Dough Math
by Tom Lehmann
The amount of dough to use when making different size pizzas has always been something of a mystery. However, this mystery is easily solved using a little basic math. Begin experimenting with any size pizza, whatever size you’re comfortable with. Test different dough weights to determine what weight gives you the crust that you want to have. Let’s say that you have been working with a 12-inch diameter pizza and you found that 10-ounces of dough gave you the crust thickness that you wanted. If we calculate the surface area of that 12-inch pizza (Pi X R squared or 3.14 X R squared) we come up with 3.14 X 36 = 113 square inches. When we divide the weight of the dough by the surface area of the pan we come up with 0.08849-ounces of dough per square inch of surface area in this application. Now, to find the dough weights needs for different pizzas, all you need to do is to calculate the surface area of the pizza you want to make and multiply that number by your dough loading per square inch figure (0.08849) to come up with the correct dough weight for that size pizza. As an example, if we want to make a 10-inch pizza in addition to the 12-inch pizza, the correct dough weight for the 10-inch would be calculated as 3.14 X 25 = 78.5 (square inches) X 0.08849 (ounces per square inch) = 6.946 (7-ounces). This will give you the same crust thickness for both sizes and, in addition, if you are baking your pizza in any of the conveyor ovens you will have a better chance of having both sizes bake equally as well as at the same time and temperature.
Adding something special to specialty foods for more than 50 years.