When you make pizza, it is important to know how much pizza dough you need for each pizza you make. You need to use a dough ball that is the right size and weight for the size pizza you plan to make.
You can use an online dough calculator to find out what size your dough ball needs to be for your pizza, but this article will let you know how to determine the right amount of dough so that you have the perfect pizza every time.
How Much Dough Per Pizza?
When you want to know how much dough per pizza, you will start with your recipe. Then you need to separate it into dough balls, which is especially important if you are making a thick crust pizza because you need the dough to rise.
When you make the dough, you should split it into balls that weigh between 200 and 400 grams. You will choose the sizes based on the sizes of pizza you want to make. Once it is split into balls, you can place them into a container lined with oil to rise.
Does Pizza Dough Hydration Affect Weight?
Pizza dough hydration is the amount of water in your dough compared to the amount of flour. It is expressed as a percentage, so if you have 600 g of water and 1,000 g of flour, it has a hydration of 60%. The hydration will have an impact on different properties of your pizza dough, including its rise, stickiness, and elasticity.
It is always a good idea to use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients because it is more accurate than measuring by volume. You will have the exact amount you need each time.
Changing the hydration of your pizza will give you different crust types, so it is important to understand hydration and have the right levels for the pizza you want to make. The hydration will affect the weight, which is why it is best to do your measurements in weight rather than volume.
Pizza dough with higher hydration will be fluffier and airier, while lower hydration will make it thin and flat. For example, a New York style pizza crust has 60% hydration, while a Chicago style normally has 55%. The hydration will affect the weight because it is the grams of water that you are changing.
How Much Dough Do I Need for a 12-Inch Pizza?
The most popular size of pizza is the 12-inch size. People usually work out the surface area of the dough using pi and the radius squared. So in this case, you have:
- (3.14)(6)(6) = 113.04.
Now you need to calculate how much dough to use to make your pizza. You need the amount of dough you are using, which might be a 10-ounce dough ball, and you can divide it by the weight, and you get:
- 10 / 113.04 = 0.0884642 ounces per square inch.
Now, you multiply 12 inches by 0.0884642, and you end up with 9.99999 ounces, which you can round up to 10.
- 12 x 0.0884642 = 9.99999
You need 10 ounces of dough to make a 12-inch pizza.
The simple formula for the surface area is pi times the radius squared. This will apply to any size pizza you make.
How Much Dough Do I Need for a 14-Inch Pizza?
You can calculate a 14-inch pizza the same way as you did the 12-inch pizza. First, you need to find out the surface area. This time, the radius is seven inches, so you multiply pi by seven squared:
- (3.14)(7)(7) = 153.86
Now you know the surface area of the 14-inch pizza, and you can multiply it by the dough density that you calculated for the 12-inch pizza (0.0884642). You can multiply the surface area by the dough density to find out how much dough you need for your 14-inch pizza:
- (153.86)(0.0884642) = 13.6 ounces
You need 13.6 ounces of dough to make your 14-inch pizza.
How Much Dough Do I Need for a 16-Inch Pizza?
When you decide to make a 16-inch pizza, the calculation process is the same. You need to start with the surface area of the pizza, which uses a radius of eight inches. Then, multiply pi by eight squared:
- (3.14)(8)(8) = 200.96
You can take the surface area of 200.96 and multiply it by the dough density to find out how much dough you need:
- (200.96)(0.0884642) = 17.7778
You can round that up to 18 ounces of dough. This will be enough to make your 16-inch pizza.
Ounces and Grams
It is important to understand how to convert between ounces and grams. You are likely preparing your recipe with grams, but you will calculate your pizza dough in ounces. Take a look at a few standard conversions:
- 5 ounces = 141 grams
- 8 ounces = 226 grams
- 10 ounces = 283 grams
- 12 ounces = 340 grams
- 15 ounces = 425 grams
The dough density measurements above used 10-ounce balls of dough, but you need to weigh your dough balls to make sure that you have the amount you want to use. If you find that the 10-ounce dough ball measurement is giving you pizza crust that is too thin, you might try an 11-ounce dough ball.
You need to experiment with your pizza to find the crust that you want to make, and then use that size dough ball as your basis for your calculations. For example, if you find that the 12-ounce dough ball gives you the crust you want, you will change your dough density calculation:
- 12 / 113.04 = 0.9202454
Now, you will multiply the size of your pizza by this number to find out how many ounces of dough you need for each size. This will give you a fluffier crust than the 10 ounces of dough in the examples above.
You should start by experimenting with your 12-inch pizza, which is the most common size, and once you find the perfect texture, use that amount of dough to calculate any other sizes you plan to make.
Final Words
When you are making pizza, it is important to know how much dough to use. Once you determine the dough density you prefer, you can use it to calculate how much dough you need for any size pizza.
