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What is Baker's Percentage?
Baker's percentage (also known as baker's math or formula percentage) is a notation method that expresses each ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%, and every other ingredient is expressed relative to it. This system is the industry standard in professional bakeries worldwide because it makes recipes infinitely scalable and easy to compare.
For example, a recipe with 65% water means that for every 100 grams of flour, you use 65 grams of water. If you have 500 grams of flour, you need 325 grams of water. This is fundamentally different from regular percentage calculations where all ingredients add up to 100%. In baker's math, the total of all percentages will exceed 100% because flour itself is already 100%.
Calculation Formula
To reverse-engineer baker's percentages from an existing recipe, divide each ingredient weight by the flour weight and multiply by 100. This allows you to convert any recipe into baker's percentage notation for easy scaling.
Hydration Guide
| Hydration % | Dough Type | Common Breads | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50-57% | Stiff | Bagels, pretzels | Easy |
| 58-65% | Standard | Sandwich bread, rolls | Easy-Medium |
| 65-75% | Moderate | French bread, sourdough | Medium |
| 75-85% | Wet | Ciabatta, focaccia | Advanced |
| 85-100%+ | Very wet | Pain de mie, some sourdoughs | Expert |
Common Bread Formulas
| Bread Type | Flour | Water | Salt | Yeast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic White | 100% | 60% | 2% | 1% |
| French Baguette | 100% | 68% | 2% | 0.6% |
| Sourdough | 100% | 75% | 2% | 20% starter |
| Ciabatta | 100% | 80% | 2.2% | 0.8% |
| Pizza Dough | 100% | 62% | 2.5% | 0.5% |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use baker's percentage instead of regular measurements?
Baker's percentage makes recipes infinitely scalable. Whether you are making one loaf or one hundred, you simply change the flour weight and all other ingredients scale proportionally. It also makes it easy to compare recipes, understand dough characteristics at a glance, and communicate formulas between bakers regardless of the batch size they work with.
How do I handle multiple flours?
When a recipe uses more than one type of flour (e.g., bread flour and whole wheat), the total of all flours combined equals 100%. So a recipe with 80% bread flour and 20% whole wheat means the combined flours are 100%, and all other ingredients are calculated against this combined weight.
What if my recipe includes enrichments like butter or eggs?
Enrichments are expressed as baker's percentages the same way. Brioche, for example, might have 50% butter and 20% eggs by baker's percentage. Keep in mind that butter and eggs also contain water, so the effective hydration of the dough is higher than the listed water percentage alone. Eggs are approximately 75% water and butter is about 15-20% water.