The Bleecker Street Bianca
Chapter 3 — The Pies
In Greenwich Village, a few blocks away from the neon lights of the modern slice shops, sits the historic heart of New York pizza. Since 1929, the coal-fired brick ovens of Bleecker Street have turned out pies with a crisp, char-kissed undercarriage and a chewy, structurally flawless crumb. A true Bianca strips away the tomato sauce, leaving nowhere to hide. It is a decadent, masterfully balanced architecture of whole-milk mozzarella, rich ricotta, garlic, and fresh basil. To replicate that aggressive coal-oven blister in a home kitchen, we respect thermodynamics, deploying a kitchen scale, diastatic malt powder, and a 24-hour cold ferment to push the crust to a dark, beautiful char.
Before you start
Whisk the ice-cold water and fine sea salt in a stand mixer bowl until the salt dissolves.
Add the high-gluten flour, diastatic malt powder, and instant dry yeast. Mix on the lowest speed until a shaggy dough forms, then let it rest for 15 minutes to autolyse and jumpstart gluten development.
Knead on medium-low speed for 5 minutes, then slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
Continue kneading for another 3 to 4 minutes until the oil is fully incorporated and the dough is smooth, elastic, and clears the sides of the bowl.
Rest the dough for 30 minutes at room temperature, then divide into three equal portions.
Using a bench scraper and a scale, portion the dough out at roughly 340 grams each. Fold the edges into the center, flip seam-side down, and drag in tight circles to build a taut surface tension.
Place each dough ball into a lightly oiled, airtight container and cold-ferment in the refrigerator for 24 to 72 hours.
A 24-hour ferment yields excellent texture, while pushing it to 72 hours unlocks maximum sourdough-like flavor complexity.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator 2 hours before baking to temper.
The dough must reach room temperature to stretch easily; cold dough will aggressively snap back.
Drain the ricotta and steep the garlic oil.
Drain the ricotta in a fine-mesh sieve for 2 hours prior to assembly to prevent a soggy pie. In a small bowl, whisk the microplaned garlic into the extra-virgin olive oil and let it steep.
Ingredients
- high-gluten flour600 g
- ice-cold water378 g
- fine sea salt15 g
- olive oil12 g
- diastatic malt powder9 g
- instant dry yeast2 1/2 g
- whole-milk low-moisture mozzarella170 g
- whole-milk ricotta125 g
- Pecorino Romano15 g
- extra-virgin olive oil15 g
- garlic1 large clove
- garlic powder1/4 tsp
- dried oregano1/4 tsp
- flaky sea salt1 pinch
- black pepper1 pinch
- fresh basil6 leaves
- semolina flour1 tbsp
Method
- 01
Position a baking steel on the upper-middle rack and preheat the oven to 550 degrees for at least one full hour.
The ambient air heats quickly, but the steel requires a full hour to absorb the thermal mass needed to emulate a coal-oven floor.
- 02
Dust a work surface with bread flour and gently stretch the room-temperature dough outward to a 14-inch diameter.
Press the center flat to expel the gas, then drape the dough over your knuckles and let gravity do the work, leaving a half-inch border untouched to form the cornicione.
- 03
Transfer the stretched dough to a semolina-dusted peel and dress the pizza.
Brush the entire surface with the garlic-infused extra-virgin olive oil, dust with garlic powder and oregano, scatter the mozzarella, and drop quarter-sized dollops of the drained ricotta evenly over the top.
- 04
Launch the pizza onto the hot steel and bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
Give the peel one final shake to ensure mobility, then use a swift pull-back motion to slide the pizza onto the steel. Rotate the pie 180 degrees at the 4-minute mark for an even bake.
- 05
Switch your oven to broil for the final 60 to 90 seconds.
The intense top-down radiant heat mimics the dome of a coal oven, aggressively blistering the cheese and charring the edges of the crust.
- 06
Transfer to a wire cooling rack and finish with Pecorino Romano and fresh basil.
The rack prevents steam from condensing under the crust and ruining the crispy undercarriage. Let the pie rest for 3 minutes before slicing and folding.
Notes
Respect the baker's percentages.
This dough relies on a highly specific 63 percent hydration and 1 1/2 percent diastatic malt powder to properly emulate a coal-oven bake at lower temperatures. Always weigh your flour and water in grams.
Cheese selection is absolutely non-negotiable.
Never use pre-shredded mozzarella. It is coated in cellulose to prevent clumping, which actively ruins the cohesive, stretchy melt required for a proper New York slice.