70% Hydration Pizza Dough Recipe for Four Pizzas

The ingredient total is 895 g. This test produced four finished portions weighing 220 g, 215 g, 215 g, and 218 g—a total of 868 g. The remaining 27 g stayed on the bowl, hook, scraper, and hands. For that reason, I describe the yield as four dough balls of approximately 215–220 g rather than promising four identical 220 g portions.

The 364 g of water is divided into cold main water, warm yeast water, and a final held-back addition.

Prepare the Water Before Mixing

Before mixing, divide the 364 g of water into three portions:

• 314 g cold water at 48°F (9°C): approximately 236 g for the first addition and 78 g for the second
• 20 g warm water at 97°F (36.2°C): used to dissolve the fresh yeast
• 30 g cold water at 48°F (9°C): held back for the final addition

The kitchen was 84°F (29°C), so keeping the main water cold helped control the dough temperature. If ice is needed, weigh the ice and liquid water together—the combined weight must still be 314 g.

The speed numbers below refer to the 7L home stand mixer used for this test. Another mixer may have different gearing, bowl geometry, or minimum batch requirements, so I would not copy the speed numbers blindly.

With only 520 g of flour in the bowl, the hook could mix the dough, but it did not carry it continuously through every water addition. We especially needed to intervene after adding the yeast water and the final 30 g of water.

Always switch the mixer off before scraping the bowl, touching the dough, or turning it by hand. Never reach into a moving mixer.

Add 260 g of the flour to the mixer bowl and run the machine at speed 2 for two minutes.

This is simply the starting sequence used in this test. The flour will still look dry and loose when the time is up.

Keep the mixer at speed 2 and gradually add approximately 236 g of the 9°C cold water. Mix for two minutes 30 seconds.

At this point the mixture will look wet and incomplete. Do not add extra flour to make it look like a finished dough.

After the first water addition, the mixture still looks wet and unfinished. I do not correct it with extra flour.

Add the remaining 260 g of flour, followed gradually by the remaining 78 g of cold water. Continue at speed 2 for two minutes.

The dough will begin gathering into a rough mass. It does not need to look smooth yet.

Dissolve 1 g of fresh yeast in the 20 g of warm water, measured at 97°F (36.2°C) in this test. Add it gradually while mixing between speeds 2 and 3 for four minutes.

This was one of the stages when the small batch became difficult for the hook to carry. We stopped the mixer, scraped down the bowl, turned the dough over by hand, and restarted it. That helped the hook make contact again.

The four-minute mixing period also gave the yeast mixture time to distribute before the salt was added. I prefer not to drop fresh yeast and salt together in one concentrated spot because salt can inhibit yeast when the two meet directly at high concentration.

With only 520 g of flour, the hook sometimes lost contact after a liquid addition and needed the dough to be turned by hand.

Add 10 g of salt directly to the dough and mix at speed 3 for one minute.

The dough may tighten briefly. That is expected; the final held-back water goes in next.

Reduce the mixer to speed 2–3 and add the final 30 g of 9°C water a little at a time. Mix for four minutes while the dough absorbs it.

This was the second stage when our mixer struggled with the small batch. Stop and scrape the bowl if water is pooling underneath or the hook is spinning without turning the dough. Turn the dough over, restart the machine, and allow each addition to disappear before adding more.

Increase the mixer to speed 4 and mix for five minutes. The complete active mixing schedule in this test was 20 minutes 30 seconds.

When the dough came out, its temperature was 84°F (29°C). I would prefer a cooler finish, closer to 77°F (25°C), but the longer mixing time and warm room raised the temperature. The gluten also looked coarser than it normally does in my larger mixer.

I did not keep mixing in pursuit of a perfectly smooth surface. More machine time would have added even more heat.

The final dough reached 29°C after 20 minutes 30 seconds of mixing—warmer and rougher than I wanted.

Transfer the dough to a covered container and let it rest for 20 minutes. After that rest, fold the dough over itself to reorganize and tighten it.

This short pause did what extra mixing had not: the surface became noticeably smoother after the fold. Rest gave the flour time to hydrate and the gluten time to relax without adding more heat from the mixer.

A 20-minute covered rest and one fold smoothed the dough without adding more mixer heat.

After the fold, keep the dough covered for another 40 minutes. Together with the first 20-minute rest, the total post-mixing room-temperature time is one hour.

