Baker's Percentage Calculator
About This Tool
This baker's percentage calculator helps you formulate and scale bread recipes using the universal baker's math system, where flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of flour weight. It includes 12 presets covering common bread styles from basic white to sourdough, and three flexible calculation modes to work backwards from flour weight, total dough weight, or individual ball weight. The sourdough starter decomposition feature automatically accounts for the flour and water contributed by your starter, adjusting the amounts you need to add separately so the final dough matches the intended hydration. A high hydration warning alerts you when dough exceeds 80% hydration, as these wetter doughs require more advanced handling techniques. All calculations follow standard baker's math conventions as taught by professional baking institutions. Percentages and formulas are referenced from King Arthur Baking and the San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI). All processing runs entirely in your browser with no data sent to any server.
How to Use
- Select a bread preset or enter custom baker's percentages for water, salt, yeast, and any extra ingredients.
- Choose your calculation mode: enter the flour weight directly, specify the desired total dough weight, or set a ball weight and number of balls for portioned recipes.
- Review the ingredient breakdown showing each ingredient's percentage, gram weight, and the total dough weight. If using sourdough starter, check the decomposition section to see how much additional flour and water to add separately.
Methodology
All calculations use standard baker's math: flour = 100%, and each ingredient's weight = flour weight x (ingredient percentage / 100). In 'from flour' mode, the entered flour weight is used directly. In 'from dough' mode, the total percentage sum (100 + water% + salt% + yeast% + extras%) is computed, then flour = total dough weight / (total percentage sum / 100). In 'from ball' mode, total dough = ball weight x number of balls, then the same back-calculation applies. For sourdough, the starter is decomposed: starter flour = starter weight / (1 + starter hydration / 100), starter water = starter weight - starter flour. These amounts are subtracted from the flour and water totals to give the additional amounts to mix. Hydration is always calculated as total water (including water from starter) / total flour (including flour from starter) x 100.
How to Use
- Select a bread preset or enter custom baker's percentages for water, salt, yeast, and any extra ingredients.
- Choose your calculation mode: enter the flour weight directly, specify the desired total dough weight, or set a ball weight and number of balls for portioned recipes.
- Review the ingredient breakdown showing each ingredient's percentage, gram weight, and the total dough weight. If using sourdough starter, check the decomposition section to see how much additional flour and water to add separately.
Understanding Your Results
Hydration is the most important number in your results. It determines the dough's texture and handling characteristics: • 50–58% hydration: Stiff, dense doughs — bagels, pretzels, pasta • 58–65% hydration: Standard bread doughs — sandwich loaves, French bread, dinner rolls • 65–75% hydration: Soft, open-crumb doughs — ciabatta, focaccia, rustic sourdough • 75–85% hydration: Very wet doughs requiring stretch-and-fold — high-hydration artisan breads Salt percentage typically falls between 1.8% and 2.2% of flour weight. Below 1.5%, bread tastes flat and fermentation is harder to control. Above 2.5%, salt noticeably slows yeast activity and the bread may taste overly salty. Yeast percentage varies by type: instant yeast is typically 0.5–1%, active dry yeast 0.75–1.5%, and fresh yeast 1.5–3%. Lower yeast amounts mean longer, slower fermentation, which develops more complex flavor. If you enabled sourdough starter, the decomposition section shows exactly how much flour and water the starter contributes. The 'Additional Flour to Add' and 'Additional Water to Add' values are what you actually weigh out when mixing — the starter's contribution has already been subtracted.
Practical Examples
Example 1 — Basic White Bread (From Flour Weight) Settings: 1000g flour, 65% water, 2% salt, 0.7% yeast Results: 1000g flour, 650g water, 20g salt, 7g instant yeast Total dough weight: 1,677g — enough for two standard loaves (~838g each) Hydration: 65% — a standard, easy-to-handle bread dough Example 2 — Sourdough Ciabatta (From Ball Weight) Settings: 4 balls × 250g = 1,000g total, 75% water, 2% salt, no commercial yeast, 20% sourdough starter at 100% hydration Results: Flour ~530g, water ~398g, salt ~11g, starter ~106g Starter decomposition: 53g flour + 53g water from starter Additional flour to add: ~477g | Additional water to add: ~345g Hydration: 75% — a wet dough that produces the characteristic open, airy ciabatta crumb
Baking Tips & Common Mistakes
• Always weigh ingredients in grams using a digital scale. Volume measurements (cups, tablespoons) are too imprecise for bread baking — a cup of flour can vary by 30% depending on how it's scooped. • When scaling a recipe up significantly (doubling or more), reduce the yeast percentage by 10–20%. Larger dough masses retain more heat during fermentation, which accelerates yeast activity. • Start with a lower hydration preset (60–65%) and work your way up as you gain experience. High-hydration doughs above 75% require different handling techniques like stretch-and-fold instead of traditional kneading. • If using sourdough starter, do not manually subtract flour and water from your recipe — the calculator handles this automatically through the decomposition feature. Double-subtracting is the most common mistake. • For enriched doughs (brioche, challah), fats slow gluten development. Mix the dough until gluten is partially developed before adding butter or oil, and expect longer mixing times.
Sources
All calculations are performed locally in your browser. No data is sent to any server.