Baker's percentage is the foundation of professional dough formulation. Every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, with flour always set to 100%. A recipe at 63% hydration uses 630 g of water for every 1000 g of flour, regardless of whether you are making 2 balls or 20. This makes the system scale linearly and lets you compare recipes at a glance without doing unit conversions.
The calculator works backwards from your desired total dough weight rather than starting with flour. You specify how many balls you want and how heavy each should be, and the formula first solves for flour weight, then derives all other ingredients from it. The result is a gram-precise ingredient list that will produce consistent dough every time, assuming you weigh ingredients rather than measuring by volume.
Once you know your exact ingredient cost per ball, use our pizza calculator to figure out how many pizzas you need to order or make for a given group, then cross-reference ingredient cost with the food cost calculator to check your margin.
Hydration is the single variable that most defines how a pizza dough feels and bakes. Neapolitan dough at 58-63% is smooth, non-sticky, and holds a clean ball shape. It can be stretched and moved without tearing even at high temperatures, which is why it works in 900°F wood-fired ovens. At this hydration, gluten develops quickly and the dough is easy to handle for beginners.
New York-style dough at 63-68% is noticeably stickier but produces a more open, chewy crumb. The extra water keeps the crust from drying out during the longer bake in a lower-temperature deck oven. Pan pizza and Detroit-style dough at 70%+ is practically poured into the pan rather than stretched. The high water content creates large air pockets and a crispy bottom when baked in an oiled pan.
If you are adapting a recipe from cups to grams or changing the number of servings, use our recipe conversion calculator to scale every ingredient proportionally before entering updated percentages here.