Enter your flour weight and calculate every ingredient using baker's percentages. Load presets for sandwich bread, sourdough, pizza dough, brioche, and focaccia with real-time hydration analysis.
Flour is always 100%. All other ingredients are expressed as a percentage of flour weight.
Sandwich62% hydration
Sourdough75% hydration
Pizza65% hydration
Brioche52% hydration
Focaccia80% hydration
Ingredients (Baker's Percentage)
IngredientBaker's %Weight (g)
Hydration Level
45% (Stiff)65% (Medium)80% (Wet)100%+
65%
Medium hydration
Formula Summary
Ingredient
Baker's %
Weight (g)
Total Dough Weight: 0g
Understanding Baker's Percentages: The Professional Bread Baker's Language
Baker's percentage, also known as baker's math or formula percentage, is the universal system professional bakers use to express bread formulas. Unlike home recipes that list ingredients in cups or tablespoons, baker's percentages describe every ingredient's weight relative to the total flour weight, which is always defined as 100%. This deceptively simple notation unlocks the ability to scale any recipe to any batch size, compare different bread formulas at a glance, and understand the fundamental structure of dough without getting lost in specific quantities.
Why Baker's Percentage Matters
Imagine you have a recipe for a single loaf of sandwich bread and need to scale it for 50 loaves. With volumetric measurements, you would need to multiply every measurement individually, convert fractions, and hope nothing gets lost in rounding. With baker's percentages, you simply decide your total flour weight and multiply each percentage. The math is trivially simple, and the result is always proportionally correct.
More importantly, baker's percentages let you intuitively understand dough character. When a baker says "this is a 75% hydration dough," every experienced baker immediately knows the dough will be tacky, require gentle handling, and produce an open, airy crumb. The percentage tells you more about the bread than any list of specific weights ever could.
Hydration and Dough Character
Hydration is the single most important baker's percentage after flour itself. It is the ratio of total water (and liquid) weight to total flour weight. Different hydration levels produce dramatically different doughs:
45-55% hydration (Stiff doughs) — Bagels, pretzels, and some pasta doughs. These are firm, easy to shape, and produce a dense, chewy crumb with small, uniform air pockets. The low water content means strong gluten development through aggressive kneading.
55-65% hydration (Low-medium) — Sandwich bread, dinner rolls, challah. Manageable doughs that hold their shape well during proofing. They produce a soft, tender crumb with even, small-to-medium air holes ideal for slicing and spreading.
65-75% hydration (Medium-high) — Sourdough boules, baguettes, country loaves. Tacky but workable doughs that benefit from stretch-and-fold techniques rather than traditional kneading. The higher water content creates larger, more irregular air pockets and a more complex flavor through extended fermentation.
75-85% hydration (High) — Ciabatta, focaccia, Neapolitan pizza (some styles). Very sticky, wet doughs that require bench scrapers and wet hands to handle. The reward is a dramatically open crumb with large, glossy holes and a crispy, crackly crust.
85-100%+ hydration (Very high) — Pancake batters, certain flatbreads, and experimental artisan loaves. These are nearly pourable and require molds or pans. The extreme moisture creates maximum oven spring and an incredibly airy interior.
Common Bread Formulas in Baker's Percentages
The five presets in this calculator represent the most popular bread categories baked worldwide. Here is what makes each formula unique and why the ratios work:
Sandwich Bread (62% hydration): The quintessential everyday loaf. Flour 100%, water 62%, sugar 6%, butter 5%, salt 2%, yeast 1.5%, milk powder 3%. The sugar and butter create a soft, tender crumb that stays fresh longer. The moderate hydration makes this dough forgiving for beginners — it kneads easily, rises predictably, and shapes without sticking.
Sourdough (75% hydration): Flour 100%, water 75%, sourdough starter 20%, salt 2%. No commercial yeast. The levain provides leavening through wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, creating complex sour flavors. The higher hydration compensates for the whole-grain flour often blended in and produces the signature open crumb with irregular holes.
Pizza Dough (65% hydration): Flour 100%, water 65%, olive oil 3%, salt 2.5%, yeast 0.5%. The relatively low yeast percentage allows for a slow, cold fermentation (24-72 hours) that develops deep flavor. Olive oil adds extensibility, making the dough easier to stretch thin without tearing.
Brioche (52% hydration): Flour 100%, eggs 40%, butter 50%, sugar 10%, salt 2%, yeast 2.5%, milk 12%. Brioche is technically more pastry than bread, with an enormous amount of butter that creates a rich, golden, cake-like crumb. The low water content comes almost entirely from eggs and milk, and the butter is incorporated slowly into an already-developed dough.
Focaccia (80% hydration): Flour 100%, water 80%, olive oil 8%, salt 2.5%, yeast 1%. The very high hydration creates the characteristic large bubbles and airy interior. Generous olive oil in and on the dough gives focaccia its distinctive crispy bottom and golden top. The dough is simply pressed into an oiled pan rather than shaped, making it one of the most forgiving high-hydration breads.
Tips for Using Baker's Percentages at Home
To get the most out of this system, invest in a kitchen scale that reads in 1-gram increments. Scales under 15 dollars work perfectly for home baking. Always weigh your flour rather than scooping with a cup — a single cup of flour can range from 120g to 160g depending on technique, which at 500g total could throw your hydration off by 8 percentage points. When adding ingredients from a sourdough starter, remember that a 100% hydration starter contributes equal parts flour and water, so factor those amounts into your true flour and water totals for accurate hydration calculations.
⚖ Flour Is Always 100%
Every other ingredient is calculated relative to flour. If using multiple flours, their combined weight equals 100%. Each flour's individual contribution is its sub-percentage.
⚖ Hydration Drives Texture
Higher hydration equals more open crumb and crispier crust. Lower hydration equals tighter crumb and softer texture. Adjust by 5% increments until you find your preference.
⚖ Salt Controls Yeast
Never skip salt. At 2%, it regulates fermentation speed, strengthens gluten, and provides flavor. Too much salt (above 2.5%) kills yeast. Too little causes over-fermentation.
⚖ Weigh Everything
Baker's percentages only work with weight measurements. A kitchen scale is the single best investment for consistent baking results, eliminating the variability of volumetric cups and spoons.