The Baker’s Percentage

Determining a baker's percentage is like a fun math problem. Now, hear us out, because we know that math isn’t fun for everyone.  To us, what makes determining bakers percentages fun, is that as we determine the different quantities, we better understand the recipe and the process behind it AND we are able to determine precise measurements that help us achieve the best results possible.

Precision:

A Baker's Percentage isn’t like your standard equation because the total recipe doesn’t come out to be 100%. Instead, with a Baker's Percentage, the flour is the constant and is always set as 100% so therefore, the total dough is always greater than 100%. With flour as the constant, each following ingredient is a percentage of that flour. This allows you to determine precise measurements (like hydration!) for a recipe of any size. When measuring ingredients, we always recommend using metric measurements (grams and milliliters) instead of imperial measurements (pounds and ounces) for increased accuracy!

Flexibility:

We often come across recipes with final results that aren’t quite the quantity we are looking for. Sometimes we want to make a dozen bagels instead of 8, sometimes we just want to make 2 loaves of bread instead of 6… Now, this is where understanding a Baker’s Percentage comes in handy. A Baker’s Percentage gives us the flexibility to accurately adapt and scale recipes to meet our needs.

Understanding a Baker's Percentage:

When working with a Baker's Percentage, it’s important to use the same measurements for each ingredient.

Example: I want to determine the percentages in my current pizza dough recipe.

Okay, so let’s say your current dough recipe looks like:

Ingredients	Weight
Flour	1000g (1kg)
Water	600g
Salt	30g
Dry Yeast	3g
TOTAL	1633g

 To determine percentages, set the flour at 100%.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1000g (1kg)	100%
Water	600g	x
Salt	30g	x
Dry Yeast	3g	x
TOTAL	1633g	x

Next, divide the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the flour and multiply by 100 to get percentages.

Water = (ingredient weight  / flour weight) x 100

600 / 1000  = .60 x 100 = 60%

So, your percentages would come out to:

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1000g (1kg)	100%
Water	600g	60%
Salt	30g	3%
Dry Yeast	3g	.3%
TOTAL	1633g	163.3%

 

Example: I have 700g of flour and want to determine the quantities of the rest of the ingredients needed to make my pizza dough, using the same recipe percentages above.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	700g	100%
Water	X	60%
Salt	X	3%
Dry Yeast	X	.3%
TOTAL	X	163.3%

To determine the weight of the rest of your ingredients, divide the percentage by 100, and multiply it by the weight of your flour.

Water = (% / 100) x flour weight

60 / 100 = .6 x 700 = 420

Do this same equation for the rest of your ingredients.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	700g	100%
Water	420g	60%
Salt	21g	3%
Dry Yeast	2.1g	.3%
TOTAL	1143.1	163.3%

To check your work, you can do the equations from the first example.

Water = (weight / 700) x 100

420/700 = .6 x 100 = 60%

 

Example: I want to make 10 dough balls that are 260g each.

In some cases, you might know what you want your desired quantity to be but you might not know how much of each ingredient you will need to produce it.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	X	100%
Water	X	60%
Salt	X	3%
Dry Yeast	X	.3%
TOTAL	2600g (10 balls x 260g)	163.3%

To determine the quantities of each ingredient, we need to calculate 1%. To do this, divide the total weight from the total percent.

(2600 / 163.3) = 15.9

So, each 1% is equivalent to 15.9g.

To determine the weights needed for your recipe, multiply the % by 15.9

Flour = (100 x 15.9) = 1590g, Water = (60 x 15.9) = 954g, etc.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1590g	100%
Water	954g	60%
Salt	47.7g	3%
Yeast	4.77g	.3%
TOTAL	2,596.47g	163.3%

This recipe will leave you with 9 dough balls that are 260g and 1 dough ball that is 256g (or 10 dough balls that are 259g). If your dough is slightly under, you can always round up from 15.9 to 16.

 

Example: I want to make 6 dough balls that are 280g each using a slightly different recipe.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	X	100%
Water	X	58%
Salt	X	2.5%
Dry Yeast	X	.3%
TOTAL	1680g (6 balls x 280g)	160.8% (total of all percentages)

Like in the previous example, to determine the quantities of each ingredient, we need to calculate 1%. To do this, divide the total weight from the total percent.

(1680 / 160.8) = 10.4

So, each 1% is equivalent to 10.4g

To determine the weights needed for your recipe, multiply the % by 10.4

Flour = (100 x 10.4) = 1040g, Water = (60 x 10.4) = 624g, etc.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1040g	100%
Water	603.2g	58%
Salt	26g	2.5%
Yeast	3.12g	.3%
TOTAL	1672.32g	160.8%

This recipe will leave you with 6 dough balls that are 278g each or 5 dough balls that are 280g and 1 that is 272g.

 

Example: I want to scale my recipe up from 1040g flour to 1500g flour using the recipe above.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1500g	100%
Water	X	58%
Salt	X	2.5%
Yeast	X	.3%
TOTAL	X	160.8%

To scale the recipe up, divide each percent from the new flour weight.

Ingredient weight = (ingredient percent / 100) x flour weight

Water = 58 / 100 x 1500 = 870

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1500g	100%
Water	870g	58%
Salt	37.5g	2.5%
Yeast	4.5g	.3%
TOTAL	2412g	160.8%

 

Example: What do I do if a recipe calls for Whole Wheat Flour AND 00 Flour or I want to add Whole Wheat?

