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DOUGHRISEFOUNDERS
Sourdough Intelligence
The sourdough
pizza dough calculator
for serious bakers
Four stages. One complete plan. From style selection to bake day timeline, built around wild fermentation and the science that makes sourdough pizza exceptional.
7 pizza styles
Q10 fermentation engine
DDT water calc
No sign-up
How It Works
Four stages,
one complete
pizza plan.
Each stage feeds the next. Your style choice sets the formula defaults. The formula feeds the fermentation planner. Fermentation feeds the bake timeline. Everything connects.
01
Choose your style and portion size
Select from Neapolitan, New York, Detroit, Sicilian, Roman Al Taglio, Cracker Thin or Focaccia. Style-appropriate hydration, ball weight and portion defaults pre-fill automatically.
02
Build your dough formula
Dial in hydration, salt and fat. Choose sourdough levain, poolish, biga or straight. Get a live gram-weight breakdown for every ingredient, scaled to your exact batch.
03
Plan your fermentation
Enter your room and flour temperature. Q10-adjusted bulk time, DDT water temperature and a stretch-and-fold schedule — all recalculated live as you change inputs.
04
Get your bake day timeline
Tell the calculator when you want to eat. Every step back-calculated: levain build, mix, bulk, fold, shape, cold retard, preheat, bake. Export as PDF or add to Google Calendar.
Stage 1 of 2 — Style & Weight
Pizza Studio
Choose Your Style
Pick a pizza style to calculate your dough ball weight and carry the right defaults into the recipe stages ahead.
Pizza Style
Neapolitan
Circle · 30 cm
Roman Teglia
Rect · 40×30 cm
NY Slice
Circle · 35 cm
Detroit
Rect · 25×35 cm
Focaccia
Rect · custom
Diameter (cm)
Per ball
— g
Total dough
— g
Stage 2 — Dough Formula
Flour
Hydration
Water: 325 g
Salt & Fat
Pre-ferment
Sourdough Levain
Default
Poolish
Biga
None
Full Recipe
Neapolitan
Stages 3 & 4 — Pro
Fermentation plan & bake day timeline
Your formula is ready. Continue in Pro Studio to plan your fermentation, get a complete bake day timeline, export to PDF and save your recipe to your library.
Q10 fermentation engine
DDT water temperature
Bake day timeline
PDF export
Google Calendar
Save recipes to library
Log in or subscribe to continue
Frequently Asked
Questions about
sourdough pizza dough
What hydration should sourdough pizza dough be?
Neapolitan sits at 60 to 65% hydration: supple and workable, it blisters beautifully at high heat. New York style runs 58 to 63%, giving a slightly stiffer dough that holds a slice without flopping. Detroit and Focaccia go 75 to 85%, creating that open, airy crumb and caramelised edge. Start at the lower end of your target range and work up as your shaping confidence improves.
How long should I bulk ferment pizza dough?
At 20% levain in a 24°C kitchen, expect 4 to 6 hours. At 18°C, 7 to 9 hours. The Q10 rule says fermentation rate roughly halves for every 10°C drop, which is why the DoughRise planner adjusts dynamically as you change inputs. Look for 50 to 75% volume increase and a dough that feels alive but still holds structure.
Can I cold retard sourdough pizza dough overnight?
Yes, and it is one of the best things you can do for flavour. After bulk, ball the dough, place in lightly oiled lidded containers, and retard at 4 to 5°C for 8 to 72 hours. Remove 2 to 3 hours before baking so the dough relaxes to room temperature. Cold, tight dough tears. Slack, warm dough stretches beautifully.
What is the difference between Neapolitan and NY style pizza dough?
Neapolitan uses 60 to 65% hydration, 250 to 280g balls, baked at 450 to 500°C for 60 to 90 seconds — thin, leopard-spotted, puffy interior. New York uses 58 to 63%, 280 to 340g balls, baked at 230 to 260°C for 10 to 15 minutes, producing a crisp, foldable slice. Both styles benefit enormously from sourdough levain, which adds depth that commercial yeast cannot replicate.
How much dough do I need for a 30cm Neapolitan pizza?
Around 250 to 270g. DoughRise defaults to 260g for Neapolitan, within VPN guidelines. For 28cm, 230 to 250g works well. If baking in a home oven rather than wood-fired, slightly higher hydration (65 to 68%) makes the dough easier to stretch thin and gives a lighter result at lower temperatures.
What is sourdough levain and how does it differ from poolish?
A levain is built from your sourdough starter with wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, refreshed 4 to 12 hours before use. It produces complex, mildly sour flavour and strong fermentation. Poolish uses commercial yeast at 100% hydration for milder, wheaty results. Biga is a stiffer Italian preferment at 50 to 60% hydration, common in Neapolitan and Roman traditions. DoughRise defaults to levain because wild fermentation builds flavour that yeast shortcuts cannot match.
About DoughRise
Built for bakers
who think in percentages
DoughRise started as a personal spreadsheet. Baking sourdough pizza on a home stone, trying to get Neapolitan results without a wood-fired oven, it became obvious most online calculators were built around commercial yeast and did not account for how sensitively wild fermentation responds to temperature.
The Q10 model at the heart of the Pizza Studio is the same rule food scientists apply to fermentation kinetics: for every 10°C rise in temperature, the rate of fermentation roughly doubles. The DDT formula accounts for the heat you add from mixing friction, so your dough actually hits its target temperature rather than arriving there by chance.
The calculator covers 7 pizza styles and sits alongside 15 other baking tools on the DoughRise platform, including the Sourdough Bread Calculator for bakers who move between the two. No sign-up needed to run a calculation. For bakers who want to save, compare and export recipes, DoughRise Pro unlocks the full bake day toolkit.
18
Baking calculators
7
Pizza styles supported
Q10
Temperature fermentation model
0
Sign-ups to calculate
Ready to plan your next bake?
Scroll up to the Pizza Studio. Your dough is waiting.