How much dough do you need per pizza?

For an Ooni-style 30 cm (12-inch) pizza, 250 g is a useful starting dough-ball weight. Ooni's classic dough recipe gives four 250 g balls for that size, or three 330 g balls for 40 cm (16-inch) pizzas. Treat those as recipe examples, rather than a rule for every pizza style.

Decide the style before weighing

A thin centre with a raised rim needs a different approach from a thick pizza baked in a tray. Choose a recipe that matches the oven and result you want, then use its suggested dough weight. A pizza that fits your peel must also fit the oven opening and cooking surface.

Weigh dough before stretching it. If you consistently prefer a thicker base, record the adjustment for your next batch. Keep the diameter and recipe the same while you compare results.

Batch maths for pizza night

Multiply the number of pizzas by the dough-ball weight. Six balls at 250 g need 1,500 g of finished dough; eight need 2,000 g. Those are total dough weights, not flour weights.

The pizza dough calculator separates the flour, water, salt and yeast using your baker's percentages. Do not add the calculated water to a flour weight you guessed separately: that changes the formula.

It can be sensible to allow an extra ball while learning to launch, but make that a deliberate choice rather than silently adding a waste allowance to every batch.

Organise the queue

Count covered containers as well as dough balls. Leave space for the dough to expand according to the recipe, and keep the next ball covered while you stretch the current one. Prepare a clear landing place for cooked pizzas before lighting the oven.

The weight calculation is the same in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Oven clearances and permitted fuel still come from your particular appliance manual.