Pizza Dough Calculator — Hydration and Dough Balls
Calculate the flour, water, salt and yeast for your pizza dough from the number of dough balls, their weight, your target hydration and fermentation time. Results update instantly and the recipe copies in one click.
Calculated results
Temperature-factor formula applied with a friction factor of 2 °C that you estimated: this is a baking convention, not a measurement.
Method and limits
How to use this calculator
Start with the number of pizzas and the weight of each dough ball: the total mass follows. Then enter hydration, salt and yeast as baker's percentages — that is, relative to the flour weight. Pick the yeast type for display and its documented conversion. Finally, enter maturation and temperatures: “target” mode applies the temperature-factor formula, “direct” mode uses your water temperature as entered.
The target total mass is M = N × m_b (number of pizzas times one ball's mass). With h, s and y the hydration, salt and yeast rates as decimals, flour is F = M / (1 + h + s + y), then W = F·h, S = F·s and Y = F·y. Maturation stays a recipe parameter: on its own it cannot precisely determine fermentation.
Baker's percentages and mass conservation
Ingredients are expressed as a percentage of the flour weight — the standard baker's percentage convention. The calculation preserves the total mass exactly before display rounding: flour, water, salt and yeast recompose to the gram. The tool invents no ingredient: only the four classic dough components are computed, with no implicit oil or additives.
Water temperature: the factor formula
The baking convention T_water = 3 × T_target − T_flour − T_room − F_friction estimates the water temperature that brings the dough to target after mixing. The factor 3 reflects the flour-water mix; friction depends on your mixer and mixing time — you estimate or measure it. If the calculated value leaves the useful range (roughly 1–60 °C / 34–140 °F), a feasibility warning is shown instead of a misleading number.
Worked example
For 4 dough balls of 250 g at 65% hydration, 2.8% salt and 0.2% yeast: total mass 1,000 g, giving 595.24 g flour, 386.90 g water, 16.67 g salt and 1.19 g fresh yeast (0.40 g dry yeast at the documented 3:1 ratio). Reproduce these values in the tool: you must get exactly the same results, mass being conserved before display rounding.
Assumptions and limits
The fresh-to-dry yeast conversion follows a documented 3:1 ratio, explicitly shown as a recipe approximation: instant dry yeast and active dry yeast do not behave identically. The tool never infers a yeast quantity from time and temperature alone: fermentation depends on the strain, the actual temperature, hydration and flour strength. Long maturations (beyond 48 h) and extreme hydrations trigger watch-warnings rather than blocks.
Frequently asked questions
Limits of use