Flour is always 100%
Baking is about percentages. One loaf? Three loaves? A dozen loaves? Most recipes can be adjusted in regard to the amounts of ingredients and their final yield. Baker’s math is about percentages and helps with that. By the way, bakers use weight instead of volume to measure the ingredients properly.
As a baseline, the total amount of the recipe’s flour is always 100%. The following formula is an example of how to calculate Baker’s percentages for most bread recipes.
Baker’s % = (Weight of Ingredient / Weight of Total Flour) x 100
Here is an example of some dough:
| 1000g | Flour | = | 100% |
| 800g | Water | = | 80% |
| 20g | Salt | = | 2% |
Dough made based on these amounts is called 80% hydrated.
Levain / Main Dough & Baker’s Percentages Calculator
There’s little need to download complicated spreadsheets from other baking sites to calculate baker’s percentages.
Your bread recipe most likely asks for a specific amount of levain (a one-time offshoot of ripe culture) as one of its ingredients. Use this form to decide how much flour and water to feed or refresh an offshoot of ripe culture, one or a few more times, for the amount of levain required by a bread recipe.
Dark rye flour is considered a whole berry flour. It is added to the baker’s percentage for whole wheat. 75% whole wheat formula can use a higher hydration ratio.
All default values are my preferences for a yield of two loaves. Fields marked with an * (asterisk) require an entry. Again, these forms reflect my bias towards the use of whole wheat flour.
