Bread Percents

Baker's Percents

Real world applications of percents

What is a bread percentage?

• Bakers use bread percentages to easily and accurately scale recipes to any desired amount

• Cup measures tend to be inaccurate so weight by grams is preferred to replicate results

• Flour is always the base 100% and all other ingredients are percents relative to the flour

A Baker's Chart

Show here is an example of the percentages for various breads that you may enjoy

Fill in the Blanks

You are really wanting to make a baguette, but only have 135g of flour. If you need 60% water and 2% salt, how much water do you need to add if using all the flour?

Multiple Choice

How much salt is needed for the baguette when using 135g of flour and the 60%-2% baker's percent?

• 27g

• 2.7g

• 16.2g

• 1.62g

A question...

What if you know the amount of dough you want? Could you find out each ingredient using baker's percents?

YES!!

Example:

Mr. Carpenter wants to make 1000g of pizza dough. He knows that pizza dough needs 59% hydration and 1.5% salt. How much flour, water, and salt is needed?

100% (flour) + 59% (water) + 1.5% (salt) = 160.5% total

1000g/1.605 = 623g of flour

623g x .59 = 368g of water

623g x .015 = 9g of salt

623g + 368g + 9g = 1000g total

Now you try!

You need to make 500g of brioche dough for fresh made buns. Given that the baker's percent for brioche is 100-22-2-133 (Flour-water-salt-butter), how much of each ingredient is needed?

Multiple Choice

How much salt is needed for the baguette when using 135g of flour and the 60%-2% baker's percent?

• 27g

• 2.7g

• 16.2g

• 1.62g