What does baker's percentage mean?

Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient as a percentage of flour weight. Flour is always the 100 percent reference, even when the formula contains more water or preferment than flour by weight. This makes bread and pizza formulas easy to scale.

How does this calculator calculate hydration?

Hydration is the water percentage entered in the calculator. The calculator multiplies flour weight by water percentage divided by 100 to get water weight, then displays that same percentage as hydration. It does not include starter water separately.

Can I use ounces instead of grams?

Yes. The unit selector only changes the label. The math works in grams or ounces as long as every ingredient uses the same unit. Do not mix grams for flour with ounces for water unless you convert first.

How much salt should I use in bread dough?

Many lean bread formulas sit near 2 percent salt by flour weight, which is why the default is 2 percent. You can lower or raise it for taste, but very low salt changes fermentation speed and dough strength as well as flavor.

Does sourdough starter work in this calculator?

the calculator includes sourdough starter as a yeast type, but the calculation treats the percentage as one ingredient weight. It does not split starter into flour and water, so advanced sourdough formulas need a separate preferment adjustment.

Why is flour always 100 percent?

Flour is the anchor because it defines the dough size and absorbs the water. Setting flour to 100 percent lets every other ingredient scale predictably, whether you are making one pizza dough ball, three sandwich loaves, or a large bakery batch.

Baker’s Percentage Calculator

A baker’s percentage calculator turns a recipe into a formula. Instead of asking whether a cup of flour was packed, sifted, or scooped, it starts with flour weight and expresses water, salt, and yeast as ratios of that flour. That is how bakers scale dough from a test loaf to a production batch without changing the character of the bread.

Why bakers use percentages

Baker’s percentage is different from ordinary percent-of-total math. Flour is defined as 100 percent, and every other ingredient is measured against flour weight. If flour is 1,000 g and water is 650 g, hydration is 65 percent. The total formula can add up to more than 100 percent because water, salt, and yeast are not shares of a pie; they are additions relative to flour. King Arthur Baking describes this method as the standard way to compare and scale formulas because it keeps ingredient relationships visible.

This calculator follows that convention exactly. You enter flour weight, pick a unit label, and choose water percentage, salt percentage, yeast type, and yeast percentage. It calculates water, salt, and yeast weights from flour weight. It then adds all four weights to display total dough weight. If you are using the result for pizza, the Experimental Pizza Baking Model can estimate bake time, while the Pizza Calculator helps compare size and value. For other kitchen ratios, the Rice Water Ratio Calculator is a useful contrast because rice formulas are not built on flour as 100 percent.

Formula

The calculation does not convert units or adjust for ingredient type. It uses the unit string only in the result labels. Let flour weight be the entered flour amount, and let each percentage be the numeric value entered in the calculator.

\text{water weight} = \frac{\text{water percentage}}{100} \times \text{flour weight}

\text{salt weight} = \frac{\text{salt percentage}}{100} \times \text{flour weight}

\text{yeast weight} = \frac{\text{yeast percentage}}{100} \times \text{flour weight}

\text{total dough weight} = \text{flour weight} + \text{water weight} + \text{salt weight} + \text{yeast weight}

The displayed hydration is simply the water percentage formatted as a percent. Salt and yeast are also displayed as the entered percentages. Ingredient weights and total weight are formatted to one decimal place.

Worked example

Use the default-style bread formula: 1,000 g flour, 65 percent water, 2 percent salt, active dry yeast, and 1 percent yeast. Water weight is 65 divided by 100, then multiplied by 1,000, or 650.0 g. Salt weight is 2 divided by 100, then multiplied by 1,000, or 20.0 g. Yeast weight is 1 divided by 100, then multiplied by 1,000, or 10.0 g. Total dough weight is the sum of 1,000.0, 650.0, 20.0, and 10.0, which displays as 1,680.0 g.

If you switch the unit to ounces and leave the same numbers, the results are 1,000.0 oz flour, 650.0 oz water, 20.0 oz salt, and 10.0 oz yeast. That would be an enormous dough, but it illustrates the exact behavior: the unit is a label, not a conversion from grams to ounces. Enter the flour weight in the unit you actually intend to use.

Interpreting hydration, salt, and yeast

Hydration controls dough feel more than almost any other number in a lean formula. Lower hydration doughs tend to be firm, easier to shape, and better suited to bagels or some pan breads. Moderate hydration can work for sandwich bread and many pizza styles. Higher hydration doughs can produce an open crumb and crisp crust, but they require stronger flour, careful handling, or folds during fermentation. King Arthur’s hydration guidance is helpful because it connects the number to texture rather than treating it as abstract math.

Salt is not only flavor. It tightens gluten, slows fermentation, and helps dough taste complete. the calculator default of 2 percent is a common starting point. Yeast percentage controls fermentation speed, but time and temperature matter just as much. A dough with 1 percent dry yeast can move quickly in a warm kitchen and slowly in a cool one. If you plan a long cold ferment, lower yeast may be appropriate. If you use fresh yeast, instant yeast, active dry yeast, or starter, remember that the calculator uses the percentage you enter; it does not apply yeast-type conversion factors.

Edge cases and common mistakes

The biggest mistake is treating baker’s percentage as percent of total dough. In a formula with 1,000 g flour and 650 g water, water is 65 percent of flour but about 39 percent of the combined flour and water. The second mistake is mixing volume and weight. A cup of flour can vary dramatically depending on how it is filled, so weigh flour before using a ratio tool. If you need to convert a finished amount into calories, use the Grams to Calories Calculator only after you know the actual ingredients.

Sourdough requires special care. the calculator can label an ingredient as sourdough starter, but a real starter contains flour and water. If you add 200 g of 100 percent hydration starter to 1,000 g flour and 650 g water, the true formula contains extra flour and extra water inside the starter. This calculator will report the starter as one 200 g ingredient when you enter 20 percent. That is useful for a quick build sheet, but not enough for professional preferment accounting.

Sources

King Arthur Baking, Baker’s Percentage — professional reference for flour-as-100-percent formula math.
King Arthur Baking, Bread Hydration — practical explanation of how hydration changes dough handling.
King Arthur Baking, Desired Dough Temperature — background on temperature as a fermentation variable.

Baker's Percentage Calculator