Baker’s Percentages
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Also known as baker’s math, baker’s percentages are a game-changing tool for bakers, breaking recipes down into their most basic parts.
Why does this matter?
Recipes are essentially formulas, and formulas are all about math! By mastering baker’s percentages, you can easily adjust, analyze, and perfect your baking recipes.
Pro Tip:
I’ve developed easy to use baker’s percentages and scaling calculators, you can find them below in the calculating and scaling sections.
What Are Baker’s Percentages?
Baker’s percentages represent the weight of each ingredient relative to the weight of the flour in the recipe. Ingredients are weighed in grams, as they are much easier to work with in both large and small quantities, and chances are you’ll never need a fraction of a gram in your recipes!
The flour always equals 100%, no matter how many types of flour are used.
The sum of all ingredient percentages will exceed 100%, and that’s perfectly fine! This format provides a clear ratio of every ingredient in relation to the flour, making recipe adjustments straightforward.
Why Use Baker’s Math?
Baker’s percentages are incredibly versatile and offer you, the baker, tons of benefits.
The Formula Affects The Dough + The Bread
Understanding baker’s percentages can make recipe adjustments and troubleshooting much simpler.
A dough with 65% hydration (moderate water content) will result in a firmer dough, perfect for beginners and shaping sturdy sandwich loaves. While a recipe with 80% hydration will be much softer and stickier, yielding artisan-style breads with open crumb structure and a chewy texture.
Hydration levels impact your behaviour as well as the dough’s. The way one prepares, kneads, and shapes breads with high hydration is different than a low hydration dough.
Calculating Baker’s Percentages
Never forget the golden rule: Total flour weight is always 100%. If your recipe includes multiple flours, the sum of total flour amount is equal to 100%.
Here’s a step-by-step to determining the percentages based on a recipe that calls for 300 grams of bread flour, 200 grams whole wheat flour, 350 grams of water, 10 grams of salt, 5 grams of yeast.
- Identify the Total Flour Weight
- Total flour weight = 300g + 200g = 500g
- Calculate the Percentage
Divide the weight of each ingredient by the total flour weight, then multiply by 100:- Bread flour: 300g ÷ 500g × 100 = 60%
- Whole wheat flour: 200g ÷ 500g × 100 = 40%
- Water: 350g ÷ 500g × 100 = 70%
- Salt: 10g ÷ 500g × 100 = 2%
- Yeast: 5g ÷ 500g × 100 = 1%
Note: Bread flour + whole wheat flour = 100% (60%+40%)
- Apply This to Any Recipe
Regardless of the batch size or flour blend, baker’s percentages keep everything proportional and predictable.
| Ingredient | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Bread flour | 60% |
| Whole wheat flour | 40% |
| Water | 70% |
| Salt | 2% |
| Yeast | 1% |
Baker’s Percentage Calculator
Baker’s Percentages and Sourdough
If you’re a math purist, this section may aggravate you! It may sound easy to break out and identify the weight of the flour and water in the starter and give you an accurate percentage of hydration – BUT this process is much more complex.
Instead, we’re going to keep it simple and account for the starter as one single line item. When expressed as a percentage, the effects of water and flour in your starter will be consistent across any scale.
To incorporate the starter into baker’s percentages, you’ll treat its total weight as part of the formula.
Here’s a step-by-step guide breaking down my same day sourdough bread recipe. As written, this recipe requires 500 grams flour, 330 grams water, 150 grams starter, and 10 grams salt.
- Identify the Total Flour Weight
- Calculate the Percentage
Divide the weight of each ingredient by the total flour weight, then multiply by 100: - Apply This to Any Recipe
Use these steps to break down any recipe into its formula.
| Ingredient | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| Flour | 100% |
| Water | 66% |
| Salt | 2% |
| Starter | 30% |
Learning how to read baker’s percentages can help to quickly determine your dough’s overall hydration, which is crucial in sourdough baking. By adjusting the hydration level, you can tailor the dough’s handling and the final loaf’s characteristics.
