Pizza dough hydration – from 58 to 75 %
How much water can your dough take? A table linking hydration to your flour's W value and your oven's temperature, with advice for each level, gram by gram.
Quick answer: hydration is the weight of the water as a percentage of the weight of the flour. Neapolitan pizza dough normally sits at 58–65 %, but both lower (58 %) and considerably higher (70–75 %) are common depending on flour and oven. Our house method runs 65 %.
What the number actually means
Hydration = water weight ÷ flour weight × 100. 1000 g of flour and 650 g of water gives 65 % hydration – no matter how many balls or pizzas it turns into. It is the same baker’s percentage principle used for all bread.
Table: from 58 to 75 %
| Hydration | How the dough feels | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| 58–60 % | Firmer, easier for beginners to handle | Wood-fired oven, short bake, thin base |
| 62–65 % | Balanced, soft but manageable (our house method: 65 %) | Home oven with steel/stone, most recipes |
| 68–70 % | Stickier, needs practice and plenty of semola | Longer, cooler bakes; more open crumb |
| 72–75 % | Very slack, high risk of tearing when stretched | Experienced bakers, specific recipes with extra resting time |
What AVPN actually says
The disciplinare never gives a percentage. It specifies 1 litre of water to 1.6–1.8 kg of flour, which converts to roughly 55.5–62.5 %. Our house method’s 65 % therefore sits just above AVPN’s implied range – a deliberate choice for a softer crust in a home kitchen, not an AVPN figure.
Why not just go as high as possible?
Higher hydration gives a more open crumb and more steam in the oven, but it makes the dough stickier and harder to stretch by hand without tearing. The strength of the flour (its W value) sets a practical limit: the weaker the flour, the harder high hydration is to handle. Compare the marinara (lower hydration, easier to handle) with the bianca and the burrata for examples of how the choice of recipe affects the amount of water.
Scale it to your own batch in the calculator, read about the bigger picture in Neapolitan pizza dough, and if the dough feels too slack or tacky, see sticky dough.
