Published: 2026-05-19 | 12
If you've ever opened a real pizza dough recipe and seen something like '62% hydration, 2.5% salt, 0.3% IDY,' and felt like you walked into a chemistry lecture, you're in the right place. That's baker's percentages, and once you understand them, every dough recipe on the planet stops being a riddle.
I'll keep this practical. No math degree required. By the end you'll know how to read any recipe, scale it to any batch size, and tweak it without wrecking it.
Every ingredient in pizza dough is expressed as a percentage of the FLOUR weight. Flour is always 100%. Water is some percentage of flour. Salt is some percentage of flour. Yeast is some percentage of flour. That's the whole system.
So when a recipe says '65% hydration,' it means: for every 100 grams of flour, use 65 grams of water. 500 grams of flour? 325 grams of water (500 × 0.65 = 325). 1000 grams of flour? 650 grams of water. The math scales infinitely and never lies.
Because pizza is about ratios, not absolute amounts. A 12-inch pizza and an 18-inch pizza use different amounts of dough, but the RATIO of water to flour to salt is the same. If a dough works at 500g flour, it works the same at 5000g flour, because the relationships don't change.
The other reason: it lets you compare recipes apples to apples. When you see one recipe is 60% hydration and another is 70%, you instantly know how they'll behave differently without having to do the math by hand.
Always. This is the baseline. Every other ingredient is measured against it. If you scale flour up or down, every other ingredient scales proportionally to maintain the same dough behavior.
The single most important variable in pizza dough. Low hydration (55-60%) makes a stiffer, easier-to-handle dough with a tighter crumb. High hydration (70%+) makes a slacker dough that's harder to handle but produces an open, airy crumb. See the hydration guide for the full breakdown by style.
Quick reference: NY style 62-65%, Neapolitan 58-62%, Detroit 70-75%, Sicilian 70-75%, Bar pie 52-58%.
Salt does two things: flavor, and yeast control. Salt slows yeast activity, which is why long-fermented doughs need it. Too little salt and your dough over-ferments and tastes flat. Too much salt and your dough barely rises. 2.5% is the standard sweet spot for pizza.
Instant Dry Yeast (IDY) percentage depends on how long you're fermenting. Same-day dough needs 0.5-0.8%. 24-hour cold ferment needs 0.2-0.4%. 72-hour cold ferment needs 0.05-0.15%. Less yeast + more time = more flavor development. This is the trade-off that defines great pizza dough.
Optional in NY style (1-2%), banned in classic Neapolitan (0%), generous in pan styles like Detroit and bar pie (3-6%). Oil tenderizes the crumb and helps browning. Too much oil and the dough gets cake-like.
Optional. Sugar feeds the yeast and accelerates browning (Maillard reaction). NY-style uses 1-2%. Neapolitan uses 0%. Bar pie and Detroit benefit from 2-3% for that golden bottom color.
Here's my NY-ish dough recipe written in baker's percentages:
Bread flour: 100% (500g)
Water: 62% (310g)
Salt: 2.5% (12.5g)
Sugar: 2% (10g)
Olive oil: 2% (10g)
IDY: 0.3% (1.5g)
Total dough weight: 844g. Divided into three 12-inch pizzas = 281g each. The percentages tell you the recipe identity. The grams tell you the batch size. Both pieces of info matter.
This is where baker's percentages become magical. Want to make 6 pizzas instead of 3? Double the flour. Every other ingredient doubles too, because they're all percentages of flour.
Want a single test pie at 12 inches (about 280g of dough)? Work backward. If your target dough weight is 280g and you know your recipe is roughly 169% total (flour + water + everything), then flour = 280 / 1.69 ≈ 166g. Everything else scales from there.
Or just use the calculator. It does the math for you.
Here's the magic formula every pro knows:
Total dough = (flour weight) × (sum of all percentages including flour at 100%)
For my NY-ish dough: 500g flour × (100% + 62% + 2.5% + 2% + 2% + 0.3%) = 500g × 1.688 = 844g total dough. The same formula works in reverse to figure out flour weight from a target total.
