thickness factor explained please

[Kostakis1985]

I made probably my best pizzas over the past week, I used a dough formula I found from this forum it was a 58% hydration, 1% oil, 1.75% salt, no sugar. I used all trumps flour. I made two 14in pizzas using 13 ounces of dough, they were excellent however a little too flimsy and thin. How do I figure out a thickness factor for the weight of dough and size of pizza I'm making? Like what was the thickness factor of the pizzas i made this past week? Sorry if these questions are confusing I'm confused myself.

[parallei]

The thickness factor (TF) is the weight of the dough in ounces divided by the area of the pizza in square inches.  As an example:

Area=pi * radius squared

Your pizza had a 14-inch diameter.  The area = pi *(r*r) = 3.1412 * (7*7) = 153.9 in sq

Your dough ball weighed 13 oz.

TF = 13/153.9= .084

[The Dough Doctor]

To take the T.F. (thickness factor) one step further, now all you need to do is to calculate the surface area of your new pan size/pizza size and multiply your T.F. by that number to get the correct dough weight for the new diameter.
Example: You now want to make your pizza on a 12-inch diameter format. Pi X R squared = 3.14 X 36 + 113 square inches in a 12-inch diameter pizza. 113 X 0.084-ounces = 9.49 (call it 9.5-ounces). Note: The decimal point was in the wrong spot in the original response. 13-ounces divided by 154 = 0.085 T.F. Another way to express T.F. is ounces of dough per square inch of surface area.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[parallei]

It is easy to make typo's.  I do it all the time!

Pi X R squared = 3.14 X 36 + 113

I'm sure you meant "3.14 x 36 = 113"

[Kostakis1985]

Thanks for the help I understand it better now. Im trying to make a crust that will be able to stand up to a few toppings without being an overly soggy mess but still be considered thin crust.

[scott123]

Kostakis1985, great thin crust pizza, imo, shouldn't have to 'stand up' to a few toppings. If your toppings are stressing out your crust, it might be time for less toppings. Some of the best NY style pizzerias in the country have topping limitations just for this very reason.

[miner_tom]

The thickness factor (TF) is the weight of the dough in ounces divided by the area of the pizza in square inches.  As an example:

Area=pi * radius squared

Your pizza had a 14-inch diameter.  The area = pi *(r*r) = 3.1412 * (7*7) = 153.9 in sq

Your dough ball weighed 13 oz.

TF = 13/153.9= .084



Hello to the forum and especially to the "Dough Doctor".

I have a question concerning the "Thickness Factor". I am an electronics engineer, by profession, but learning about dough, the hard way. I have had many failures.

I was trying to learn about dough thickness factor, when it occurred to me that this factor has nothing to do with the thickness of the finished pie, really. It relates a weight or mass of dough to an area. Perhaps that is just the intent and I am too dense to see how important that is (altogether possible). If that is so then it is a "relative" measure as opposed to an "absolute" measure when it comes to the finished pie.

As a non baker, I am thinking of the finished product because I simply do not know enough not to.

Certainly, the more weight of dough per area will relate to a thicker pie. But how does the Yeast relate to the finished thickness of the pie?

It seems that as defined by the relations above, instead of "Thickness Factor" we might use the term "weight distribution" as defined as a weight of dough per unit area. There might be some other term, involving yeast, that could be called "Finished Thickness Factor" (FTF).

Perhaps
 

[Pete-zza]

Tom,

You might take a look at the thread at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,17813.msg172515.html#msg172515, including my post at Reply 7.

BTW, what we call thickness factor, Tom calls density loading factor.

Peter