Calculate ingredient weights from baker's percentages and scale any bread recipe with precision.
Quick Answer:In baker's percentage, flour is always 100%. All other ingredients are expressed as a percentage of the flour weight. For a basic bread: 65% water, 2% salt, 1% yeast gives a total dough weight of 168% of the flour weight.
Set to 0 to calculate from flour weight
Total Dough Weight
Calculating... grams
Hydration Level
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Water / Flour x 100
Flour (100%)
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grams
Water
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grams
Salt / Yeast / Sugar / Fat
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grams each
Baker's percentage is the universal language of professional baking. When developing recipes, start with hydration: 60-65% for bagels and pretzels, 65-70% for sandwich bread, 70-78% for baguettes and sourdough, and 80%+ for ciabatta and focaccia. Remember that whole grain flours absorb more water, so increase hydration by 5-10% when substituting. Salt at 1.8-2.2% is the accepted range for flavor development without inhibiting yeast activity. If using instant yeast, 0.5-1% is sufficient; for active dry yeast, use 1.5-2%.
Baker's percentage (also called baker's math) expresses each ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight, which is always set to 100%. For example, if a recipe uses 1000g flour and 650g water, the water is at 65% baker's percentage. This system makes it easy to scale recipes up or down and compare different formulas regardless of batch size. It is the standard notation used in professional bakeries worldwide.
Hydration is the ratio of water to flour expressed as a percentage. A 65% hydration dough uses 650g water per 1000g flour. Low hydration (55-65%) produces denser bread with a tight crumb, like bagels. Medium hydration (65-75%) is standard for sandwich bread and baguettes. High hydration (75-90%) creates open-crumb artisan breads like ciabatta and focaccia. Higher hydration doughs are wetter and harder to handle but produce lighter, more airy results.
To scale a recipe, first determine your target total dough weight. Then calculate the flour weight using: Flour = Target Weight / (sum of all percentages / 100). For example, if your percentages total 176% (flour 100% + water 65% + salt 2% + yeast 1% + sugar 5% + fat 3%) and you want 880g of dough, flour = 880 / 1.76 = 500g. Then multiply flour weight by each percentage to get individual ingredient weights.