Baker’s Percentage Calculator
Convert bread and dough recipes between ingredient weights and baker’s percentages, with hydration and total dough weight.
350 g water ÷ 500 g flour × 100. Total dough 865 g.
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker’s % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 500 g | 100% |
| Water | 350 g | 70% |
| Salt | 10 g | 2% |
| Yeast | 5 g | 1% |
In baker’s percentages, flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour weight: ingredient % = ingredient ÷ flour × 100. With 500 g flour and 350 g water, hydration is 350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70%. Salt at 2% is 10 g, yeast at 1% is 5 g.
What baker’s percentage means
Baker’s percentage (also called baker’s math or formula percentage) is how professional bakers write recipes so they scale cleanly to any batch size. The total flour in a formula is defined as 100%, and every other ingredient — water, salt, yeast, butter, sugar — is expressed as a percentage of that flour weight. Because the percentages describe ratios rather than fixed amounts, the same formula makes one loaf or a hundred without changing a single figure.
The headline number is hydration: the water weight as a percentage of the flour. A stiff bagel dough sits near 55%, an everyday sandwich loaf around 65%, and an open, airy ciabatta can exceed 80%.
Flour = 100%. Hydration is the same formula applied to water: water ÷ flour × 100.
Worked example
A basic bread dough: 500 g flour, 350 g water, 10 g salt, 5 g yeast.
- 1 Set flour to 100%. The total flour weight is the reference point for everything else — here 500 g = 100%.
- 2 Divide each ingredient by the flour. Water: 350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70%. Salt: 10 ÷ 500 × 100 = 2%. Yeast: 5 ÷ 500 × 100 = 1%.
- 3 Read the hydration. The water percentage — 70% here — tells you how wet and slack the dough will be.
- 4 Scale by picking a new flour weight. For 800 g flour, multiply each percentage by 8: water 560 g, salt 16 g, yeast 8 g.
- 5 Total the dough. Add flour plus every ingredient: 500 + 350 + 10 + 5 = 865 g of dough.
Typical baker’s percentages
Common ranges for lean and enriched doughs. Treat them as starting points, not rules.
| Ingredient | Typical baker’s % | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | Always the reference; blends still total 100% |
| Water (hydration) | 60–75% | Higher for ciabatta/focaccia, lower for bagels |
| Salt | 1.8–2.2% | About 2% balances flavour and fermentation |
| Instant yeast | 0.5–2% | Less for slow, cold ferments; more for quick rises |
| Sourdough starter | 15–25% | Counts its own flour and water toward hydration |
| Butter / oil (enriched) | 5–20% | Brioche and enriched doughs sit at the top |
| Sugar (enriched) | 5–15% | Sweet doughs; slows yeast at high levels |
Reading the numbers
Hydration is not the whole story. Different flours absorb water differently — whole-grain and high-protein flours drink more — so 70% hydration can feel wet with one flour and firm with another. Use the percentage as a repeatable target and adjust by feel.
Percentages can exceed 100%. Nothing caps an ingredient at the flour weight. Very wet doughs run past 80% water, and butter-rich brioche can carry more fat than a lean dough carries water. Only the flour is fixed at 100%.
The total will be well over 100%. Adding every percentage together — flour plus water plus salt plus the rest — gives the formula’s total percentage, which is why total dough weight is larger than the flour weight alone.