Cooking & Food
Baker's Percentage Calculator - Scale Any Bread Recipe
Calculate baker's percentages for any bread recipe. Scale all ingredients relative to flour weight for consistent results.
What is baker's percentage?
Baker's percentage (baker's math) expresses every ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%; other ingredients are proportional to it. This makes it easy to scale recipes up or down: just change the flour quantity and every other ingredient scales automatically.
Ingredient % = (Ingredient weight ÷ Flour weight) × 100Reference percentages
| Ingredient | Typical % range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | Always the reference |
| Water (hydration) | 60–80% | Low = stiff dough, high = slack/open crumb |
| Salt | 1.8–2.2% | Flavor and gluten structure |
| Yeast (instant) | 0.5–1% | Use less for long cold fermentation |
| Sourdough starter | 10–20% | Of total flour weight |
| Fat (butter/oil) | 5–15% | Enriched breads (brioche: 40–60%) |
| Sugar | 0–30% | Lean bread: 0–5%; sweet bread: 10–30% |
Scaling example
Here is a standard country bread formula using baker's percentages, then scaled from 500 g flour up to 2,000 g flour:
| Ingredient | Baker's % | At 500 g flour | At 2,000 g flour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 500 g | 2,000 g |
| Water | 72% | 360 g | 1,440 g |
| Salt | 2% | 10 g | 40 g |
| Instant yeast | 0.8% | 4 g | 16 g |
To scale: multiply each ingredient's baker's % by the new flour weight and divide by 100. The ratio always stays consistent regardless of batch size.
Hydration effects on the final loaf
- 60–65% hydration (stiff): Easy to handle; produces a denser crumb with a tight structure. Good for bagels, sandwich loaves, and pasta dough.
- 68–75% hydration (medium): Balanced handling and open crumb. The most common range for everyday bread and sourdough.
- 78–85% hydration (slack/wet): Produces a highly open, irregular crumb with large holes (ciabatta, high-hydration sourdough). Requires stretch-and-fold technique and bench scrapers; sticky to handle by hand.
Pre-ferment percentages
Many advanced bread recipes include a portion of pre-fermented dough to develop flavor:
- Poolish: A wet pre-ferment (100% hydration). Typically 20–40% of total flour is prefermented. Produces complex flavor with thin, crispy crust.
- Biga: A stiff Italian pre-ferment (50–60% hydration). Develops slowly at cool temperatures; produces chewier texture.
- Levain (sourdough starter): Typically 10–20% of total flour weight. Build time and hydration of the levain significantly affect timing and flavor.