Why baker's percentages beat cups and spoons
Professional bakers never measure flour in cups. Instead, every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, which is always 100%. This system — called baker's percentages — means a recipe scales perfectly from two dough balls to two hundred: double the flour, double everything else, and the dough behaves identically. It also lets you compare recipes at a glance. A dough at 60% hydration will always feel firmer and be easier to handle than one at 70%, regardless of batch size.
The classic pizza dough formula
Neapolitan-style pizza dough needs just four ingredients. Here are the percentages that work, with the ranges you can play inside:
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Flour ("00" or bread flour) | 100% | Structure and chew |
| Water | 60–65% | Hydration — higher means airier, harder to handle |
| Fine sea salt | 2–3% | Flavour and gluten strength |
| Instant dry yeast | 0.2–1% | Leavening — less for long cold ferments |
| Olive oil (optional) | 1–3% | Tenderness and browning |
Hydration: the single biggest lever
Hydration is simply water weight divided by flour weight. At 60%, dough is firm, easy to shape, and bakes into a crisp, crackery crust — ideal for beginners and home ovens. At 65%, the sweet spot for most home pizza, you get an open, airy crumb with leopard-spotted char while the dough stays manageable. At 70%+, the crumb becomes spectacularly airy but the dough is slack and sticky, demanding confident handling and a very hot oven. If you are new, start at 62% and raise it 1–2 points each bake as your technique improves.
Choosing flour
"00" flour (finely milled Italian flour) gives the silky, extensible dough of true Neapolitan pizza, but good bread flour with 12–13% protein works nearly as well and is easier to find. All-purpose flour makes a softer, less chewy crust — fine for weeknight pizza. Wholemeal flour absorbs more water, so add 2–3 extra points of hydration when substituting part of the flour.
Cold fermentation: flavour you can't rush
A slow, cold ferment in the fridge transforms pizza dough. Over 24–72 hours, enzymes break down starches into sugars (better browning) and produce organic acids (deeper, more complex flavour). The method is simple: mix the dough, knead until smooth, then refrigerate in bulk or as individual balls. Use much less yeast — 0.2–0.5% instant yeast instead of 1% — because the long time compensates. Pull the dough out 2–3 hours before baking so it reaches room temperature; cold dough springs back and resists stretching.
| Ferment plan | Instant yeast % | Time & temperature |
|---|---|---|
| Same-day | 0.8–1% | 4–6 hrs at room temp |
| Overnight | 0.4–0.5% | 18–24 hrs in fridge + 2 hrs room temp |
| Weekend project | 0.2–0.3% | 48–72 hrs in fridge + 3 hrs room temp |
How many dough balls do you need?
A 10–12 inch pizza needs a 200–250 g dough ball; a 14–16 inch pizza needs 280–350 g. For a dinner party, plan one 250 g ball per person plus one spare — pizza disappears fast. Weigh each ball after bulk fermentation and round them tightly: tuck the edges underneath to build surface tension, which traps gas and gives you a puffy cornicione (the rim).
Kneading and the windowpane test
Knead 8–12 minutes by machine or 12–15 by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough is ready when a small piece stretches thin enough to let light through without tearing — the windowpane test. Under-kneaded dough tears when stretched; over-kneaded dough (hard to do by hand) becomes tight and springs back. High-hydration doughs benefit from a series of gentle stretch-and-folds during the first hour instead of aggressive kneading.
Shaping without tears
Press from the centre outward, pushing air toward the rim — never roll the edge flat or you will deflate the cornicione. Leave a 1-inch puffy border, then stretch over your knuckles, letting gravity do the work. If the dough fights back, rest it 10 minutes; gluten relaxes with time, not force. Launch onto a steel or stone preheated for at least 45 minutes at your oven's maximum temperature.
Troubleshooting
- Dough springs back: gluten is tight — rest 10–15 minutes and try again.
- Sticky unworkable dough: hydration too high for your flour; dust lightly and lower hydration next time.
