Pizza troubleshooter
Choose what you saw — up to three things — and, if you know them, what you baked on, the style and the bake. PizzaHQ ranks the likely causes from its 57 documented symptoms, 137 recorded causes and 36 equipment-specific branches, and for each one says why it fits, how to tell it apart from its neighbours, what you can still rescue, and what to change next time.
Ranked causes
Most likely
Hydration too high for the flour's strength or your handling skill
Generally acceptedDough formulation · from Dough is too sticky
Higher-hydration doughs are genuinely stickier to handle and require technique (wet hands, bench flour) rather than more flour worked in.
- Why it fits
- Recorded cause of "Dough is too sticky", ranked 1 of 2 by PizzaHQ's editors.
- How to tell it apart
- The dough feels smooth and stretchy but wet, and the recipe uses more water than you usually handle.
- Rescue it now
- Use wet hands or a little oil rather than added flour, which changes the dough's ratios; a bench scraper helps handle sticky dough without overworking it
- Next time
- Match hydration to your flour's strength and your comfort handling wetter doughs; build in an autolyse or stretch-and-fold session
Under-developed gluten structure
Generally acceptedDough formulation · from Dough is too sticky
Insufficient kneading or fermentation time leaves the dough without enough structure to hold its shape, which reads as stickiness.
- Why it fits
- Recorded cause of "Dough is too sticky", ranked 2 of 2 by PizzaHQ's editors.
- How to tell it apart
- The dough feels shaggy or slack and tears rather than stretches, after a short knead or little fermentation time.
- Rescue it now
- Use wet hands or a little oil rather than added flour, which changes the dough's ratios; a bench scraper helps handle sticky dough without overworking it
- Next time
- Match hydration to your flour's strength and your comfort handling wetter doughs; build in an autolyse or stretch-and-fold session
How this works
Every cause shown is one PizzaHQ has already documented, either on a symptom page or as an equipment-specific branch. The troubleshooter does not invent causes; it ranks the documented ones against what you told it.
A cause starts from its recorded evidence confidence and its editorial rank within its symptom. An equipment-specific cause for the equipment you used rises sharply, and causes for equipment you are not using are set aside. A kind of cause (bake environment, fermentation, toppings…) that also explains another thing you saw rises again — one explanation for two observations is more likely than two separate faults.
If you name a style, its recorded equipment fit, bake temperature and bake time are compared with yours; a bake far outside the style's range, or equipment PizzaHQ records as a compromise for that style, raises the heat and equipment causes and says why.
Assumptions
- Causes are bucketed — most likely, also possible, less likely — rather than given a percentage; the underlying ranking is additive and every addition is listed under 'Why it fits'.
- 'How to tell it apart' is the observation PizzaHQ records as distinguishing that cause from the symptom's others.
- Bake temperature and time only count when a style is chosen, because they are judged against that style's recorded range.
Limitations
- Only documented symptoms can be diagnosed. If what you see is not listed, the closest symptom page is the better starting point.
- Equipment-specific branches exist where equipment genuinely changes the answer; most dough-stage problems have none, by design.
- A ranking is a starting point for checking, not a verdict — the distinguishing observations are there so you can confirm or rule out each cause yourself.