How much dough do you need for a pizza?
Here's the simple answer: multiply your pizza diameter by 22.
That's it. That's the Rule of 22.
It's one of the most common questions in home pizza making. And most answers are either too vague or too complicated.
10-inch pizza? 220 grams. 12-inch? 264 grams. 16-inch? 352 grams. It works for any size, any style, any oven.
I've been making pizza at home since 2012, thousands of pizzas, dozens of dough formulas, every size imaginable. The Rule of 22 is the number I keep coming back to. It gives you a crust with enough structure to hold toppings, enough stretch to work with, and enough thickness to get that blistered, crispy bottom on the Baking Steel.
The Rule of 22 Pizza Dough Chart
| Pizza Size | Dough Weight |
|---|---|
| 10 inch | 220g |
| 11 inch | 242g |
| 12 inch | 264g |
| 13 inch | 286g |
| 14 inch | 308g |
| 15 inch | 330g |
| 16 inch | 352g |
Bookmark this. Screenshot it. Stick it on your fridge. You'll never guess dough weight again.
Why 22?
It's not arbitrary. At 22 grams per inch of diameter you get a dough ball that stretches comfortably to size without being too thin or too thick. It's the sweet spot for a home oven bake on a Baking Steel at 500°F.
Go lower, say 18-19 grams per inch, and you're in thin crust/cracker territory. Great if that's your style, but it's less forgiving to stretch and easier to tear.
Go higher, 26-28 grams per inch, and you're heading toward Detroit or Sicilian territory. More dough, more chew, more bread-like structure.
For NY style, Neapolitan-inspired, or everyday home pizza, 22 is the number.
How This Works With Our 72-Hour Dough Pack
Our dough pack yields approximately 1,000 grams of finished dough, that's the flour, water, salt and yeast combined after mixing.
Run that through the Rule of 22:
- 4 x 11-inch pizzas (4 x 250g) — personal size, perfect for pizza night with the family
- 3 x 12-inch pizzas (3 x 264g) — classic NY size, one pack feeds a crowd
- 2 x 16-inch pizzas (2 x 352g) — large format, big slices
One dough pack. Three ways to use it. No scale required, just add 1¾ cups of water, mix, cold ferment for 24, 48, or 72 hours, and stretch.
The Most Common Dough Weight Mistakes
Too much dough for the size — your pizza comes out thick and bready, takes longer to bake, and the bottom never gets crispy. The steel needs direct contact with a properly sized dough ball to do its job.
Too little dough — you tear it stretching, the crust is paper thin, and it burns before the toppings are done.
Not weighing at all — this is the biggest one. Eyeballing dough portions leads to inconsistency every single time. Use the Rule of 22 and a scale if you're making from scratch. Or use the dough pack and skip the scale entirely, it's pre-portioned for you.
We already did the math for you.
Our 72-Hour Dough Pack is pre-measured to the Rule of 22. Organic flour, sea salt, dry yeast — just add 1¾ cups of water. No scale, no measuring, no math. Just great pizza dough in 24, 48, or 72 hours.
One More Thing About Neapolitan
Traditional Neapolitan pizza tops out at 12 inches. That's not a preference, it's part of the style. A smaller diameter means a thicker cornicione relative to the center, which gives you that puffy, charred crust edge. At 12 inches and 264 grams, the Rule of 22 lines up perfectly with Neapolitan tradition.
For NY style, go 14-16 inches. Bigger, thinner, foldable. Same rule, different result.
About Andris Lagsdin
Andris Lagsdin is the inventor of the Baking Steel and founder of Baking Steel Inc. He's been making pizza at home since 2012 and has tested more dough formulas in a home oven than he can count. The Rule of 22 is his. Everything on this site he's made in his own kitchen first.
