Pizza Calculator

It depends on your oven. If you have a wood-fired or Ooni reaching 450°C+, stay at 55–60% — the extreme heat creates enough steam internally. For a home oven maxing at 250°C, go higher: 62–65% prevents a dry, cracker-like crust. A practical starting point: set the calculator to 60%, make one batch, and adjust by 2–3% up or down based on how the crust turns out. Also factor in your flour — Caputo Nuvola (Tipo 0, 12.5% protein) absorbs more water than standard Tipo 00.

For most home bakers, 48 hours is the sweet spot — noticeably better flavor without risk of overproofing. Here's how to time it: make your dough on Friday evening, ball it, put it in the fridge, and bake on Sunday. Use 0.1–0.2% instant yeast (just 1–2g per 1000g flour). The dough will rise slowly and develop a complex, slightly nutty flavor with beautiful brown spots when baked. If it smells too sour or feels slack after 72 hours, you've gone too far — reduce the time or lower fridge temperature.

Match the flour to your oven. Wood-fired or Ooni (450°C+): Tipo 00 like Caputo Pizzeria — it browns without burning at extreme heat. Home oven (250°C): bread flour (12–13% protein) like King Arthur Bread Flour, which develops better color at lower temperatures. New York style in a deck oven: high-gluten flour (14%+ protein) like All Trumps for maximum chew. The one flour to avoid is all-purpose (10–11% protein) — it tears during stretching and produces a dense, crumbly crust.

A practical rule: 0.9–1.1g of dough per cm² of pizza for thin to medium crust. A 30cm (12″) pizza has an area of ~707cm², so 250–280g works. For quick mental math: multiply the diameter in inches by 20 to get a ballpark weight in grams. So a 14″ pizza ≈ 280g (thin) to 400g (medium). Making pizza for a party? Set the calculator to your total flour and check the total dough weight — divide by your ball weight to see how many pizzas you'll get.

Yes, and it produces a crust with more depth than commercial yeast alone. The key is accounting for the starter's flour and water: 200g of starter at 100% hydration = 100g flour + 100g water. So if your recipe calls for 1000g flour at 62% hydration, and you add 200g starter, your actual flour is 1100g (1000 + 100) and you need 582g of additional water (1100 × 0.62 − 100). Add the preferment in the calculator — it does this math automatically. Cold ferment 24–48 hours; beyond that, sourdough tends to overacidify.

The fix is almost always more rest time. Gluten tightens during balling — it needs 1–2 hours at room temperature to relax before you can stretch it. A quick test: poke the dough with a floured finger. If it springs back immediately, it needs more time. If the indent stays, it's ready. Other culprits: hydration below 58% (add more water next time), or the dough was kneaded too aggressively in a stand mixer. Cover it, wait 15 minutes, and try again.

As hot as possible. For a home oven: crank it to maximum (usually 250°C / 500°F), place a pizza steel or stone on the top rack, and preheat for a full hour. Bake time: 7–10 minutes. For a portable pizza oven (Ooni, Roccbox): aim for 430–480°C on the stone surface, which bakes a Neapolitan pizza in 60–90 seconds. The biggest home oven mistake is not preheating long enough — a cold stone absorbs heat from the dough instead of crisping the bottom.

Three rules: room temperature, dry surface, gentle hands. Flour your work surface generously. Press from center to edge with your fingertips, rotating the dough 90° after each pass. Leave a 1–2cm rim untouched for the cornicione. Once it's about 20cm wide, drape it over your knuckles and let gravity stretch it — rotate slowly. If it resists, put it down and wait 5 minutes. Never use a rolling pin — it degases the dough completely and produces a flat, cracker-like crust with no airy edge.

First, check your yeast: dissolve it in warm water (35–38°C / 95–100°F) with a pinch of sugar. It should foam within 10 minutes — if it doesn't, the yeast is dead. The most common killer is water that's too hot: anything above 45°C (113°F) kills yeast instantly. Other causes: salt was mixed directly with yeast before adding flour (salt dehydrates yeast cells), or the dough is in a cold environment with very little yeast. For cold-fermented dough, don't expect a dramatic rise in the fridge — a 20–30% volume increase over 24 hours is completely normal.

Sticky dough is usually underdeveloped gluten, not too much water. High-hydration dough (above 65%) will feel sticky until the gluten network forms — keep kneading or do 3–4 sets of stretch-and-fold at 30-minute intervals. When handling, wet your hands instead of adding flour, which changes the hydration ratio and creates dry spots. If the dough was fine before cold ferment but is now a sticky mess, it overfermented: the gluten broke down. Next time, use less yeast or shorten the cold proof by 12–24 hours.

Use 2–3% of flour weight. For a batch with 1000g flour, that's 20–30g of fine salt. Neapolitan tradition leans toward 3% (the AVPN standard), while New York style often uses 2–2.5%, especially when sugar is added. Salt does more than flavor — it tightens gluten and slows fermentation. Below 2%, the dough ferments too quickly and the crust tastes bland. Use fine sea salt or table salt for even distribution; coarse salt can leave salty pockets. Add salt after autolyse if you're using one.

00 flour (doppio zero / double-zero) is finely milled Italian wheat flour — the grind is ultra-fine, like talcum powder. It has 12–13% protein and produces a soft, extensible dough that stretches easily without snapping back. It's the standard for Neapolitan pizza baked in wood-fired ovens at 450°C+. Bread flour has similar protein (12–13%) but a coarser grind, creating a chewier, more structured crumb with better browning at lower temperatures. For home ovens (250°C max), bread flour usually outperforms 00 — the crust gets better color and crunch. For Ooni or wood-fired ovens, 00 is the way to go. All-purpose flour (10–11% protein) is not recommended for pizza — it tears during stretching and produces a dense, crumbly crust. Bottom line: match your flour to your oven temperature.

A soggy center usually comes from one of four causes: 1) Oven not hot enough — preheat your pizza steel or stone for a full 45–60 minutes at maximum temperature. A cold stone absorbs heat from the dough instead of crisping it. 2) Too many wet toppings — fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and vegetables release water during baking. Pat mozzarella dry, pre-cook watery vegetables, and use a well-drained sauce. 3) Dough too thick in the center — when stretching, press firmly from the center outward so the middle is the thinnest part. 4) Hydration too high for your oven — home ovens can't evaporate as much water as a 450°C pizza oven. If your crust is soggy at 68% hydration, drop to 62–65% and try again. A pizza steel (not stone) also helps — steel transfers heat 20× faster.