Baker's percentage: how bread formulas are written and scaled
In baker's percentage the total flour is always 100 %, and every other ingredient is its weight divided by the flour weight. A dough with 70 % water, 2 % salt and 1 % yeast has 70 g of water, 2 g of salt and 1 g of yeast for every 100 g of flour.
The percentages add up to more than 100: here 100 + 70 + 2 + 1 = 173 %. That total is what lets you scale to a dough weight. Flour = dough weight ÷ (total percentage ÷ 100), and every other ingredient = flour × its percentage. For 1000 g of dough: flour = 1000 ÷ 1.73 = 578 g, water = 405 g, salt = 11.6 g and yeast = 5.8 g, which add back up to 1000 g.
Dough sticks to bowls, hands and the bench, so bakers often mix a little more than the shaped weight they need. The recipe scaling calculator adds that loss margin to the target before it scales.
A starter is part flour and part water, so its flour counts toward the 100 %. When starter replaces yeast, the flour and water inside the starter are taken out of the recipe so the dough keeps its hydration; the yeast to sourdough converter reports the starter as a share of total flour for that reason.
Conventions differ between authors: some state starter as a percentage of the flour weight, others state the flour inside the starter as a percentage of total flour. The calculators name the convention they use next to each figure.
Used by
- Yeast to sourdough converterEnter your yeast recipe and your starter. You see how much starter to use under several published rules of thumb, and how much flour and liquid to take out so the dough keeps its hydration.
- Bread recipe scaling calculatorEnter your bread formula and how much dough you need, by flour weight, total dough weight or number of pieces. Every ingredient is scaled so the dough adds up exactly, loss margin included.