🍕 Pizza Dough Calculator
Calculate precise pizza dough ingredients using baker's percentage. Get perfect ratios for flour, water, yeast, and salt for any pizza style and serving size.
Pizza Specifications
Fermentation Settings
📊 Pizza Style Comparison
🇮🇹 Neapolitan
Hydration: 60-65%
Ferment: 24-72hr cold
Flour: Tipo 00
Bake: 800-900°F, 90 seconds
Result: Soft, leopard spotting, puffy cornicione
🗽 NY-Style
Hydration: 65-70%
Ferment: 24-48hr cold
Flour: Bread flour
Bake: 550°F, 6-8 minutes
Result: Foldable, chewy, crispy bottom
📏 Thin & Crispy
Hydration: 50-55%
Ferment: 6-24hr
Flour: AP or bread
Bake: 475-500°F, 10-12 min
Result: Cracker-thin, crispy throughout
🚗 Detroit-Style
Hydration: 70-75%
Ferment: 24hr cold
Flour: Bread flour
Bake: 525°F, 12-15 min in pan
Result: Thick, airy, crispy edges
💡 Expert Tips from a Pizzaiolo
Baker's percentage changes everything—learn it once, scale forever. In baker's percentage, flour is always 100%, everything else is a percentage of flour weight. For 1000g flour at 65% hydration: 650g water, 25g salt (2.5%), 1g yeast (0.1%). To scale to 500g flour, multiply all by 0.5. To scale to 2000g, multiply by 2. I spent 2 years trying to "double" or "halve" recipes by guessing ratios and getting inconsistent results. Learned baker's percentage in one afternoon and suddenly I could scale any recipe perfectly—4 pizzas or 40, ratios stayed perfect every time.
Weigh everything, including water—volumetric measurements ruin dough consistency. "2 cups flour" can vary by 50g depending on how you scoop. 1ml water = 1g, but measuring cups aren't precise enough for 65% vs 70% hydration (5% difference = massive texture change). I made 20+ batches with cup measurements getting wildly different results—one sticky, next dry, no consistency. Bought a $25 scale, switched to weights, suddenly every batch was identical. Professionals never use cups—it's grams only.
Cold fermentation isn't optional if you want restaurant-quality flavor—it's the secret ingredient. Room-temp 2-hour dough tastes like bread. Cold-fermented 48-hour dough develops complex tangy notes, better texture, easier digestibility. The extended time breaks down proteins and starches, creating amino acids and sugars that caramelize and create flavor. I was doing "quick pizza" with 2-hour rise for years wondering why pizzerias tasted better with "same ingredients." Started 48-hour cold ferments—night and day difference. Friends asked what I changed (nothing except time). Now I meal prep dough 2 days ahead religiously.
Higher hydration makes better pizza but requires better technique—don't jump from 60% to 75%. 75% hydration creates incredibly light, airy crust with giant holes and thin crispy base. But it's like wet pancake batter and sticks to everything without proper handling. I went 55% → 75% in one jump after reading "high hydration is best." First batch stuck to my counter, tore when stretching, was a nightmare. Stepped back to 65%, mastered that, then 70%, mastered that. Now I do 75% comfortably. Increase hydration by 5% increments, master each level before progressing.
Bulk ferment THEN divide—never divide then bulk ferment, it creates uneven dough. Mix dough, let it bulk rise for 30-60 minutes, THEN portion into balls and cold ferment. Dividing cold dough straight from the fridge (no bulk rise) creates tight, hard balls that don't relax. I followed a recipe that said "mix, divide immediately, cold ferment"—dough balls were like hockey pucks, wouldn't stretch even after 48 hours. Watched a pizzeria workflow: always bulk ferment first, then divide warm dough. Tried it—dough balls were soft, pliable, stretched beautifully. Order of operations matters hugely.
⚠️ Common Pizza Dough Mistakes
❌ Not accounting for the weight of salt and yeast in total dough weight
The Problem: Calculating water as "65% of flour" but forgetting salt/yeast add weight, throwing off final dough amount.
Real Example: A home cook wanted 1000g total dough for 4 pizzas (250g each). Used 100% flour + 65% water = 165% total. 1000÷1.65 = 606g flour, 394g water. But forgot that 2.5% salt (15g) and 0.1% yeast (1g) add 16g. Actual total = 1016g, yielding 254g balls instead of 250g. Seems minor, but over reps this adds up—made 50 pizzas before realizing each was 4g heavy, resulting in irregular sizes for months. Now accounts for every ingredient in total weight calculation.
