Pizza Dough Calculator
Work out flour, water, salt, yeast or sourdough starter for any number of pizza dough balls using baker's percentages.
Adjust the formula
| Ingredient | Amount | Baker’s % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | โ | โ |
| Water | โ | โ |
| Fresh (cake) yeast | โ | โ |
| Salt | โ | โ |
| Oil / fat | โ | โ |
| Sugar / malt | โ | โ |
โ = โ of dough ยท โ flour ยท โ hydration
Dough ball size from pizza diameter
Suggested dough ball: โ
Uses Tom Lehmann’s thickness-factor method: dough weight in ounces = ฯ ร radiusยฒ ร thickness factor, rounded to the nearest 5 g.
How much yeast for how long a rise?
| Schedule | Instant dry yeast | Fresh yeast |
|---|---|---|
| Same day, 4โ6 h at 20โ22 ยฐC | ||
| 8โ12 h at room temperature | ||
| 24 h cold (2 h out, then 4 ยฐC) | ||
| 48โ72 h cold (4 ยฐC) | ||
| Sourdough, 8โ12 h at 22 ยฐC | ||
Tap a figure to put it straight into the calculator. Guide values only โ warm kitchens ferment faster, so judge the dough (roughly 50โ75% risen, domed and jiggly) rather than the clock.
How it works
This calculator works in baker’s percentages: every ingredient is
expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight, which is always 100%. You tell it how many
dough balls you want and how heavy each one should be, and it solves the recipe backwards. If
the total dough is T and the percentages are hydration h, salt
s, yeast y, oil o and sugar g (all as
decimals), then flour = T รท (1 + h + s + y + o + g) and every other ingredient is
that flour weight times its own percentage. Four 250 g Neapolitan balls at 60% hydration,
2.8% salt and 0.2% fresh yeast therefore need 613 g flour, 368 g water, 17.2 g
salt and 1.2 g yeast โ exactly 1 kg of dough.
Pick sourdough starter and the maths changes: a 100%-hydration starter is half flour
and half water, so the calculator counts that flour and water in the totals and subtracts them
from what you add separately. Hydration therefore stays true for the finished dough. Yeast
types are interconverted with the standard ratio instant : active dry : fresh = 1 :
1.25 : 3, so you can enter whichever one you keep in the cupboard and read the others
off underneath the table.
Everything is arithmetic done in your browser as you type โ no recipe is uploaded, nothing is stored, there is no sign-up and there are no ads. Copy the recipe to the clipboard or download it as a text file to keep next to the mixer.
Frequently asked questions
How much flour do I need for 4 pizza dough balls?
Work backwards from the total dough weight. Four 250 g Neapolitan balls is 1000 g of dough, and in baker's percentages flour = total รท (1 + hydration + salt + yeast + oil + sugar). At 60% hydration, 2.8% salt and 0.2% fresh yeast that divisor is 1.630, so you need 1000 รท 1.630 = 613 g flour, 368 g water, 17.2 g salt and 1.2 g fresh yeast. Change the ball count or weight and the calculator re-solves the whole recipe as you type.
What hydration should pizza dough be?
Hydration is water as a percentage of flour weight. Neapolitan dough sits around 58 to 65% (the AVPN benchmark of roughly 1.7 kg flour per litre of water is about 59%), New York style 60 to 65% with a little oil and sugar, Detroit and other pan doughs 68 to 72%, and Roman teglia or al taglio 78 to 85%. Higher hydration gives a more open, blistered crumb but a slacker, stickier dough, so go up in 2 to 3% steps as your handling improves.
How do I use sourdough starter instead of yeast?
Use 15 to 25% mature 100%-hydration starter as a percentage of the total flour, and remember the starter is half flour and half water. This calculator counts that flour and water inside the totals and subtracts them from what you add separately, so 1000 g of dough at 65% hydration with 20% starter becomes 537 g flour, 328 g water, 119 g starter and 14.9 g salt, and the stated hydration stays true. Expect 8 to 12 hours at 22 ยฐC, or a bulk rise followed by a cold retard.