Bake the perfect Neapolitan pizza with our dough calculator)
It is May 22, 2010. A programmer from Florida, Laszlo Hanyecz, pays 10,000 bitcoin for two pizzas. At that moment, those bitcoin are worth almost nothing. Today, those same 10,000 bitcoin are worth hundreds of millions of euros. Laszlo had no regrets. “I felt like I was contributing to something big,” he later said. And he was right. That pizza transaction became the first known purchase of a physical product with bitcoin, and has been celebrated every year on May 22nd as Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Bitcoin Pizza Day: The Day That Went Down in History
On the Bitcointalk forum, Laszlo posted a simple message: “I'll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas.” He just wanted pizza. Not as a statement, not as an experiment. Just food. Another forum user, Jeremy Sturdivant (aka “jercos”), took the deal. He ordered two Papa John's pizzas and had them delivered to Laszlo. The rest is literally bitcoin history.
Every May 22nd, Bitcoiners worldwide celebrate this moment. Not with sadness about “missed gains”; that's the wrong frame. With pride: Bitcoin truly became money on that day. Not digital gold on a screen, but a medium of exchange for real value. Two pizzas helped launch a global monetary network. This year, you celebrate with a homemade pizza and something tasty from the Bitcoin food and drink collection.
Bitcoin Pizza Day in Zwolle: Join us
Bitcoin Pizza Day is also celebrated in the Netherlands. From Zwolle Bitcoin City, _, one of the most active Bitcoin communities in the Netherlands, Mario is once again organizing a Pizza Day meet-up this year. Eating pizza together, stacking sats, and catching up with fellow Bitcoiners from the region. Everyone is welcome, from the curious beginner to the seasoned hodler.
Sign up for Bitcoin Pizza Day Zwolle
Buy a ready-made pizza or make it yourself
Of course, you can order a ready-made pizza. But not on Bitcoin Pizza Day. Because the best pizza is the pizza you make yourself, with your own hands, your own dough, your own sauce. If you do it right, the result will be better than anything you've ever had delivered.
In this guide, you will learn how to get the perfect Neapolitan pizza baked, the queen of all pizza styles. We give you an interactive pizza dough calculator Accurate to the gram for all measurements, followed by the step-by-step recipe that always works. Success is guaranteed if you follow the steps.
Pizza Dough Calculator: Calculate Your Dough Exactly
Fill in below for how many people you are baking for, what style you choose, and what type of yeast you use. The calculator will immediately give you the exact grams for a perfect dough.
Pizza Dough Calculator
The Proven Neapolitan Pizza Recipe: The 72-Hour Method
This is the recipe that will help you ace the 100%. Not just an approximation, not “something like that,” but the method used by generations of Neapolitan pizza makers (united in the Neapolitan Pizza (association) have refined, adapted it for the home baker with a regular oven. The secret? Time. Good dough needs rest, and that makes all the difference.
For 4 people (4 balls of 260g). Use the calculator above for other quantities.
Dough ingredients (4 pizzas)
- 640 g Type 00 flour (or strong bread flour, minimum 12g protein per 100g)
- 397 mL water, cold (straight from the tap)
- 16 g fine sea salt
- 0.6 g dried yeast (or 2 grams verse gist
Sauce ingredients (per pizza)
- 80–100 g San Marzano tomatoes (canned, hand-crushed) or good quality passata
- Snuff sea salt
- Splash Extra virgin olive oil
- Optional: 2–3 fresh basil leaves
Receipt (Margherita, the classic choice)
- 80–100 g fior di latte mozzarella (of buffalo, but fior di latte bakes better)
- Basil verse
- Extra virgin olive oil to finish
Day 1: Making the dough
Step 1: Autolyse (20 minutes)
Place the flour in a large bowl. Add 90% of cold water and mix briefly until no dry flour remains. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. This is the autolysis: the gluten network begins to form without you kneading it.
Step 2: Add salt and yeast
Dissolve the salt in the remaining water (10%, approx. 40 ml). Add it to the dough. Knead by hand for 2 minutes. Then dissolve the yeast in a small teaspoon of lukewarm water (no warmer than 35°C) and add it. Knead again for 2 minutes.
Step 3: Stretch and fold (90 minutes)
Let the dough rest, covered, at room temperature. Perform a “stretch and fold” every 30 minutes: pick up one side of the dough, stretch it as far up as possible, and fold it to the other side.
Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Four times per round, three rounds total. After the last round, let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Form balls and refrigerate
Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces (each ±260g). Shape each piece into a tight ball: pull the edges to the underside and roll the ball on the counter. Place the balls next to each other in a lightly oiled baking pan or covered box. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours (ideal: 48–72 hours).
Day 2 of 3: baking day
Step 5: Bring to temperature
Remove the dough balls from the refrigerator 2 hours before baking. Let them come to room temperature, covered. Cold dough tears, and you don't want that.
Step 6: Preheat oven
Place a pizza stone or pizza steel in the oven and preheat to the maximum setting (480–520°F in a conventional oven). Allow it to preheat for at least 45–60 minutes. No stone? Use the baking sheet upside down; less ideal but better than nothing.
Step 7: Stretch the dough
Sprinkle the countertop with flour. Place the dough ball in the center. Using your fingers, press from the center outwards, leaving a rim of approximately 1.5 cm (this will be the cornicione). Gently stretch the dough with the back of your hands until it has a diameter of about 30–32 cm. Never use a rolling pin. It will push out the air bubbles.
Step 8: Sauce and Toppings
Distribute 80–100g peeled San Marzano tomatoes (crushed by hand) over the pizza. Leave the edge clear. Distribute small pieces of fior di latte mozzarella over the sauce. A few fresh basil leaves. A drizzle of olive oil.
Step 9: Baking
Slide the pizza onto the hot stone (use a pizza peel dusted with semolina or a flat cutting board). Bake for 5-7 minutes until the crust is beautifully puffed and speckled, the cheese is bubbling and lightly golden brown.
In a wood-fired oven at 450°C, that's 60–90 seconds. In a regular oven at 270°C, it takes 6–8 minutes. Turn on the broiler for the last 2 minutes for color.
Step 10: Finish and eat
Take the pizza out of the oven and let it rest for 30 seconds. Add fresh basil (on the hot pizza), a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and optionally some sea salt over the crust. Eat immediately. Pizza doesn't wait.
New York Style Pizza: The Big Alternative
Not everyone has a pizza stone. You don't need one for New York Style pizza. This is the big baking sheet pizza: thin, crispy crust, large slices you fold in half before taking your first bite. Use the calculator above (set to “New York Style”) for the exact grams.
The New York Style calls for a higher-protein flour (bread flour, 13g protein per 100g), 21% olive oil in the dough, and a lower hydration level (60%). The proofing time is the same: 24–48 hours in the cold. The difference lies in the oven temperature (280°C, baked on a preheated baking sheet) and the baking time (8–10 minutes). The sauce is slightly sweeter. Add a dash of honey and dried oregano.
Tips for Success with 100%
- Flower is everything. Good Type 00 flour (Caputo “Pizzeria” or “Nuvola”) makes the difference. Regular all-purpose flour works but isn't the same.
- Weigh everything. Baking pizza is baking, not cooking. A gram is a gram. The calculator gives you exact quantities. Use a kitchen scale, also for the yeast.
- Cold fermentation = more flavor. 72 hours in the refrigerator makes for a more complex, more digestible dough than quick rising. Plan ahead.
- No rolling pin. Never. The air bubbles in the dough are your friends and create that crispy crust (cornicione). A rolling pin kills them all.
- Hot oven, hot stone. The stone or slab must be heated for at least 45 minutes before baking. A cold stone equals a soggy crust.
- Little filling. A good pizza has few but good toppings. Less is more, so you can taste the dough.
- San Marzano or nothing. For the sauce: DOP San Marzano tomatoes. No fresh tomatoes, no Dutch passata. They are sweeter, less acidic, and have less moisture.
More Bitcoin fun in the kitchen
Pizza is good. Bitcoin Pasta is also good. In the BitcoinStuffStore Food & Drink Collection Do you find the Bitcoin Pasta , premium pasta in Bitcoin-design packaging, and the Bitcoin Cava 200K Bottle for when the pizza is ready. The perfect Bitcoin Pizza Day menu: homemade pizza, Bitcoin Pasta as a side dish, and a glass of Cava for the toast to Laszlo.
Frequently Asked Questions about Bitcoin Pizza Day
Share your pizza, win a reward
Did you make the pizza? Send a picture. Submitters will be rewarded.
Share your result via X (@ZijlstraMario), Nostr (mario bros) or respond below to this blog. Every photo, every reaction, every shared post brings a new Bitcoiner closer to the community. Bitcoin is for everyone. And everyone is potential for Bitcoin.
Let's make the world a little more fun together. With good pizza, good people, and good money.
Enjoy your meal, and happy Bitcoin Pizza Day. 🍕₿
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