Additionally, using baker’s percentages allows you to experiment with different ratios of starter to flour, which directly impacts fermentation time and flavor. A higher percentage of starter will ferment faster, resulting in a milder flavor, while a lower percentage will require a longer fermentation, producing a tangier loaf. This makes baker’s percentages an indispensable tool for sourdough bakers who want precision and consistency in every bake.
Scaling Using Percentages
Using baker’s percentages to calculate ingredient quantities is straightforward and ensures that all ingredients are proportionate to the total weight of flour in the recipe. Here’s how you can do it step by step:
Step 1: Determine Your flour weight
Start by deciding the total weight of flour you want to use in the recipe. This will always be your reference point and is assigned a value of 100% in baker’s math.
For example, let’s say you want to use 900 grams of flour to make 2 loaves of same day sourdough as referenced above.
Step 2: Identify the Percentages for Each Ingredient
If the recipe is not already formatted into percentages, you’ll have to convert it or use the calculator below the table!.
- Water: 66%
- Salt: 2%
- Sourdough Starter: 30%
Step 3: Multiply the Flour Weight by Each Percentage
To calculate the weight of each ingredient, multiply the total desired flour weight by the percentage (expressed in decimal form).
| Ingredient | Percentage (%) | Math | 900g Flour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 100% | 900g × 1 = | 900g |
| Water | 66% | 900g × .66 = | 594g |
| Starter | 30% | 900g × .30 = | 270g |
| Salt | 2% | 900g × .02 = | 18g |
Scaling Calculator
Scaling Options
Add-Ins And Inclusions
Add-ins like nuts, seeds, or dried fruit don’t directly affect the percentages but should be considered carefully in terms of weight and how they might impact the dough’s structure. Too many heavy add-ins, for instance, can make a high-hydration dough harder to handle.
When I’m working in baker’s percentages, I always include add ins as their own line item, this ensures that as I scale my recipe, the inclusions are scaled proportionately.
Working with Complex Recipes
In recipes with multiple types of flour or other ingredients like butter, oil, sweeteners, etc., you can use the same principle for each one. Just calculate each ingredient based on the percentage relative to the flour’s weight.
Example of a Complex Recipe:
Let’s break down my lemon blueberry sourdough recipe – first we’ll list the base ingredients and their weights, then we’ll calculate the percentage, then we’ll do the math to increase our batch size to 1250g.
| Ingredient | Weight (g) | Percentage (%) | Math | 1250g Flour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flour | 500 | 100% | 1250g × 1 = | 1250g |
| Water | 375 | 75% | 1250g × 0.75 = | 938g |
| Starter | 100 | 20% | 1250g × 0.20 = | 250g |
| Salt | 14 | 2.8% | 1250g × 0.028 = | 35g |
| Granulated sugar | 30 | 6% | 1250g × 0.06 = | 75g |
| Blueberries | 175 | 35% | 1250g × 0.35 = | 438g |
| Brown Sugar | 25 | 5% | 1250g × 0.05 = | 63g |
Adapting Your Recipes
Baker’s percentages are particularly helpful when converting recipes that use volume measurements into weight-based formulas. Start by weighing your ingredients the first time you make the recipe, and then calculate each ingredient’s percentage in relation to the total flour weight. This not only makes scaling the recipe easier but also provides consistency every time you bake.
Don’t Forget!
While baker’s math is straightforward, there are a few mistakes to watch out for.
A common mistake arises when working with multiple types of flour. Always calculate the total weight of all flours in the recipe, as the combined total must equal 100%. Miscalculating this can throw off your percentages and impact the dough’s behavior.
Another is neglecting to weigh ingredients. Using volume measurements (like cups and spoons) can lead to inconsistent results since the weight of flour or other ingredients can vary greatly depending on how they’re packed. Using your kitchen scale is the key to accurate calculations.
Notes From The Crave Kitchen:
Baker’s percentages are the secret to consistent baking across batch sizes. They allow for flexibility, precision, and creativity—whether you’re experimenting with new recipes or perfecting an old favorite.
Once you start using baker’s math, you’ll wonder how you ever baked without it!
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