DoughPlan

Neapolitan Pizza Dough Hydration (and a Chart by Style)

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated

Neapolitan pizza dough usually sits between about 56% and 65% hydration. The AVPN regulations set 1 litre of water for 1,600 to 1,800 g of flour, which is 55.6% to 62.5%. Ooni says Neapolitan dough "generally sits at around the 60 to 65% mark" and Gozney says it "needs 58-65% hydration". Recipes for home ovens often go higher: King Arthur's Neapolitan-style crust uses 73%. DoughPlan's presets use 60% for the AVPN style and 65% for a home oven.

What hydration means

Hydration is the weight of water divided by the weight of flour, as a percentage. In Ooni's example, 1,000 g of flour and 600 g of water is a 60% hydration dough. Because it is a ratio of weights, it only works if you weigh both. Gozney recommends a kitchen scale rather than cups, because the weight of a cup of flour varies.

To get the water for any batch, multiply the flour by the hydration. For 4 Neapolitan balls of 250 g, the DoughPlan planner gives:

HydrationFlourWaterSalt (2.8%)
60%623 g374 g17.4 g
65%605 g393 g16.9 g

Both make 1,015 g of dough: 1,000 g for the balls plus 1.5% for what sticks to the bowl. At higher hydration the same dough weight holds less flour and more water.

What the AVPN regulations say

The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) gives its doses per litre of water:

The range exists because flours absorb different amounts of water. A strong flour can take the higher end; a weaker one gives a slack dough at the same hydration.

Why home ovens use more water

The AVPN regulations describe a bake of 60 to 90 seconds with a cooking surface at 380 to 430 °C and the oven dome at about 485 °C. King Arthur's home-oven crust bakes at 500 to 550 °F (260 to 288 °C) for about 6 to 7 minutes, then 2 to 3 minutes under the broiler. A bake that long drives off more water from the crust. Recipes for home ovens usually add water so the crust stays soft, which is why King Arthur goes to 73% and why our home oven preset starts at 65%. If your crust comes out dry and crackery in a home oven, raise the hydration a few points (more in pizza dough for a home oven). If it is gummy under the toppings, lower it.

Hydration chart by style

Published hydrations for the main styles. Where a source gives grams, the percentage is our arithmetic.

StyleHydrationSource
Neapolitan (AVPN)55.6% to 62.5%AVPN regulations
Neapolitan60% to 65%Ooni
Neapolitan58% to 65%Gozney
Neapolitan-style, home oven73%King Arthur (170 g water, 232 g flour)
New York65%Ooni recipe (567 g water, 872 g flour); Gozney "around 65%"
New York57%King Arthur recipe (206 g water, 360 g flour)
Detroit70% to 80%Ooni hydration article
Detroit74%Ooni recipe (260 g water, 350 g flour)

Sources disagree, sometimes inside the same brand: Gozney's hydration article puts Detroit "around 65%", while Ooni's says 70% to 80%. Treat any chart as a starting range, not a rule. Gozney makes the same point: recipe hydrations are a starting point to experiment from.

Handling a wetter dough

Does hydration change the yeast?

A little. DoughPlan's yeast model is fitted to a table built for doughs around 65% hydration, give or take 10 points, so 55% to 75% is inside its range. Forum members discussing the table point out that very high or very low hydration changes fermentation times noticeably, but the model does not adjust for it. The planner keeps the same yeast whatever hydration you enter. The method page lists this and the other limits.

Try it

Open the planner, choose "Neapolitan (AVPN style, very hot oven)" or "Neapolitan for a home oven", and change the hydration field to see the new flour and water. For the yeast side of Neapolitan dough, read Neapolitan pizza dough yeast. For a New York dough, see the New York-style guide.

Sources