaked
A chewy, gummy or translucent layer in the middle, just under the sauce, isn’t tough dough. Modernist Pizza calls it the gel layer: dough under the sauce that never fully cooked, because the wet sauce keeps it cool while the base bakes from below. When it’s thick, they note, people often mistake the gooey texture for cheese.
Next bake: use less sauce and fewer toppings, or put the cheese down before the sauce, which Modernist Pizza found produces a much smaller gel layer. How to fix a soggy pizza bottom covers it in detail.
Change one thing at a time
If you switch flour, lengthen the schedule and raise the oven temperature all at once, the next pizza may be better, but you won’t know why. Pick the cause that matches your answers to the three questions, change that, and keep everything else the same.
For the wider list of dough problems, see pizza dough troubleshooting.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does bread flour make pizza crust tough?
- It makes it chewier, which is right for a New York pizza and wrong for a delicate Neapolitan-style crust. Strong flour also needs a longer fermentation to relax. If you want a lighter crust, use a moderate-protein 00 or all-purpose flour; if you want New York chew, keep the bread flour and give it a long cold ferment.
- Why is my crust tough even though the dough rose well?
- Rising and maturing aren't the same thing. A warm, well-yeasted dough can rise quickly while its gluten is still tight. Forkish's sign of a mature dough is how it feels as well as how it looks: soft, relaxed and easy to stretch, with gassy holes on the underside. A longer, cooler fermentation gets you there.
- Can I fix dough that's already tough before I bake it?
- If it's springing back, give it more time: cover it and let it rest at room temperature, and it will usually relax enough to stretch. That helps dough that's young or cold. It won't undo a flour that's too strong for the style or a bake that runs too long; those are changes for the next batch.
Sources
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016), chapter 3 (details 1, 4 and 7: matching hydration to the oven, hand-mixing, gluten’s role and mature dough balls), chapter 6 (the 48- to 72-hour New York dough’s mixing directions) and chapter 7 (New York Cheese Pizza).
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1, pages 370–371: the gel layer and cheese before sauce.