FormulaMapsIf you read a bread recipe and see "65% hydration" or "2% salt", you're looking at baker's percentage. It's the universal language of bread and pizza making, and it keeps recipes proportional no matter the size of the batch.
What baker's percentage is
Baker's percentage is a way of expressing the quantities in a dough recipe using the flour as the reference, equal to 100%. Every other ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight — not of the total dough weight.
That's different from how ordinary percentages work (where the whole mix is 100%). In baker's percentage the sum of all the percentages comes to more than 100 — and that's exactly as it should be.
The fundamental rule
Flour = 100%, always. Every other ingredient is calculated by dividing its weight by the total flour weight and multiplying by 100. If the amount of flour changes, everything else changes in proportion.
How to calculate it: a full example
Picture a simple bread dough with the following ingredients:
- 1,000 g of flour
- 650 g of water
- 20 g of salt
- 10 g of fresh yeast
The calculation is straightforward: divide the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the flour and multiply by 100.
| Ingredient | Weight (g) | Baker's % | Calculation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1,000 | 100% | base |
| Water | 650 | 65% | 650 ÷ 1,000 × 100 |
| Salt | 20 | 2% | 20 ÷ 1,000 × 100 |
| Fresh yeast | 10 | 1% | 10 ÷ 1,000 × 100 |
This dough has a hydration of 65%, 2% salt and 1% yeast. With those four numbers, any baker in the world can reproduce the same dough with any amount of flour.
Scaling the same recipe to 3 kg of flour
If you want to make the same dough with 3,000 g of flour, you simply multiply each percentage by the new flour weight:
- Water: 65% × 3,000 = 1,950 g
- Salt: 2% × 3,000 = 60 g
- Fresh yeast: 1% × 3,000 = 30 g
No cross-multiplication, no juggling ratios: the formula scales itself.
Why it's so useful
Scaling recipes without mistakes
With baker's percentage, going from a small batch to an industrial one — or back — is a simple multiplication. There's nothing to re-derive: the percentages stay constant and the weights adjust themselves as the flour quantity changes.
Comparing doughs at a glance
When two recipes are written in baker's %, you can compare them directly: which dough has more hydration, more fat or more yeast — without knowing how many kilos each one uses. It's the common language of professional bakers.
Spotting imbalances
If a recipe calls for 4% salt, something's wrong. If it has 0.1% dried yeast where a slow fermentation would normally use more, you spot it instantly too. The normal ranges are easy to memorise because they always refer to the flour.
Typical hydration by product
Hydration (the percentage of water relative to the flour) varies enormously by type of dough. The values below are indicative and depend on the flour, the temperature of the bakery and the mixing technique.
| Product | Indicative hydration | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rustic loaf / country bread | ~65 – 80% | Higher hydration gives a more open, airy crumb |
| Neapolitan pizza | ~58 – 65% | Kept in check by tradition; very manageable doughs |
| Roman pizza / al taglio | ~70 – 85% | Very wet dough, handled in the tray |
| Brioche | ~50 – 60% (+ egg and butter) | Fat and egg replace part of the water |
| Baguette | ~65 – 70% | Crisp crust, soft crumb |
| Focaccia | ~70 – 80% | Baked with plenty of olive oil |
A stronger flour (high W index, or higher protein) absorbs more water than a weak one: the same hydration can give you a manageable dough with strong flour and a sticky mess with weak flour. That's why the type of flour always conditions the optimal hydration.
Flour strength and fermentation
Flour strength (expressed as a W value in continental Europe, or simply as "strong", "medium" or "weak") measures the gluten's ability to hold the gas produced during fermentation. A high-strength flour withstands long fermentations — in the fridge, for hours or even days — without the dough breaking down. A weak flour runs out of steam quickly and won't tolerate long resting times.
Baker's percentage is also used to work out the amount of yeast according to the planned fermentation time: the longer the fermentation, the less yeast you need. There's no universal formula (it depends on temperature, flour and hydration), but the principle is the same: expressing yeast as a % of the flour makes the adjustment intuitive and reproducible.
Baker's % with more than one flour
When a recipe blends several flours (say, wheat and rye), the 100% base is the sum of all the flours. Water, salt and yeast are still calculated against that total.
FormulaMaps and bread & pizza doughs
FormulaMaps lets you formulate bread and pizza doughs directly in baker's percentage. Enter grams or percentages, scale the batch with a single field, and the tool keeps every proportion correct automatically — so you can focus on the recipe, not the arithmetic.
Formulate your doughs in baker's %
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