Baker’s percentages
Each ingredient = flour × its percentage
In baker’s percentages flour is always 100% and everything else is a share of the flour. That makes any recipe easy to scale: decide how much dough you need, divide by the sum of the percentages, and you have the flour.
Typical percentages by style
| Style | Hydration | Salt | Oil | Sugar | Ball / pan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neapolitan | 62% | 2.8% | 0% | 0% | 250 g · about 30 cm (12 in) | AVPN rules: per litre of water 1,600–1,800 g flour, 40–60 g salt, 0.1–3 g fresh yeast; balls 200–280 g; no oil or sugar. |
| New York | 63% | 2.0% | 2% | 1% | 400 g · about 35 cm (14 in) | Higher-protein bread flour, a little oil and sugar for browning in home ovens. |
| Detroit | 70% | 2.0% | 1% | 0% | 500 g · a 10×14 in pan | Wet dough pressed into an oiled steel pan; many recipes run 65–75% hydration. |
| Pan / Sicilian | 68% | 2.0% | 2% | 1% | 500 g · a quarter-sheet or 12 in round pan | Thick, focaccia-like crust baked in an oiled pan. |
| Thin crust / bar | 55% | 2.0% | 3% | 1% | 220 g · about 30 cm (12 in) | Low hydration, rolled thin for a crisp, cracker-like base. |
The Neapolitan figures follow the AVPN international regulations (2024): per litre of water, 1,600–1,800 g of flour (about 56–62.5% hydration), 40–60 g of salt and 0.1–3 g of fresh yeast; balls of 200–280 g for 22–35 cm pizzas; 12–24 hours of fermentation. The other styles are typical home recipes, not fixed rules.
Neapolitan dough by number of pizzas
| Pizzas (250 g balls) | Flour | Water | Salt | Instant yeast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 309 g | 192 g | 8.7 g | 0.15 g |
| 4 | 619 g | 384 g | 17.3 g | 0.31 g |
| 6 | 928 g | 575 g | 26.0 g | 0.46 g |
| 8 | 1237 g | 767 g | 34.6 g | 0.62 g |
| 10 | 1547 g | 959 g | 43.3 g | 0.77 g |
Yeast conversions
King Arthur’s professional yeast reference: to replace fresh (cake) yeast, multiply by 0.4 for active dry or 0.33 for instant. Those factors make active dry about 1.2 times the instant weight, although many bakers swap the two 1:1. The calculator takes yeast as an instant-yeast percentage and converts — active dry ×1.2, fresh ×3.
Small amounts matter: for a cold, slow ferment the yeast for four pizzas can be well under a gram. A scale that reads to 0.1 g (or 0.01 g) is worth having.
Sizing by thickness factor
Pizza makers often size dough with a thickness factor: ounces of dough per square inch of pizza. A 14-inch round is 154 sq in; at about 0.088 oz/in² for New York style, that is 13.5 oz (about 384 g). Typical factors are around 0.07–0.08 for Neapolitan, 0.085–0.095 for New York, and 0.12–0.14 for Detroit and pan pizzas (rule of thumb). Choose “round pizza diameter” or “rectangular pan” to use it.
Last reviewed: 2026-10-04 · Disclaimer