Cups of flour are meaningless because the same cup can hold anywhere from 120 to 160 grams depending on how packed it is. Baker's percentages REQUIRE a scale. Buy a $15 digital scale. It's the cheapest and most useful tool in any pizza kitchen.
0.3g vs 0.5g of yeast is the difference between a 72-hour cold ferment that develops flavor and one that over-proofs and tastes like beer. Get a micro scale that measures to 0.01g. This is the single most overlooked piece of equipment.
Long cold ferments lose 1-3% of water weight through evaporation in the fridge. If your container isn't tightly sealed, by day 3 your 65% hydration dough might effectively be 62%. Use a sealed container, or wrap tightly with plastic wrap pressed to the surface.
Different flours absorb different amounts of water. Whole wheat absorbs 3-5% more than bread flour. 00 absorbs slightly less than bread flour. Swap flours and you'll need to adjust hydration to compensate. See best flour for pizza dough for the full breakdown.
Baker's percentages are a tool, not a religion. Once you've made the same dough 10 times, you'll know what 65% hydration FEELS like in your hands. You'll know when to add a splash more water. You'll know when the dough needs an extra fold.
The percentages get you to the starting line. Experience gets you to a great pizza. Both matter.
Here's what every pizza style looks like in baker's percentages. Start here, adjust to taste.
NY style: 100% bread flour, 62-65% water, 2.5% salt, 0.2-0.4% IDY, 1-2% oil, 1-2% sugar
Neapolitan: 100% 00 flour, 58-62% water, 2.5-3% salt, 0.1-0.3% IDY, 0% oil, 0% sugar
Detroit: 100% bread flour, 70-75% water, 2-2.5% salt, 0.5-0.8% IDY, 2-3% oil, 2-3% sugar
Sicilian: 100% bread flour, 70-75% water, 2-2.5% salt, 0.5-0.8% IDY, 3-4% oil, 1-2% sugar
Bar pie: 100% bread flour, 52-58% water, 2-2.5% salt, 0.3-0.5% IDY, 4-6% oil, 2-3% sugar
For the full chart with dough ball weights for every size, check the Dough Sizes Reference.
Building a recipe from scratch in baker's percentages is great practice, but for everyday use, my dough calculator handles all the math. Pre-loaded with starting percentages for every style. Adjust the sliders and it gives you the exact gram measurements.
Read this once, use the calculator from there. The math becomes invisible once you understand it.
Dave
62 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. So 500g flour gets 310g water. The math scales to any batch size while keeping the ratio constant.
Because cups vary by 30%+ depending on how packed the flour is. Percentages by weight are exact, scalable, and let you compare recipes apples to apples. Every serious pizza recipe uses them.
Divide every ingredient weight by the flour weight, then multiply by 100. If a recipe calls for 500g flour and 320g water, water is 64% (320 / 500 × 100). Same math for everything else.
Yes. Baker's percentages are weight-based, not volume-based. A $15 digital scale is the cheapest and most useful tool in a pizza kitchen. A micro scale for measuring yeast to 0.01g is the second most useful.
Usually 165-180% depending on style. NY style is around 168% (100 + 62 + 2.5 + 2 + 2 + 0.3). Detroit is around 178% (more water, more oil, more sugar). The total tells you nothing about the dough quality, it just tells you how much total weight you'll end up with.
Yes, but you have to account for the starter. Active starter is about 50% water and 50% flour (assuming 100% hydration starter), so 200g of starter contributes 100g flour and 100g water to your final ratios. Adjust the dry flour and water in your recipe to compensate.
Neapolitan bakes at 800-900°F for 60-90 seconds, so the crust browns from heat alone, no sugar needed. NY style bakes at 550°F for 6-8 minutes, where sugar helps the bottom crust develop color and the cornicione caramelize. Different temperatures, different needs.
Start with the Complete Pizza Dough Guide. Then dig into specifics with the hydration guide and the 48 vs 72-hour cold ferment comparison. All three reference baker's percentages constantly.