Pizza dough calculator
Pick a style, say how many pizzas, and when you want to bake. You get exact grams, with the yeast scaled to your fermentation time.
| Ingredient | Grams | % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 643 | 100 |
| Water | 399 | 62 |
| Salt | 18 | 2.8 |
| Instant dry yeast | 1.3 | 0.20 |
| Total dough | 1,061 |
Yeast amounts are starting points for a kitchen around 20–22 °C. Warmer rooms need less; a colder fridge needs a little more. Tiny weights like 1.3 g want a 0.1 g scale; the yeast converter gives teaspoons.
Choosing your numbers
Ball weight sets the size of the pizza. 250–280 g stretches to a thin 30 cm Neapolitan; New York pies are larger and slightly thicker. For a rectangular pan, a good rule is about 0.9 g of dough per square inch of pan (a 10×14″ Detroit pan takes roughly 450 g).
Hydration should match your oven. A 450 °C wood or gas pizza oven cooks in about 90 seconds, so 60–65% gives a light, puffy rim without drying out. A home oven at 250–290 °C cooks for 6–10 minutes; 65–70% water plus a little oil and sugar keeps the crust from turning cracker-hard. The hydration calculator explains how each percentage feels.
Time is flavour. A long, cold ferment with very little yeast develops more complex taste and a more digestible, blistered crust than a fast same-day dough.
Pizza dough, step by step
- Dissolve the yeast in the water, add the flour and mix until no dry bits remain. Rest 20 minutes.
- Add the salt (and oil), then knead 5–8 minutes until smooth.
- Bulk ferment 1–2 hours at room temperature, divide into balls, and refrigerate for your chosen time.
- Take the balls out 2–3 hours before baking so they warm up and relax before stretching.
Questions bakers ask
How much dough do I need per pizza?
For a 12-inch (30 cm) Neapolitan pizza, 250–280 g per ball. A 14-inch New York pie takes around 300–350 g, a 16-inch about 450 g. For pan pizza, multiply the pan area in square inches by about 0.9 g for a medium-thick crust.
How much yeast for pizza dough?
It depends on time and temperature. Same-day dough at room temperature uses roughly 0.3–0.5% instant yeast; a 24–72 hour cold ferment in the fridge needs only 0.1–0.3%. Fresh yeast is about three times the instant weight.
Why add a waste allowance?
Some dough always sticks to the bowl, the hook and your hands. Adding 2–3% means every ball still hits its target weight.
Should pizza dough contain oil and sugar?
Traditional Neapolitan dough is only flour, water, salt and yeast, because it bakes in 60–90 seconds at 430–480 °C. In a home oven at 250–290 °C, 2–3% oil and 1–2% sugar help the crust brown and stay tender during the longer bake.