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How can I calculate the right amount of Pizza Dough to make?
I’m having 6 people over for dinner and I want to make a sourdough pizza for each person. How do I make the right amount of dough?
You could search the internet for a recipe for six pizzas or find a recipe for say, four pizzas, and multiply it by 1.5 or download an app to do the math for you, or create a spreadsheet with the equations embedded in rows of ingredients.
Me? I like to start with a few basic rules and do the ingredient math from scratch. (The rules and proportions behind the math come from my experience making these two recipes: Sourdough Pizza and Whole Grain Sourdough PIzza, and you can learn more about the entire pizza making process in those blog posts.)
Here are my guidelines and ratios, followed by the calculations:
Now let’s answer that 6 Pizza question:
I’m going to go with 260g dough per pizza and say I have 200g sourdough starter getting ripe in my jar. (I’m assuming a sourdough starter that is half water and half flour).
260 * 6 pizzas = 1560 grams total dough
Flour + Water + Salt = 1560 grams
Flour = x
Water = 0.70x
Salt = 0.02x
1x + 0.70x + 0.02x = 1560 grams
1.72x = 1560 grams
x = 1560/1.72 = 907 grams
Total Flour = x = 907 grams
Total Water = 0.70x = 0.70 * 907 = 635 grams
Salt = 0.02x = 0.02 * 907 = 18 grams
Starter = 200 grams
Recipe Flour = 907 – 100 (from the starter) = 807 grams (I then subdivide this between bread or tipo 00 flour and whole grain flour)
Recipe Water = 635 – 100 (from the starter) = 535 grams (I use this amount of water, but tend to add more flour or water if necessary for a hand-kneadable dough)
Finally add together all the ingredients in bold to check the total matches the target (1560 grams).
If you wanted olive oil and diastatic malt powder, the equation solving for x would be: 1x + 0.70x + 0.02x + 0.03x + 0.0005x = Total Pizza Dough Weight
How can I calculate the right amount of Pizza Dough to make?