What is baker's percentage?

A way of writing a bread formula where the flour is always 100% and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour weight. 500 g of flour with 350 g of water is 70% water, whatever the size of the batch.

How do I calculate dough hydration?

Divide the water weight by the flour weight and multiply by 100. For example, 350 g of water with 500 g of flour gives 350 ÷ 500 × 100 = 70% hydration.

What hydration should my bread have?

Under 50% suits bagels, pretzels and crackers, 50–60% dinner rolls, and 60–70% sandwich bread and pizza dough. Wetter doughs of 70% and above give the open crumb of ciabatta and focaccia.

How does it pick the bread style?

Fat and sugar come first: 20% fat or more is rich like brioche, and 5% or more of fat or sugar is an enriched dough for soft loaves and buns. Lean doughs go by hydration: under 60% stiff, 60–70% lean, 70–80% rustic and 80% and up wet. Percentages cannot tell sourdough from yeasted bread, so sourdough is only named as an example of a rustic loaf.

Does it count the water in milk or eggs?

No. Only the Water field counts toward hydration. If your recipe uses milk, eggs or other wet ingredients, add their water content to the Water field yourself for a closer estimate.

Why does the flour weight have to be more than zero?

Every percentage is divided by the flour weight, so the calculator needs flour above zero. The other ingredients can be zero, and the total dough weight adds up all six.

Baker's Percentage Calculator

Guide

Ingredients

Flour

Water

Salt

Yeast

Fat or butter

Sugar

Baker's percentages

Hydration

70.0 %

Medium-High — Rustic (country loaf, sourdough)

Salt

2.0 %

Yeast

1.2 %

Fat

0.0 %

Sugar

0.0 %

Total dough weight

866 g

Hydration guide

Water as a percentage of flour weight

Low under 50%: Bagels, pretzels, crackers
Medium-Low 50–60%: Bagels, dinner rolls
Medium 60–70%: Sandwich bread, pizza dough
Medium-High 70–80%: Country loaves, sourdough, baguettes
High 80% and over: Ciabatta, focaccia

About the Baker's Percentage Calculator

Turn a bread recipe's ingredient weights into baker's percentages, where every ingredient is measured against the flour. See the dough's hydration at a glance, with its salt, yeast, fat and sugar percentages, so you can compare recipes and judge a dough before you mix it.

How to use it

1 Enter the Flour weight in grams. Every percentage is measured against it.
2 Enter the Water, Salt and Yeast weights, plus Fat or butter and Sugar, using 0 for anything the recipe leaves out.
3 Read the Hydration at the top of Baker's percentages, with its level and a typical bread style.
4 Check the salt, yeast, fat and sugar percentages and the total dough weight.
5 Compare your hydration with the Hydration guide to see which breads it usually makes.

Read the full Baker's Percentage Calculator guide

Ingredients

Baker's percentages

Hydration guide

About the Baker's Percentage Calculator

How to use it

Frequently asked questions