- Pale, soft crust: oven not hot enough or bake too short; preheat longer and consider a pizza steel.
- Burnt bottom, raw top: move the pizza higher in the oven or reduce bottom heat.
- Yeasty, flat taste: too much yeast or over-fermented; cut yeast and shorten the warm ferment.
Once you think in baker's percentages, every pizza recipe becomes adjustable, scalable, and repeatable. Pick your ball count, choose your hydration, decide your ferment — the calculator handles the arithmetic while you handle the flour.
Flour protein: the numbers that matter
Protein percentage predicts chew. Italian "00" flour at 11–12% protein gives a tender, puffy Neapolitan crust; bread flour at 12–14% gives a chewier New York-style bite. Below 10% (cake flour) the dough tears; above 14% (high-gluten) it gets tough and bready. When substituting flours, keep hydration matched to protein: low-protein flour cannot absorb 65% water without turning to soup, while high-protein flour drinks it happily. If your dough feels slack and unmanageable, the flour — not your technique — is often the culprit.
Same-day vs cold-ferment flavour
A same-day dough risen 4 hours at room temperature tastes clean and wheaty — perfectly good pizza. A 48-hour cold ferment tastes like something else entirely: deeper, faintly tangy, with better browning from enzyme-released sugars. The trade-off is planning, not effort — the fridge does the work. Many pizzerias hold dough 24–72 hours as standard practice. If you can only do one upgrade to your pizza, cold fermentation beats a hotter oven.
Home oven tactics: steel vs stone
Home ovens max out around 250–280°C, far below pizza-oven heat, so thermal mass matters. A pizza steel (6–10 mm thick) stores more heat than a stone and gives superior bottom char — the single best equipment upgrade for home pizza. Preheat 45–60 minutes. Bake on the top rack for the last minute to blister the crust, or finish under the grill. A steel plus 65% hydration dough plus cold ferment gets you remarkably close to pizzeria results.
Sticky or stiff? Reading your dough
Dough troubleshooting is mostly about hydration versus flour. If the dough sticks to everything and will not hold shape, your effective hydration is too high for the flour — dust the bench lightly, give it a few stretch-and-folds, and next time drop hydration 2 points or switch to higher-protein flour. If the dough is stiff, tears when stretched and springs back aggressively, it is under-hydrated or under-rested — add water a tablespoon at a time during kneading, and rest it longer. Temperature matters too: cold dough always feels stiffer, so judge hydration at room temperature.
Freezing dough balls for later
Pizza dough freezes beautifully. After portioning and balling, coat each ball lightly in olive oil, wrap individually in cling film, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then give 2–3 hours at room temperature before shaping — the thaw counts as part of the ferment, so frozen dough often tastes better than fresh. Never refreeze thawed dough. This is the secret to weeknight pizza: a freezer stash of balls plus a hot steel beats delivery on every metric.
A worked example: Friday-night dough for six
Say you need six 250 g dough balls at 65% hydration with a 48-hour cold ferment. Total dough: 6 × 250 g = 1,500 g. Flour is 100%, and the other percentages add up (65 + 2.5 salt + 0.3 yeast ≈ 67.8%), so flour = 1,500 ÷ 1.678 ≈ 894 g. Then water = 894 × 0.65 ≈ 581 g, salt = 894 × 0.025 ≈ 22 g, instant yeast = 894 × 0.003 ≈ 2.7 g. Mix, knead, divide into six balls and refrigerate 48 hours, then bring to room temperature 2–3 hours before baking.
Swapping in sourdough starter
To convert the formula to sourdough, replace the commercial yeast with 15–20% active starter (by flour weight) and reduce the water slightly, since a 100%-hydration starter adds equal flour and water. For the 894 g flour example above: 160 g starter, then water = 581 − 80 = 501 g, with flour totalling 894 g (814 g dry flour + 80 g from the starter). Ferment 24 hours in the fridge — wild yeast works slower — and expect a tangier, more open crumb.