Baker's Percentage Explained
Baker’s percentage can help you to make better bread.
Baker’s Percentage Explained
You might have seen percentages used on this site. Perhaps you are not familiar with the practice of using percentages when calculating the formulas for breads. It’s a classic method and it works quite well for bakers all over the world.
First a little about why we use percentages. If you have a recipe for bread and it’s a certain amount of flour and a measurement of water, yeast, etc., it really doesn’t tell you about the relationship between the ingredients. On the other hand, if you use percentages, you will instantly see how wet the dough will be. Will it be very fatty or very lean? Is it a soft bread or a very crusty one? It’s a baker’s shorthand to identify the characteristics of breads. Let’s start with a simple bread formula:
French Bread
Bread flour 500g
Water 325g
Instant yeast 10g
Kosher salt 10g
So this formula makes 845g of French bread dough and can be made very easily. It’s true that one can see that this will be a medium stiff dough by the amount of the water. But the percentages will give an even truer picture of what the dough will be like.
French Bread
Bread flour 500g 100%
Water 325g 65%
Instant yeast 10g 2%
Kosher salt 10g 2%
How were those percentages determined? Beginners will often find the baker’s percentage weird because the percentages add up to more than 100. We were all told in school that percentages are based on 100 and should always add up to 100. Baker’s percentage is more like a ratio or the relationship of the bread flour to the other ingredients. The flour is assumed to be 100%. And generally, in bread making, salt and yeast are around 2%. From there, we can determine what the other ingredients' percentages are. Let’s figure out the percentage of the other ingredients using the weights.
325÷500=.65 We multiply .65 by 100 to get a percentage. .65 x 100= 65%
10÷500=.02 .02 x 100= 2%
With this method we can increase or decrease the batch size of the bread as well. You could just double all the ingredient weights or halve them. But it’s much more accurate to use the percentages.
French Bread
Bread flour 100%
Water 65%
Instant yeast 2%
Kosher salt 2%
First add up all the percentages. It’s 169%. I know that feels weird now, but stay with me. Then you’ll want to know how much bread you want to make. Let’s say you need to make 100 65g rolls for a party. You’ll need 6500g of dough. You’ll take the dough weight divided by the sum of the percentages. 6500 ÷ 169 x 100=3846g. This is the bread flour weight. Take the bread flour weight multiplied by the water percentage and you’ll get 2500g. Lastly, multiply the bread flour weight by the salt and yeast percentages and you’ll get 77g each. But the bottom line is that you end up with exactly 6500g of dough. That’s important if you are trying to stay on a budget or reduce waste and cost.
French Bread for party
Bread flour 3846g
Water 2500g
Instant yeast 77g
Kosher salt 77g
6500g
You can also use multiple flours in the percentages as well. As long as the percentages added up to 100% you’re doing well. Let’s say you wanted to use 20% whole wheat flour in your French bread. Your flour still needs to add up to 100%. Take 3846 x 20%= 769g. The remaining flour is bread flour. 3846-769=3077g. The water, yeast and salt remain the same.
French Bread for party
Bread flour 3077g
Whole wheat. 769g
Water 2500g
Instant yeast 77g
Kosher salt 77g
6500g
You can use as many flours as you want as long as they add up to 100%. (I would not recommend using more than 3 flours in a formula at a time). You’ll notice in this example that the formula makes the same amount of dough but with two flours.
Can you use baker’s percentage for anything besides bread? You can! In fact you might see that cake baker’s might use baker’s percentage in a totally different way. I’ll let you in on a secret: flour does not have to be the 100% ingredient. It’s just baker’s tradition that in bread, the flour is 100%. Cake bakers might make the 100% ingredient sugar or eggs. It’s usually the most predominant ingredient in the formula.
Please take some time and plug your favorite recipe into the baker’s percentage. I think you’ll find that it’s one of those things you’ll find yourself using in a very short amount of time. It will make your baking better.
Chef Tom
