The Baker's Percentage Calculator & Bread Science Guide

The definitive guide to baker's percentage. Go beyond the calculator to understand hydration, scaling, and how to create your own bread formulas like a professional.

IngredientFlour?Weight (g)Baker's %

Total Flour

1000.0g

Always 100%

Total Dough

1680.0g

168.0% total

Hydration

65.0%

Water to flour ratio

Scale Recipe

Current recipe makes 1680g. Enter desired total weight to scale all ingredients proportionally.

How to Use

  • • Check "Flour?" for all flour ingredients (they total 100%)
  • • In Percentage Mode: Enter baker's percentages, weights auto-calculate
  • • In Weight Mode: Enter weights, percentages auto-calculate
  • • Use the scaling tool to resize your recipe to any batch size
  • • Hydration is automatically calculated from water content

The Universal Language of Bakers: Unlocking Professional Recipes

If you've ever wondered how a professional bakery produces hundreds of perfectly consistent loaves day after day, the secret isn't magic—it's math. Specifically, it's baker's percentage. This system is more than a calculation; it's the universal language that allows bakers across the world to share, scale, and create recipes with absolute precision. Once you master this language, you'll no longer just be following recipes—you'll be understanding them.

The Core Philosophy: Flour is King (100%)

Unlike regular percentages that add up to 100%, baker's math establishes one ingredient as the foundation upon which everything else is built: **the flour is always 100%**. Every other ingredient—water, salt, yeast—is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight. This simple but powerful idea is what gives you complete control over your dough.

A Simple Bread Formula in Baker's Language:

  • Flour: 100%
  • Water: 75%
  • Salt: 2%
  • Yeast: 1%

This instantly tells a baker everything they need to know: it's a high-hydration (75%) dough. The total percentage is 178%, which simply means the final dough will weigh 1.78 times the weight of the flour.

The Hydration Lab: Understanding Dough Personalities

The water percentage, or hydration, is the single most important factor determining a dough's character and handling.

60-68% Hydration: The Dependable Apprentice

This dough is smooth, manageable, and easy to knead. It's the standard for sandwich loaves and beginner-friendly breads. The resulting crumb is soft and tight.

70-78% Hydration: The Talented Artist

This dough is sticky, requiring gentle handling and techniques like stretch-and-folds. It's the territory of artisan sourdoughs and baguettes, capable of producing a beautifully open, airy crumb.

80%+ Hydration: The Respected Master

This dough is almost a liquid, a challenge for even experienced bakers. It's used for ciabatta and high-hydration sourdoughs, and rewards mastery with an incredibly light, open structure and a gloriously crisp crust.

Of course, a dough's final feel also depends on the type of flour used. To understand why whole wheat flour absorbs more water than white flour, explore our scientific guide to flour conversions.

Baking Clinic

Problem: My bread is dense and heavy, like a brick.

Diagnosis: Looking at the formula, this is likely a **low hydration issue** (water percentage is below 60%) or your **salt percentage is too high** (above 2.5%), which can inhibit yeast activity.

Solution: Try increasing the water percentage by 5% for your next bake. Also, double-check your salt calculation; it should almost always be exactly 2% of the flour weight.

Problem: My bread tastes bland and lacks character.

Diagnosis: Flavor comes from proper fermentation and seasoning. Check your **salt percentage**—if it's below 1.8%, your bread will taste flat. Also, consider your **yeast percentage**; if it's too high, the bread ferments too quickly, developing less flavor.

Solution: Ensure your salt is at 2%. For more complex flavor, introduce a pre-ferment (like a poolish or biga) or decrease the yeast percentage and ferment for a longer time at a cooler temperature. For more on yeast, see our guide to yeast types and conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I handle enrichments like eggs, butter, or milk?

A: Enrichments are also calculated as a percentage of the flour. For a rich brioche, the egg and butter percentages can each be 50% or more! Remember that these ingredients also contain water, which must be factored into the total hydration. For specifics, our guides on eggs and butter are essential.

Q: How do I calculate the percentage if I use multiple types of flour?

A: You simply add the weights of all the flours together. That combined weight becomes your new 100%. For example, if you use 800g of bread flour and 200g of whole wheat flour, your total flour weight is 1000g, and that is what you base all other percentages on.

Q: Can I use baker's percentage for cakes or cookies?

A: Yes, but it's less common because the flour is often not the main ingredient by weight. However, it is still an incredibly powerful tool for scaling these recipes. The principles of calculating percentages remain exactly the same.