If a recipe calls for more than one type of flour, or you want to mix in another, remember that the total flour needs to equal 100%.

Let’s say you want to add some whole wheat flour to your pizza dough using the recipe in the previous example. Maybe you want it to be 20% whole wheat so you get some of the texture and flavor, but without it becoming overpowering.

If you know the total flour amount is 1500g, all you need to do is multiply 1500 by 80% and 20% respectively:

00 Flour: 1500 / .80 = 1200

Whole Wheat Flour: 1500 / .20 = 300

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Whole Wheat Flour	300g	20%
00 Flour	1200g	80%
Water	870g	58%
Salt	37.5g	2.5%
Yeast	4.5g	.3%
TOTAL	2412g	160.8%

 

Below, we broke out some very generalized Baker’s Percentages for some direct recipes of our favorite foods: Neapolitan Pizza, New York Style Pizza, and Focaccia!

Neapolitan Pizza with Caputo "00" Pizzeria Flour and Caputo Lievito Dry Yeast:

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1000g	100%
Water	600g	60%
Salt	30g	3%
Yeast	3g	.3%
TOTAL	1633g	163.3%

 

NY Style Pizza with Caputo "00" Americana Flour and Caputo Lievito Dry Yeast:

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1000g	100%
Water	600g	60%
Salt	30g	3%
Yeast	3g	.3%
EVOO	20g	2%
TOTAL	1633g	165.3%

 

Focaccia with Caputo Nuvola Super Flour and Caputo Lievito Dry Yeast (80% Biga, 80% Hydration)

Ingredients	Weight (Biga)	Percent (Biga)	Weight (Final Dough)	Percent (Final Dough)	Total Weight	Total Percent
Flour	800g	100%	200g	100%	1000g	100%
Water	360g	45%	440g	220%	800g	80%
Yeast	3g	.38%			3g	.3%
Salt			25g	12.5%	25g	2.5%
EVOO			20g	10%	20g	2%
Sugar			10g	5%	10g	1%
Biga			1163g	581.5%		62.5%
Total	1163g	145.38%	1858	929%	1858g	185.8%

 

As you may have noticed, some of our recipes call for preferments. When experimenting, we recommend gradually increasing or decreasing the preferment amount until you achieve your desired results. Let’s say you want to decrease the above recipe to a 60% preferment. Here’s how you could determine the correct quantities for your recipe:

Ingredients	Weight (Biga)	Percent (Biga)	Weight (Final Dough)	Percent (Final Dough)	Total Weight	Total Percent
Flour	767g	100%	233g	100%	1000g	100%
Water	345g	45%	455g	220%	800g	80%
Yeast	2.8g	.38%			3g	.3%
Salt			25g	12.5%	25g	2.5%
EVOO			20g	10%	20g	2%
Sugar			10g	5%	10g	1%
Biga			1114.8	557.4%		60%
Total	1114.8	145.38%	1857.8	904.9	1858	185.8%

 

Okay, now let’s say you want to add a 20% poolish to our NY Style pizza recipe. We already know the percentages for the overall Neapolitan recipe, but if we didn’t, calculating them would be our first step and we could do that by determining the dough ball size and quantity, and then calculating the 1%.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	1000g	100%
Water	600g	60%
Salt	30g	3%
Yeast	3g	.3%
EVOO	20g	2%
TOTAL	1653g	165.3%

Seeing as we already have the quantities for each ingredient, we now need to determine our poolish. We want our poolish to be 20% of the overall flour, so to do that, we take the weight of the flour and multiply it by 20%.

Poolish Flour = flour weight x poolish %

Poolish Flour = 1000 x .20 = 200g

Poolish Ingredients	Poolish Weight	Poolish Percent
Flour	200g	100%
Water	X	X
Yeast	X	X
TOTAL	X	X

Now we just need to determine the rest of the poolish quantities. We know a poolish is 1:1 (100% hydration), so we use the same amount of water as we do flour. The yeast is generally around .2% of the amount of flour in the biga, so in this case we will multiply 200g x .002.

Poolish Ingredients	Poolish Weight	Poolish Percent
Flour	200g	100%
Water	200g	100%
Yeast	.4g	0.2%
TOTAL	400.4	200.2%

Now, that we have our poolish quantities, we need to go back and adjust our final dough. To determine our new quantities, we subtract the ingredients in the poolish from the overall recipe. So for the flour, instead we subtract 200g from the original 1000g.

1000g-200g=800g flour for the final dough. We repeat this for the water and yeast.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	800g	100%
Water	400g	50%
Salt	30g	3%
Yeast	2.6g	.3%
EVOO	20g	2%
TOTAL	1252.6g	155.3%

So, when we add the poolish into our final dough, we go back to the original weight! Because the percentage is always based on the flour weight and in this case we didn’t add the flour in the poolish to the flour in the final dough, so our percentages have changed.

Ingredients	Weight	Percent
Flour	800g	100%
Water	400g	50%
Salt	30g	3%
Yeast	2.6g	.3%
EVOO	20g	2%
Poolish	400.4	50%
TOTAL	1653g	205.3%

Once you understand a baker’s percentage, you’ll be able to experiment with recipes and adjust recipes to meet your desired yield!

 

Happy Baking!