BakeMemoBaking guide · 01
How to calculate baker’s percentage
Treat the flour weight as 100% and write every other ingredient as a percentage of it. Recipes then scale to any size, and you can compare one recipe with another at a glance.
The formula
Baker’s % = ingredient weight ÷ total flour weight × 100%
If a recipe uses more than one flour (say bread flour plus whole wheat), add them together as 100% and work out each one’s share.
Example: a basic bread
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker’s % |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 500 g | 100% |
| Water | 350 g | 70% |
| Salt | 10 g | 2% |
| Instant yeast | 5 g | 1% |
| Total | 865 g | 173% |
The total is 173%, not 100%: baker’s percentages are relative to the flour, not to the whole dough.
Hydration is the water’s baker’s percentage
The example above is 70% hydration. Higher hydration means a stickier dough that is harder to shape, and usually a more open crumb. Typical starting points — your flour and recipe will vary:
| Bread | Typical hydration |
|---|---|
| Bagels | about 55–60% |
| Sandwich loaf, rolls | about 60–68% |
| Baguette, country loaf | about 65–78% |
| Ciabatta | about 75–85% |
Salt usually sits at 1.8–2.2% and instant yeast at 0.5–1.5%. Whole wheat flour absorbs more water, so the same feel needs higher hydration. Milk and eggs contain water too — count them when you work out effective hydration.
Scaling to a target dough weight
Flour weight = target dough weight ÷ total percentage
For two 800 g doughs (1600 g in total) with the recipe above: 1600 ÷ 1.73 ≈ 925 g flour, then multiply by each percentage — water 647 g, salt 18.5 g, yeast 9.2 g. Mixing and shaping lose a little, so many bakers add 2–3% extra.
Why write it down
The real value of baker’s percentage is comparison: you raised hydration from 68% to 73% — how much did the crumb change? You only see what changed when every bake’s formula and result sit side by side.
Let the app do the maths
Enter grams on a BakeMemo recipe sheet and baker’s percentages and hydration update live. Every bake links into a lineage, so you can see exactly what changed. 62 recipes and your first three bakes are free, no sign-up.
Download on theApp Store — freeFigures on this page are common reference ranges. Flour, climate and technique vary widely — go by how your dough actually behaves.