Understanding Baker’s Percentages

Often when I post baker’s percentages on a video that I share, someone points out that the total percentages do not equal 100 and that my math isn’t mathing.

Well… Baker’s percentages work differently.

We use them to express the amount of ANY ingredient compared to the TOTAL flour in a recipe.

For example, if I were chatting with a professional baker friend and we were sharing about our recipes, I’d say something like:

“My country loaf is sitting around 80% hydration, with 32% whole wheat, 10% whole rye and the rest is bread flour.”

This person would know that for every 100 grams of flour (all three flours total—not just one), that I’m putting 80 grams of water.

They’d understand that that 100 grams of flour would be broken down into 32 grams whole wheat, 10 grams rye and 58 grams bread flour. Because, 100 minus 32 is 68, minus 10, is 58.

• * *

If this is all too confusing…

There’s an awesome tool you can use made by Joshua from DOAP (it’s a tool you use to get dough off your hands—check out his website here).

His dough calculator is here, and what I really like about it is that he included a simple calculator where you can:

• Choose the amount of each ingredient and the hydration percentage
• Toggle to see the “true hydration” which accounts for the water and flour in the starter (there’s debate on whether or not to include this when you’re sharing hydration percentages and I’ve gotten in the habit of not including it)
• Scroll down to use another tool that lets you calculate how to prepare your starter for the recipe, how long it will take, and what ratio to feed

Pretty cool, and a very easy-to-use tool!

It will even allow you to calculate how much of each ingredient you need for multiple loaves, so you don’t have to use your phone calculator, which is why my phone is covered in specks of flour!

• * *

Scaling Your Loaves

Once you understand baker’s percentages, it opens up a huge door because the next step is being able to make smaller or larger loaves of bread!

Maybe you live alone and you’re sick of eating 7-day-old bread by the time you get done with your 800g loaf and you’d like to make yourself a personal loaf.

Maybe you have 5 kids and live with your parents and you’d like to make a giant 1500g loaf once a week so it lasts.

Maybe you’d like to make bread bowls for soup season.

Here’s how to do that:

• * *

Step 1: Figure out the baker’s percentages

Take the total amount of each ingredient and divide it by the total amount of flour.

Example:

Water (hydration) = 300g water / 400g flour → 0.75 → 75%
Salt = 8g salt / 400g flour → 0.02 → 2%
Starter = 80g starter / 400g flour → 0.20 → 20%

Now that you have each percentage, add them all up:

100 (flour) + 75 (water) + 2 (salt) + 20 (starter) = 197

This is your magic number. Your magic number will be different depending on which recipe you use. If you haven’t checked it out, I have a beginner’s country loaf recipe on my website.

• * *

Step 2: Decide your loaf size

Once you get your magic number, you can start to mess around with the size of your loaf of bread.

Want a medium sized loaf weighing 800g? Here’s how you do it:

800 ÷ 197 = 4.06

Now take every ingredient percentage and multiply it by 4.06:

• Flour: 4.06 × 100 = 406g flour
• Starter: 4.06 × 20 = 81g starter
• Salt: 4.06 × 2 = 8g salt
• Water: 4.06 × 75 = 304.5g water

This will yield a standard medium-sized loaf of bread.

• * *

Practice 1: Small (Bread Bowl-Sized) Loaf — 200g

200 ÷ 197 = 1.02

• Flour: 1.02 × 100 = 102g flour
• Starter: 1.02 × 20 = 20g starter
• Salt: 1.02 × 2 = 2g salt
• Water: 1.02 × 75 = 76.5g water

This makes a perfect little personal loaf or soup bread bowl.

• * *

Practice 2: Large (Party-Sized) Loaf -1500g

1500 ÷ 197 = 7.61

• Flour: 7.61 × 100 = 761g flour
• Starter: 7.61 × 20 = 152g starter
• Salt: 7.61 × 2 = 15g salt
• Water: 7.61 × 75 = 571g water

This one’s great for feeding a crowd or making one giant showpiece loaf.

• * *

I hope this helps you understand baker’s percentages more and how to make bread the size that YOU want it to be.

Especially for you new bakers, once the sourdough bug gets you, all you want to do is bake! And it can quickly turn into a freezer bursting with bread… why not practice with smaller loaves? Once, again, I am so grateful you’re here and I thank each and every one of you for choosing to read this and support me. It means a lot for this mom of three, living in the most expensive city in the US! I hope this post helped clarify baker’s percentages and if you’re even more confused, don’t worry! Just use the dough calculator I linked above. Math is not for everyone, but baking IS!

With love,

Laila