Pizza Dough Hydration Calculator

Flour is always 100% by weight, and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of that flour weight. A 65% hydration dough is 650 g of water per 1000 g of flour. Salt at 2.5% is 25 g per 1000 g of flour. Yeast at 0.3% is 3 g per 1000 g of flour. The calculator solves the system backwards: it takes the total dough weight you need, divides by 1 plus the sum of all the other percentages, and that gives you the flour mass. From there every other ingredient is a direct percentage of flour.

Neapolitan tradition (AVPN certified) uses 60 to 65% hydration. The dough is soft, hand-stretched, and baked at very high temperature (700 to 900 F) for 60 to 90 seconds, so it does not need extra water to stay tender. New York style runs 60 to 65% as well, but adds 1 to 3% oil and a small amount of sugar to help the crust crisp and brown in a home oven at 500 to 550 F. Both styles are forgiving for beginners because the dough is not too sticky to handle.

Pan-baked styles run wetter. Sicilian and Detroit doughs typically sit at 70 to 75% hydration so the crumb stays open and tender inside a thick, oily pan. Focaccia goes higher still, often 80% or above, which produces the characteristic large irregular holes. High-hydration dough is sticky and needs a bench scraper or wet hands to shape; resist the urge to add flour during the stretch, which would lower the effective hydration and tighten the crumb.

Cold fermenting in the refrigerator at 38 to 40 F for 24 to 72 hours lets enzymes break starch into simple sugars and proteases relax the gluten, which builds flavor and digestibility without overproofing the dough. The yeast activity slows dramatically below 50 F, so a tiny dose (0.1 to 0.3% instant dry) is enough to keep the dough rising slowly across two or three days. Pull the dough 1 to 2 hours before stretching so it comes back to room temperature and is easier to shape.

Instant dry yeast is the modern baseline because it dissolves directly into the flour and does not need proofing in water first. Active dry yeast has more dead cells from the drying process, so use 1.25 times the instant amount (a recipe calling for 4 g instant uses 5 g active dry). Fresh compressed yeast (cake yeast) is about 70% water, so use 3 times the instant amount (4 g instant becomes 12 g fresh). The calculator lets you enter the percentage on the instant-dry basis and switches the output to match the type you actually have.