New York vs Detroit pizza — the difference
Two American favorites with different geometry: New York is a thin, foldable round stretched by hand, while Detroit is a thick, airy rectangle baked in a deep steel pan with caramelized cheese edges.
Side by side
Every number below is the calculator’s, at each style’s default size:
| New York | Detroit | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Hand-stretched round | Pan pizza |
| Typical size | 320 g ball ≈ 35 cm | 35 × 25 cm pan |
| Dough per pizza | 320 g | 630 g |
| Hydration | 63% | 70% |
| Salt | 2.5% | 2.2% |
| Oil | 2.5% | 2% |
| Sugar | 1.5% | 1% |
| Oven | 290 °C / 554 °F | 250 °C / 482 °F |
| Flour | Bread flour | Bread flour |
| Protein | 12.5–14% | 12.5–14% |
What sets them apart
New York. New York is a lean-leaning round with a little oil and sugar, stretched thin and baked into wide, foldable slices with a crisp-yet-bendy crust.
Detroit. Detroit fills a deep pan with a lighter dough, layering cheese to the walls so it fries into a crunchy frico edge while the crumb stays tall and open.
Which one to make
Go New York. Choose New York for classic foldable slices, a quick hand-stretch and no special pan — just a steel or stone.
Go Detroit. Choose Detroit when you want a thick, cheesy pan pizza with crispy edges and don't mind owning the deep pan it needs.
Both love a strong flour and a slow ferment, and both forgive a home oven. The difference is shape and method — stretched round versus pressed pan — so the calculator switches between ball weights and pan sizing when you pick the preset.
For the numbers behind the table, see the hydration and flour guides.
Questions from the counter
Which is easier for a beginner?
Detroit, usually — pressing dough into a pan is more forgiving than stretching a thin round without tearing. New York rewards a little practice at the stretch, but needs no special equipment.
Do they use the same dough?
Close, but not identical: both are strong-flour American doughs, yet New York is sized as hand-stretched balls while Detroit is sized to fill a pan, with its own hydration and dough density. Switch presets and the calculator reweighs everything.
Make either one
The calculator weighs and schedules both — pick a preset and it does the rest.
The clock is a suggestion. The dough is the boss. In bocca al lupo!
Impasto is a free pizza dough calculator for Neapolitan, New York, Roman, Sicilian, Detroit, thin crust and focaccia doughs — flour, water, salt and yeast weighed in baker's percentages, with the fermentation schedule written for you.