How the pizza dough calculator works
Pizza recipes are written in baker's percentages: every ingredient as a percentage of the flour, with the flour at 100%. Tell the calculator how many dough balls (or pans) you want and how heavy each should be, and it works out the flour that makes that much dough — then everything else from the percentages. Four balls of 250 g is 1,000 g of dough, whatever the style.
The four styles
- Neapolitan — 00 flour, water, salt and yeast, nothing else. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) gives, per litre of water, 1,600–1,800 g of flour, 40–60 g of salt and 0.1–3 g of fresh yeast; the preset uses the midpoints (about 59% water, 2.9% salt). AVPN's dough balls are 200–280 g for a 22–35 cm pizza.
- New York — bread flour with a little oil and sugar, for a crisp, foldable slice. The preset is King Arthur Baking's New York-Style Pizza: about 57% water, 3.3% each of salt, sugar and oil, and 0.2% instant yeast — two 13-inch pizzas from about 600 g of dough.
- Detroit — a wetter dough baked in an oiled rectangular pan. King Arthur's Weeknight Detroit Pizza is 75% water, 2.5% salt, 0.8% instant yeast and 4.2% olive oil, with about 657 g of dough for a 13 × 9 inch pan.
- Roman al taglio — the very wet (about 82%) sheet-pan pizza sold by the slice in Rome, from America's Test Kitchen. Its oil, yeast and salt are given in spoons; the preset converts them with King Arthur's weight chart and assumes table salt.
Fresh, active dry or instant yeast?
They do the same job at different strengths. Fresh (compressed) yeast is about three times weaker than dry: AVPN's rule is that 1 g of dry yeast replaces 3 g of fresh. Active dry and instant yeast can be swapped one for one (Red Star). Change the yeast type in the calculator and it converts the amount for you.
Sourdough starter, poolish and biga
These aren't yeast types — they bring their own flour and water, so the dough is balanced around them. Choose one under Leavening.
A poolish or biga is part of the recipe's flour, fermented ahead with a little yeast. The recipe doesn't change — it's split in two. At 65% water with 33% of 1,000 g of flour as a poolish (equal flour and water, per King Arthur), the poolish is 330 g of flour and 330 g of water, and the final dough adds the other 670 g of flour and 320 g of water. A poolish is 100% hydration; a biga is usually stiffer — enter your recipe's.
A sourdough starter is added as a percentage of the flour, like water and salt. Its own flour and water make the dough wetter than the water line says: 20% of a 100% starter on 1,000 g of flour at 65% water adds 100 g each of flour and water — about 68% overall. The calculator shows it.
Why weigh?
Flour packs differently every time it's scooped, so cups aren't a reliable measure. Weighing makes a dough you liked repeatable — and makes the percentages mean something.
Sources: Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), International Regulations (Disciplinare), 2024; King Arthur Baking, New York-Style Pizza; King Arthur Baking, Weeknight Detroit Pizza; America's Test Kitchen, Introducing pizza al taglio; King Arthur Baking, Ingredient Weight Chart; Red Star Yeast, Yeast Conversion Chart; King Arthur Baking, Preferment (professional reference); King Arthur Baking, French Bread with Poolish (professional formula). All sources and how we use them.
Informational only — follow your recipe.