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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Baking Education
Learn to Bake
Better
Pizza or sourdough, starter or yeasted dough — understanding the science behind what you're making is the difference between hoping it works and knowing it will.
Where to Start
Pick Your Path
Whether you're after a blistered Neapolitan base or a proper open-crumb sourdough, the fundamentals are the same — understand your dough and it'll stop fighting you.
Pizza Making
Neapolitan, New York, Roman — each style has its own hydration, fermentation time, and bake temperature. Learn what separates a good pizza from a great one.
Master Pizza DoughSourdough & Bread
Fermentation timing, bulk proves, shaping, scoring — sourdough has a lot of moving parts. Once you understand what each stage actually does, everything clicks.
Understand Your StarterThe Science of Dough
What actually happens during fermentation? Why does hydration matter? Why does kitchen temperature change everything? This is where the thinking baker starts.
Read the Science
Pizza Making
It starts with the dough, everything else follows
A good pizza base isn't about having a wood-fired oven or the right sauce. It starts much earlier, with how you mix, ferment, and handle your dough. Get that right and the rest is straightforward.
The biggest thing most home bakers get wrong is rushing the fermentation. A cold-proofed pizza dough at 72% hydration, given 48 hours in the fridge, will produce flavour and texture that a same-day dough simply can't match — no matter what toppings you pile on. Get your head around why dough rises in the first place and the timing stops feeling like guesswork.
- Use a high-protein flour (13%+) for structure and chew
- Cold ferment for 24–72 hours for flavour development
- Keep hydration between 60–75% depending on your style
- Let the dough come to room temperature before stretching
- Use the Portioning calculator to scale balls for any crust style
72%
Ideal hydration for Neapolitan
Neapolitan pizza sits at 60–75% hydration. 72% hits the sweet spot — extensible enough to hand-stretch without tearing, with enough water to create that open, airy crumb when it hits a very hot bake. Use the Hydration calculator to dial yours in.
Sourdough & Bread
Your starter is the engine, keep it fed and it will reward you
Sourdough baking has a reputation for being fussy, but most problems come down to a few variables: starter health, fermentation temperature, and timing. Sort those and you're most of the way there.
The bulk ferment is where most bakers come unstuck. It doesn't run to a clock — it runs to temperature and starter activity. A dough fermenting at 24°C will double in 4–5 hours. The same dough at 19°C might take 8. The Fermentation calculator accounts for both.
- Feed your starter 4–8 hours before mixing for peak activity
- Bulk ferment at 24–26°C for predictable timing
- Use the float test only as a rough check, not a definitive signal
- Score deeply and confidently — hesitation causes drag
- Bake in a Dutch oven for the first 20 minutes to trap steam
24°C
Sweet spot for bulk fermentation
Temperature is the single biggest variable in sourdough timing. A consistent 24°C gives you a predictable 4–6 hour bulk ferment with an active starter — warm enough to move, cool enough to control. The Fermentation calculator adjusts timing for your actual kitchen temp.
Your Toolkit
Everything you need to bake smarter
The calculators do the maths. The AI Coach answers the questions. And if you want to understand the science underneath it all, start with What is Dough Rise.
Baking Calculators
18 free calculators covering fermentation, hydration, portioning, costing, temperature, preferments and more. The most complete free baking toolkit online.
Open CalculatorsAI Baking Coach
Ask it anything — why your crumb is dense, how to adjust for a different flour, what to do with your discard. Personalised baking advice, any time.
Meet the CoachWhat is Dough Rise
A deep read on the science of fermentation — what yeast and bacteria actually do to your flour, why timing and temperature matter, and how to use that knowledge.
Read the Science
Common Questions
Things bakers ask a lot
What flour should I use for pizza dough?
For Neapolitan-style pizza, use a Tipo 00 flour with a protein content of 12–13%. It's milled fine enough to create a smooth, extensible dough that won't tear when you stretch it by hand. For a chewier New York style, a strong bread flour at 13–14% protein works better.
If you can only get one flour, a good quality strong bread flour (like Allinson's or Doves Farm) will handle most pizza and bread bakes. The Flour Protein calculator on DoughRise helps you compare options and understand what protein level means for your bake.
How long should I ferment pizza dough?
The short answer: as long as you can. A same-day pizza is fine, but a cold-fermented dough left in the fridge for 48–72 hours will develop far more flavour and be much easier to handle.
Cold fermentation slows the yeast right down, giving the enzymes time to break down the starches and develop complex flavours — the kind you get at a proper Neapolitan pizzeria. Mix your dough the morning before pizza night, ball it up, fridge it, and take it out 2 hours before you want to bake.
How do I know when my sourdough is ready to bake?
The poke test is your most reliable check: gently poke the shaped loaf with a floured finger. If it springs back slowly and only partially, it's ready. If it springs back immediately, it needs more time. If it doesn't spring back at all, you've gone too far.
The float test (dropping a piece of starter in water) is useful for checking starter activity before you mix, but it's less reliable as a bake-readiness check than the poke test.
Why does kitchen temperature affect my bake so much?
Yeast and bacteria are living organisms — their activity speeds up when it's warm and slows when it's cool. A dough fermenting at 28°C might double in 3 hours; the same dough at 18°C could take 10. That's why recipes that say "prove for 4 hours" can be misleading — it depends entirely on your kitchen.
The DoughRise Fermentation calculator lets you input your kitchen temperature and starter strength, and gives you an adjusted timeline rather than a fixed guess.
Do I need a sourdough starter to make good pizza?
No. Commercial yeast makes excellent pizza. In fact, most great Neapolitan pizzerias in Naples use it. The flavour advantage of a sourdough pizza comes from the long cold ferment, not from the starter itself.
That said, if you already maintain a starter and want to use it, a small amount (5–10% of flour weight) in a pizza dough adds a subtle tang and can extend shelf life slightly. The Preferment calculator can help you work out the ratios.
What's the difference between hydration levels in bread?
Hydration is the ratio of water to flour by weight. A 65% hydration dough is firmer and easier to handle — good for beginners or enriched breads. A 75–80% hydration dough is wetter, stickier, and produces a more open crumb with bigger irregular holes, but it's harder to shape.
Start lower and work up as you get comfortable. The Hydration calculator on DoughRise helps you adjust water amounts if you're adapting a recipe or switching flour types.
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15 free baking calculators, an AI Coach, and a growing library of baking knowledge. Everything you need to make bread and pizza that you're actually proud of.