Baker’s Percentage Calculator
Convert any bread recipe into baker's percentages, or scale a formula from percentages to real ingredient weights. Enter the flour weight and your ingredients to get the full dough formula.
Convert a Bread Recipe to and from Baker's Percentages
Baker's Percentage Formula
Where:
- \(p_i\) — baker's percentage of ingredient \(i\) (% of flour weight)
- \(w_i\) — weight of ingredient \(i\)
- \(w_f\) — total weight of all flour in the recipe
- \(W_{total}\) — total dough weight
- \(P_{total}\) — total formula percentage
Flour is always defined as 100%, and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight. The two forms of the equation let you convert in either direction: from weights to percentages, or from percentages back to weights.
Baker's Percentage – Calculation Example
Example: a simple white dough made with 500 g of flour, 350 g of water, 10 g of salt and 5 g of instant yeast. The amounts are entered as weights, so the calculator converts each one to a percentage of the flour.
\[ p_{water} = \frac{350}{500} \times 100 = 70\% \]
\[ p_{salt} = \frac{10}{500} \times 100 = 2\%, \qquad p_{yeast} = \frac{5}{500} \times 100 = 1\% \]
\[ W_{total} = 500 + 350 + 10 + 5 = 865\text{ g}, \qquad P_{total} = 100 + 70 + 2 + 1 = 173\% \]
Result: water at 70% (a moderately wet dough), salt at 2%, yeast at 1%, 865 g of total dough and a total formula percentage of 173%.
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How to Use the Calculator
- Enter the Flour weight — the combined weight of every flour in the recipe — and pick its unit (g, kg, oz or lb).
- Choose whether My amounts are ingredient weights or baker's percentages. Weights are converted to percentages of the flour; percentages are converted into actual weights.
- List your ingredients in the Ingredients box, one per line: the name followed by its amount, for example
water 350. Use the flour's unit for weights, or % of flour for percentages. A decimal comma (e.g.1,5) is accepted. - Read the results: the total dough weight, the total formula percentage, and a table showing every ingredient's weight alongside its baker's percentage.
What Is Baker's Percentage?
Baker's percentage (also called baker's math) is the standard way professional bakers write formulas. Instead of expressing each ingredient as a share of the total dough, every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight, which is always set to 100%. So a dough with 1000 g of flour and 700 g of water is described simply as "70% hydration" — the water weighs 70% as much as the flour.
This system matters because it makes recipes scalable and comparable. A formula written in baker's percentages tells you the character of the dough regardless of batch size: 65% hydration feels firm and is easy to handle, 75% is soft and sticky, and 85% or more is a very wet dough suitable for open-crumbed artisan loaves. Salt is typically 1.8–2.2%, and instant yeast around 0.5–1.5% for a standard bread dough.
The two summary numbers help you plan. The total dough weight tells you how much dough a batch yields, so you can scale a formula up or down to fill a specific number of pans or hit a target loaf weight. The total formula percentage is the sum of all percentages — for example, a lean dough at 173% means 173 g of dough for every 100 g of flour, which is useful when you need to reverse-engineer how much flour to start with for a desired batch size.
Assumptions, Limitations and Tips
- All flour counts together. If a recipe uses several flours (say 400 g bread flour and 100 g whole wheat), enter their combined weight, 500 g, as the flour weight. Each flour's individual share can be tracked separately if needed.
- Preferments and soakers complicate the math: a poolish contains both flour and water, and those amounts should be folded back into the totals for an accurate overall hydration. The calculator treats each line you enter as a standalone ingredient, so enter net flour and net water amounts if you want the true formula.
- Units are kept consistent. Ingredient weights must use the same unit as the flour weight; the calculator converts everything internally but does not mix units within one list.
- Percentages can exceed 100%. This is normal and correct — a 100% hydration dough contains water equal in weight to the flour. Only the flour itself is fixed at 100%.
- Common reference values: hydration 60–70% for sandwich bread, 70–80% for artisan loaves; salt about 2%; instant yeast 0.5–1.5% for a same-day bread, less for long cold fermentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I scale a recipe to get an exact dough weight?
Divide your target dough weight by the total formula percentage, then multiply by 100. For a formula totaling 173% and a target of 900 g of dough, the flour weight is \( w_f = \frac{900}{173} \times 100 \approx 520\text{ g} \). Multiply each ingredient's baker's percentage by that flour weight to get all the amounts for the new batch size.
What is the difference between baker's percentage and hydration?
Hydration is just one specific baker's percentage — the one for water (and other liquids). When bakers say a dough is "75% hydration," they mean the water equals 75% of the flour weight. Baker's percentage is the broader system covering every ingredient. If you use milk or juice, note that some bakers count them fully toward hydration, while others adjust for their water content — be consistent within your own formulas.
How do I convert a recipe written in cups and spoons?
You need weights first, because baker's math only works with masses. Weigh each ingredient on a kitchen scale as you measure it: one cup of bread flour is roughly 120–130 g, a cup of water about 240 g, and a teaspoon of salt about 6 g. Once everything is in grams (or ounces), enter the weights into the calculator and it will produce the percentages. Never convert volumes directly.
How do I account for a poolish, levain, or sourdough starter?
Break the preferment into its components and merge them with the main dough. A poolish made from 100 g flour and 100 g water adds 100 g to the total flour and 100 g to the water, so you'd enter the combined flour weight and net water amount. For sourdough starter, treat it as roughly 50% flour and 50% water if maintained at 100% hydration. This gives the true overall hydration of the finished dough.
Why isn't flour's percentage 100 divided by the number of ingredients?
Because baker's percentages are always relative to flour, not to the total dough. Flour is the reference point and is fixed at 100%, no matter how many other ingredients the formula contains. That's why the total formula percentage varies — a lean dough might sum to 173%, while an enriched brioche with butter, eggs, and sugar can exceed 250%. A sum over 100% is completely normal.
What are common mistakes when using baker's percentages?
The most frequent errors are mixing units within one recipe (grams for flour, ounces for water), forgetting to combine multiple flours into a single total, and counting preferment water as a separate ingredient without folding the flour back in. Another pitfall is confusing fresh yeast with instant yeast — fresh yeast is used at roughly 3× the instant yeast percentage (about 2–3% versus 0.5–1%). Weigh everything and double-check which ingredient totals you entered.
Is a higher hydration dough always better?
No — it depends on the bread you want and your shaping skill. Wet doughs above 80% hydration favor an open, airy crumb but are hard to handle and need gentle technique. Sandwich and sandwich-tin loaves work best around 60–70%, while most artisan boules sit at 70–78%. Flour strength matters too: weak flour can't support very high hydration, and whole grain flour absorbs more water, so the same percentage feels drier. Adjust gradually rather than jumping to extremes.