Flour is always 100 percent
Baker’s percentages express each ingredient relative to flour. With 500 g of flour and 325 g of water, hydration is 65 percent. Salt, yeast and oil are additional ingredients; oil does not count as water.
If a recipe includes a preferment, include its flour and water in the totals. Otherwise the calculated hydration will be misleading. Our calculator handles a direct dough without a preferment.
Water changes how dough handles
A wetter dough can support an open crumb, but it also becomes harder to shape and launch. Flour, kneading, fermentation and baking heat all contribute. A high hydration number alone does not make a good pizza.
For a first direct dough, 60 to 65 percent can be a useful starting range when appropriate for your recipe and flour. Tray pizzas often use softer dough because the tray provides support.
Make small changes
Increase water by a few percentage points between batches. With 500 g of flour, two percentage points mean just 10 g of water. Record quantities so that you can repeat the result.
Avoid continually kneading extra flour into sticky dough while shaping. Lightly dusting the work surface can help without substantially changing the formula. The dough calculator handles the percentage arithmetic for your chosen batch size.