The room was 84°F (29°C), and this batch expanded to approximately twice its starting volume. In a cooler kitchen, the same change may take longer. I would watch the dough rather than waiting for an exact hour regardless of temperature.

At the end of the rest, the dough felt soft and elastic rather than rough and tight.

Divide the dough into four portions. Our actual weights were:220 g, 215 g,215 g, 218 g.

Round each portion into a ball, close the seam underneath, and place it seam-side down in a lightly oiled dough container. Close the lid completely before refrigeration.

For the balling method I use, see How to Ball Pizza Dough.

The finished batch yielded four portions weighing between 215 g and 220 g.

The refrigerator measured 39.6°F (4.2°C). After 48 hours, the dough had spread across the bottom of each container and still held a smooth, rounded surface with visible lift.

This is the schedule I use most often, but time cannot be separated from temperature, yeast quantity, and dough temperature. My side-by-side test in Pizza Dough Cold Fermentation: 24 vs. 48 vs. 72 Hours shows how the same batch changed across three refrigeration times.

After 48 hours at 4.2°C, the dough had filled the bottom of each container while retaining a rounded surface.

I took the dough out of the refrigerator and kept it covered at room temperature for about three hours. In this 84°F (29°C) room, the dough rose above the container rim and was easy to open.

The 500ml containers kept the portions separated and covered, but the 215–220 g balls grew enough during this particular 48-hour ferment and warm three-hour rest to touch the lids. Removing a lid caused some of the surface bubbles to recede. That did not prevent the dough from stretching, but it made the top less attractive in photographs.

For this warm schedule, I would use a 1000ml container next time when the dough ball is above approximately 210 g. The additional headroom prevents the lid from touching the top of a fully warmed dough ball. A 500ml container can still work for a similar weight when the room is cooler, the warm-up is shorter, or the dough expands less; the container choice should match the full fermentation plan, not weight alone.

For more detail on the final warm-up, see How Long Should Pizza Dough Sit Out Before Baking? Before stretching, I also check the signs described in How to Tell When Pizza Dough Is Properly Proofed.

In a 29°C room, the 215–220 g dough balls rose above the 500ml container rims and touched the lids.

The lid contact changed the appearance of some surface bubbles, but the dough still released and opened easily.

For the trial bake, the dedicated electric pizza oven was set to 617°F (325°C) bottom heat and 527°F (275°C) top heat, and the pizza baked for approximately eight minutes.

The baked slice showed a relatively thin base with small, open air pockets, while the outer rim browned evenly. That is the result from this particular bake, not proof that the same settings will produce an identical crust in another oven.

I am still testing that combination for thin-crust pizza on a steel plate, so I would not present it as the final setting for every oven. A home oven may only reach 480–535°F (250–280°C), and its stone, steel, heating elements, and recovery time will behave differently. Preheat the baking surface thoroughly, use the highest safe setting for your equipment, and judge the pizza by the base and top rather than copying eight minutes automatically.

The formula worked, but the test revealed three practical improvements:

1. Reduce heat during mixing. In a 29°C kitchen, I would chill the flour or mixer bowl and pause the machine if the dough temperature rises too quickly.

2. Do not expect the small batch to behave like a 2 kg flour batch. The hook needed help after the yeast water and final water additions. Stopping, scraping, and turning the dough was more effective than letting the hook spin without carrying it.

3. Use more container headroom for the full warm-up. For 215–220 g balls following this 48-hour schedule and a three-hour rest in a warm room, I would choose the 1000ml container next time.

None of these observations means the batch failed. The dough became smooth after its rest and fold, doubled during the one-hour room-temperature stage, fermented well in the refrigerator, and opened easily after warming. They simply show where this small-batch workflow can be improved.

This small batch reminded me that scaling down the ingredients does not scale down every part of the process in the same way.

The 520 g flour formula produced four useful 215–220 g portions, but our home mixer needed more time and two manual stops to keep the dough moving. The finished dough came out warm and rough. Instead of mixing it even longer, I gave it 20 minutes, folded it once, and let it finish its one-hour room-temperature rest. That was enough to turn it smooth, soft, and elastic.

After 48 hours at 39.6°F and about three covered hours in a warm room, the dough opened easily. Next time, I would manage the mixing temperature more carefully and give these portions more headroom during the final warm-up.

That is the version of the recipe I trust: not only the clean ingredient list, but also the awkward moments in the bowl and the adjustments that made the dough work.