Pizza dough calculator for any number of pizzas

How the pizza dough calculator works

It takes the total weight of your dough balls and works back to the flour: flour = total weight ÷ (1 + hydration + salt + yeast + oil). These are baker's percentages, where flour counts as 100 and every other ingredient is a share of the flour weight, so 62% hydration means 62 g of water for every 100 g of flour. Once the flour is known, each ingredient is flour times its percentage, and the ingredients add back up to the weight of the dough balls.

The starting values come from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) regulations, which give the recipe per litre of water: 1.6 to 1.8 kg of flour, which is 55.6% to 62.5% hydration, 40 to 60 g of salt and 0.1 to 3 g of fresh yeast, depending on temperature, humidity and rising time. At 62% hydration, 2.8% salt works out to 45 g per litre and 0.15% fresh yeast to 2.4 g. The AVPN allows no fat in the dough, so oil stays at 0 for a Neapolitan pizza.

A worked example: 4 Neapolitan pizzas

In the US. The calculator opens with 4 dough balls of 9 oz (255 g), 62% hydration, 2.8% salt, 0.15% fresh yeast and no oil. Doses are shown in grams, the way pizza recipes are weighed, with the ounces alongside.

• Total dough: 36 oz, or 1,021 g
• Flour: 1,021 ÷ 1.6495 = 619 g (21.8 oz)
• Water: 384 g (13.5 oz)
• Salt: 17 g (0.6 oz)
• Fresh yeast: 0.93 g (0.03 oz)
• To buy: one 5 lb bag of 00 flour and one 2 oz cake of fresh yeast

In the UK and elsewhere. With 4 balls of 250 g: 606 g of flour and 376 g of water, from one 1 kg bag of flour and one 25 g block of fresh yeast. With dried yeast at 0.05% you need 607 g of flour and 0.3 g of yeast: one 7 g sachet covers it.

Pizza dough recipe for 1 to 10 pizzas

Dough balls of 250 g, 62% hydration, 2.8% salt, 0.15% fresh yeast.

Pizzas	Flour	Water	Salt	Fresh yeast
1	152 g	94 g	4.2 g	0.23 g
2	303 g	188 g	8.5 g	0.45 g
4	606 g	376 g	17 g	0.91 g
6	909 g	564 g	25 g	1.4 g
8	1,212 g	752 g	34 g	1.8 g
10	1,516 g	940 g	42 g	2.3 g

The dough ball weight sets the pizza size: the AVPN pairs 200 g with a 22-24 cm (about 9 in) pizza and 280 g with 28-35 cm (11 to 14 in). The EU Pizza Napoletana TSG specification asks for dough balls between 180 and 250 g.

Flour bags and yeast packs

In US units the calculator counts 5 lb bags of flour, which cover up to 14 dough balls of 250 g; in metric it counts 1 kg bags, enough for 6. Change the bag size in the advanced options if you buy a different one.

Fresh yeast comes in blocks: the AVPN mentions 25 g and 500 g packs, and in the US Red Star sells 2 oz cakes. Dry yeast comes in 7 g (0.25 oz) packets or sachets. Four pizzas need less than a gram, so one pack lasts several batches. Dry yeast is stronger: for the AVPN 1 g of dry equals 3 g of fresh, which is why the calculator suggests 0.05% dry against 0.15% fresh.

Common mistakes

• Working out salt from the water. The AVPN gives salt per litre of water; here it is a share of the flour. 2.8% at 62% hydration matches 45 g per litre.
• Reading hydration as a share of the dough. 62% means 62 g of water per 100 g of flour; in the finished dough water is about 38% of the weight.
• Using the fresh yeast dose with dry yeast. You need a third of it.
• Weighing yeast on a scale that reads in whole grams. Under a gram you need a jeweller's scale, or a bigger batch.
• Adding oil outside the sums. If you use oil, say for a pan pizza, enter it: the flour goes down and the dough balls still weigh what you chose.