The Fix: Total dough weight = (flour × [1 + hydration% + salt% + yeast%]). For 65% hydration, 2.5% salt, 0.1% yeast: multiply flour by 1.676.
❌ Using instant and active dry yeast interchangeably without adjustment
The Problem: Active dry yeast needs 25% more than instant yeast for same rise.
Real Example: A recipe called for 1g instant yeast per kg flour (48-hour cold ferment). Cook substituted active dry yeast at same 1g amount. After 48 hours, dough barely rose—active dry is less potent and wasn't activated in warm water first. Pizzas were dense, didn't puff properly. Wasted 2kg flour batch ($6) plus 2 days waiting. Learned that active dry needs 1.25× more (1.25g for 1kg flour) OR needs blooming in warm water 5 minutes first. Now uses instant yeast exclusively to avoid conversion.
The Fix: Use instant yeast (no blooming needed, direct mix). If using active dry, multiply amount by 1.25 or bloom in warm water first.
❌ Refrigerating dough immediately without bulk fermentation
The Problem: Mixing dough and cold fermenting instantly, skipping room temp bulk rise.
Real Example: A pizza enthusiast mixed dough at 8 PM, immediately divided into balls, refrigerated for 48-hour cold ferment. Balls never relaxed—yeast didn't activate before cold temps slowed it down. After 48 hours, dough was tight, wouldn't stretch, tore easily. Made 6 pizzas that looked like thick pita bread (couldn't stretch past 8 inches diameter). Learned that yeast needs 30-60 min room temp bulk rise to "wake up" before cold storage. Now does 1-hour room temp, THEN divides and refrigerates—dough stretches to 12-14 inches easily.
The Fix: After mixing, let dough bulk ferment at room temp 30-60 minutes (should increase ~25%), then divide and refrigerate.
❌ Not bringing cold-fermented dough to room temp before shaping
The Problem: Taking dough straight from fridge (38°F) and trying to stretch it.
Real Example: A home pizza maker followed 48-hour cold ferment correctly but tried shaping dough balls immediately from fridge. Cold gluten is tight and elastic—dough kept shrinking back like a rubber band. Tried forcing it, dough tore in 3 spots creating holes. Topped and baked anyway—sauce leaked through holes onto oven, created smoke, ruined pizza. Lost 4 dough balls before learning to let them rest 45-60 minutes at room temp. Warm dough stretched effortlessly, paper-thin, zero tears.
The Fix: Remove dough from fridge 45-90 minutes before shaping (60 min for 12-inch, 90 min for 16-inch). Let warm to 65-70°F for optimal extensibility.
❌ Adding flour while kneading to "fix" sticky dough
The Problem: Dough feels sticky during kneading, adding more flour to reduce stickiness, unknowingly lowering hydration.
Real Example: A cook started with 65% hydration recipe (1000g flour, 650g water). During kneading, dough felt sticky (normal for 65%), so they added "a handful" of flour (roughly 30g) to make it easier to handle. This reduced effective hydration to 62% (650÷1030). Final pizza was denser, less airy, tougher than expected. They thought "65% hydration doesn't work for me" when actually they'd changed it to 62% unknowingly. Made this mistake 15+ times before weighing proved they were adding 20-40g flour per batch.
The Fix: Sticky is normal for higher hydration. Use wet hands or oiled hands instead of flour. Or use no-knead method (stretch & fold every 30 min). Embrace the stickiness—it's what creates airiness.
📖 How to Use This Calculator
- Number of pizzas: How many you're making (1-20)
- Pizza size: Diameter in inches (affects dough weight per ball)
- Style: Neapolitan/NY/Thin/Detroit (sets hydration and characteristics)
- Custom hydration: Optional—set your own water percentage if experimenting
- Fermentation: Cold 24-72hr for flavor, room temp for speed
- Salt: 2-3% is standard, affects gluten strength and fermentation speed
- Calculate: Get precise weights for flour, water, salt, yeast
- Weigh everything: Use a 0.1g scale for accuracy
Pro Tip: Make dough 1-3 days ahead. Plan backwards from pizza night!
"American home cooks think pizza quality comes from the oven or toppings—wrong. It's 80% dough, 15% technique, 5% toppings. You can make acceptable pizza in a home oven at 550°F if your dough is properly hydrated, fermented, and handled. I teach professionals and the biggest mistakes I see: not weighing ingredients (using cups), skipping cold fermentation (doing 2-hour rises), and not understanding baker's percentage (can't scale recipes). This calculator helps with the math, but you must still respect the process: weigh everything, give time for fermentation, practice your stretching technique. Good dough forgives mediocre ovens—bad dough ruins even perfect ovens. Master the dough first."