Baker's Percentage Calculator
Calculate baker's percentages from ingredient weights, scale recipes, and compute hydration. Supports multi-flour formulas with reverse calculation.
About
Baker's percentage expresses each ingredient's weight as a proportion of total flour weight, where flour is always 100%. This convention exists because flour is the dominant structural component in dough. Misreading a home recipe that says "60% water" as 60% of total dough weight instead of 60% of flour weight will produce a fundamentally different crumb structure. The error compounds with enriched doughs containing butter, eggs, and sugar. This calculator handles multi-flour formulas where Ftotal equals the sum of all flour types, computes true hydration ratio H, and can reverse-calculate ingredient weights from a target dough mass.
The tool assumes room-temperature ingredients at standard atmospheric pressure. Pre-ferments (poolish, biga, levain) should have their flour and water components entered separately for accurate hydration. Note: baker's percentage can exceed 100% for non-flour ingredients in high-hydration or enriched formulas. This is correct and expected.
Formulas
The core baker's percentage formula expresses every ingredient relative to the total mass of all flour components in the recipe.
where Bi = baker's percentage of ingredient i, Wi = weight of ingredient i in g, and Ftotal = sum of all flour weights.
Total flour in a multi-flour recipe:
where j indexes each flour type.
Hydration percentage is calculated from all liquid ingredients:
where Ltotal = sum of all liquid ingredient weights (water, milk, eggs, oil).
Reverse calculation for a target dough weight D:
where S = sum of all baker's percentages (including 100% for flour).
Reference Data
| Bread Type | Hydration Range | Fat % | Sugar % | Salt % | Yeast % | Typical Flour | Crumb Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| French Baguette | 65 - 70% | 0% | 0% | 2% | 0.6% | T65 Wheat | Open, irregular |
| Ciabatta | 75 - 85% | 3% | 0% | 2% | 0.8% | Bread Flour | Very open, moist |
| Sourdough Boule | 70 - 80% | 0% | 0% | 2% | 0% (starter) | High-protein wheat | Moderate open |
| Sandwich / Pan Bread | 58 - 65% | 5% | 8% | 2% | 1.2% | AP / Bread | Tight, soft |
| Brioche | 50 - 55% | 50 - 80% | 15% | 2% | 2% | AP Flour | Tight, rich, tender |
| Focaccia | 70 - 80% | 8 - 12% | 2% | 2% | 0.8% | Bread Flour | Open, oily |
| Whole Wheat Loaf | 68 - 75% | 3% | 5% | 2% | 1.5% | 100% Whole Wheat | Dense, nutty |
| Rye Bread (70/30) | 65 - 72% | 0% | 3% | 1.8% | 1% | Rye + Bread | Dense, moist |
| Pizza Dough (NY) | 60 - 65% | 2% | 2% | 2.5% | 0.5% | High-gluten | Chewy, foldable |
| Pizza Dough (Neapolitan) | 58 - 62% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 0.3% | Tipo 00 | Soft, charred |
| Challah | 45 - 55% | 10% | 12% | 1.5% | 1.5% | AP / Bread | Soft, pullable |
| Pretzel Dough | 50 - 55% | 4% | 4% | 2% | 1% | AP Flour | Tight, chewy |
| English Muffin | 65 - 70% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 1% | AP Flour | Nooks & crannies |
| Croissant | 50 - 55% | 25% (laminated) | 10% | 2% | 2% | T55 / AP | Flaky, layered |
| Bagel | 50 - 57% | 2% | 8% | 2% | 0.8% | High-gluten | Very dense, chewy |