Hong Life CalculatorsUnderstanding the pizza dough calculator — concept and principle
This calculator works out how much flour, water, salt and yeast to use for a given number of pizza dough balls, using baker's percentages. It is popular with home pizza makers aiming for Neapolitan-style dough and anyone scaling a dough recipe up or down.
How it is calculated
- Total dough = pizzas × ball weight × (1 + losses %).
- Yeast fraction = yeast % ÷ 100, divided by 3 when using dry yeast instead of fresh.
- Flour = total ÷ (1 + water% + salt% + yeast fraction).
- Water = flour × water%; salt = flour × salt%; yeast = flour × yeast fraction.
The principle
Bakers express every ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight, so a recipe scales to any size and is easy to compare. The total of all percentages, including 100% for the flour, tells you how much dough each gram of flour makes, so dividing the dough you need by that total gives the flour. The Neapolitan rules (AVPN) use 1 litre of water for 1.6–1.8 kg of flour, about 56–63% water, 40–60 g of salt per litre and 0.1–3 g of fresh yeast per litre; dry yeast is one third of the fresh amount. A small extra allowance covers dough left in the bowl.
Worked example
Default inputs: 4 pizzas, 250 g balls, water 60%, salt 2.8%, fresh yeast 0.15%, losses 3%.
- Total dough = 4 × 250 × 1.03 = 1,030 g.
- Flour = 1,030 ÷ (1 + 0.60 + 0.028 + 0.0015) = 1,030 ÷ 1.6295 = 632 g.
- Water = 632.1 × 0.60 = 379 g; salt = 632.1 × 0.028 = 17.7 g.
- Yeast = 632.1 × 0.0015 = 0.95 g, shown as 0.9 g.
- Dough per pizza = 250 g.
| Number of pizzas | Flour (g) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 158 |
| 2 | 316 |
| 3 | 474 |
| 4 | 632 |
| 5 | 790 |
| 6 | 948 |
| 8 | 1,264 |
How to read the result
Small yeast amounts suit long, cool rises of a day or more; for same-day dough, bakers often use more. Higher hydration makes a lighter, more open crust but stickier dough. A 250 g ball suits a pizza of roughly 30 cm; the AVPN range is 200–280 g for 22–35 cm pizzas.
Common mistakes
- Using the same amount of dry yeast as fresh, which over-proofs the dough.
- Weighing water by volume without checking the scale.
- Adding salt directly onto the yeast.
- Forgetting that flour type changes how much water it can absorb.
Frequently asked questions
How much flour for 4 pizzas?
About 632 g for four 250 g balls at 60% hydration.
What is baker's percentage?
Each ingredient expressed as a percentage of the flour weight.
How much dry yeast replaces fresh yeast?
About one third of the fresh amount.
Sources: Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, International Regulations (Disciplinare) 2024, art. 2 · W. Gisslen, Professional Baking, 7th ed. (Wiley, 2016), ch. 1 (baker's percentages)