Pizza Dough Calculator

How the calculator works

Pizza dough is written in baker’s percentages. Flour is 100 percent and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour weight. The calculator starts from the dough you want to end up with and works back to the flour.

total dough = number of pizzas x dough ball weight

flour = total dough / (1 + hydration + salt + yeast + oil + sugar)

The percentages are written as decimals in that sum, so 59 percent hydration is 0.59. Once the flour is known, each ingredient is the flour weight times its percentage.

Worked example

Four pizzas with 250 gram dough balls, at 59 percent hydration, 2.9 percent salt and 0.1 percent fresh yeast.

1. Total dough: 4 x 250 = 1,000 grams.
2. Flour: 1,000 / (1 + 0.59 + 0.029 + 0.001) = 1,000 / 1.62 = 617 grams.
3. Water: 617 x 0.59 = 364 grams.
4. Salt: 617 x 0.029 = 18 grams.
5. Fresh yeast: 617 x 0.001 = 0.6 grams.

Check: 617 + 364 + 18 + 0.6 = 1,000 grams.

The Neapolitan starting point

The calculator opens with values taken from the recipe published by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, the body that defines true Neapolitan pizza. That recipe is written per liter of water:

• Water: 1 liter
• Flour: 1,600 to 1,800 grams
• Salt: 40 to 60 grams
• Fresh yeast: 0.1 to 3 grams
• Dough ball: 200 to 280 grams

Turned into baker’s percentages, that is 56 to 62.5 percent hydration and about 2.2 to 3.75 percent salt. The calculator’s defaults of 59 percent hydration and 2.9 percent salt sit in the middle of those ranges. There is no oil and no sugar in the AVPN recipe, which is why both start at zero.

The same source gives the bake: 60 to 90 seconds in an oven at 430 to 480 °C. A home oven cannot reach that, which is part of why home recipes often move away from these numbers.

Adjusting for other styles and ovens

The percentages are yours to change. Use “Reset to Neapolitan” to get back to the starting values.

Hydration. Wetter dough gives a more open, airy crust but is harder to shape. In a home oven, where the pizza bakes for minutes instead of seconds, a wetter dough also stays softer for longer.

Oil. Oil makes the crust more tender and helps it brown. Pan and American style pizzas usually include some.

Sugar. A little sugar helps browning at home oven temperatures, where the crust otherwise stays pale.

Ball weight. A heavier ball makes a bigger or thicker pizza. Weigh a ball from a pizza you were happy with and use that number.

Yeast and time

The yeast figure looks tiny because Neapolitan dough ferments slowly. The AVPN recipe allows 8 to 24 hours of rising, and says the amount of yeast depends on the temperature and humidity of the room.

The principle to hold on to is that yeast and time trade against each other. More yeast, or a warmer room, means a faster rise. Less yeast, or a cooler room, means a slower one. If you want pizza tonight, you need more yeast than the default. If you are making dough for tomorrow, the small amount is right.

For dry yeast, use one third of the fresh yeast weight.

Tips and common mistakes

Make a little extra. Some dough always stays on the bowl and your hands. Add one pizza to the count, or add 2 or 3 percent to the ball weight.

Weigh the water. Hydration only means something if both flour and water are weighed. A milliliter of water weighs a gram.

Divide by weight, not by eye. Put each ball on the scale so the pizzas bake in the same time.

Rest the balls before shaping. Dough that has just been divided is tight and springs back. Covered and left alone, it relaxes and stretches without tearing.

Keep the percentages when you change the batch. Going from four pizzas to ten changes every gram amount, but the percentages stay the same. That is what makes a recipe repeatable.