A Deep Dive on Baker Ratios and Percentages

A Deep Dive on Baker Ratios and Percentages

If you’re new to sourdough, understanding ratios and percentages is crucial for successful baking. The specific weights given in recipes are less important than the ratios used. These ratios are key to adjusting the recipe to your schedule, conditions, and preferences.

The Importance of Ratios

For example, if a recipe calls for 100g of flour and 100g of water to feed the starter, the total weight doesn’t matter. What’s important is the 1:1 ratio. Similarly, the amount of starter you add when feeding is crucial. If you add equal weights of flour and water, you’re using a 1:1:1 ratio.

Examples of Ratios

• 1:1:1 Ratio:

  • 60g starter + 60g flour + 60g water = 180g total weight
  • This is ideal for developing a new starter and for quick, successive feeds. It’s a lower ratio feed, meaning a higher inoculation rate.

• Higher Ratios for Maintenance:

  • 1:2:2 Ratio: 50g starter + 100g flour + 100g water = 250g total weight
  • 1:3:3 Ratio: 40g starter + 120g flour + 120g water = 280g total weight
  • These ratios are used for established starters and require less frequent feeding, keeping acidity in check.

Scaling Up Your Starter

If you need a larger amount of starter for a big bake, you can scale up your feeds without discarding. You can increase your total starter amount exponentially with each successive feed. Here’s an example of scaling up over 24 hours:

1. First Feed:
   • Start with 50g starter + 100g flour + 100g water = 250g total
2. Second Feed:
   • Use 100g of the previous mix + 200g flour + 200g water = 500g total
3. Third Feed:
   • Use 200g of the previous mix + 400g flour + 400g water = 1000g total

By understanding and using these ratios, you can effectively manage your sourdough starter, whether you’re maintaining it or preparing for a large bake.

Now you may be asking, “What if I need a bunch of starter for a particularly large bake?” That’s a great question, but just remember that you can increase your total starter amount exponentially with each successive feed. If you need to build up a large amount, you can simply scale the feeds rather than discarding.

Here is an example of scaling up over just 24 hours:

Understanding Hydration in Baker's Calculations

What is Hydration?

In baking, hydration percentage refers to the total amount of water in relation to the total amount of flour in a recipe. Flour is always considered 100%. For example, a 100% hydration starter has equal weights of flour and water. But how do you calculate other hydration levels, like 80% or 120%?

Calculating Hydration

Hydration percentages less than 100% create a stiffer starter, while percentages above 100% result in a wetter starter. Here’s how you can adjust your starter’s hydration level:

Example: Adjusting to 80% Hydration Let's say you start with 120g of a 100% hydration starter (60g flour + 60g water). You want to reduce this to 80% hydration.

1. Calculate Total Flour Weight: The starter already has 60g of flour. Add another 60g of flour to get a total of 120g.
2. Calculate Total Water Needed: Multiply the total flour weight by 0.8 (80%).
   • 120g flour x 0.8 = 96g water.
3. Determine Additional Water Needed: Subtract the current water weight (60g) from the total water needed (96g).
   • 96g - 60g = 36g.
4. Add Water: Add 36g of water to the starter to achieve 80% hydration.

Your starter now consists of:

• 120g flour + 96g water = 216g total weight.

Example: Adjusting to 120% Hydration To increase the hydration to 120%, use the same method:

1. Calculate Total Water Needed: Multiply the total flour weight by 1.2 (120%).
   • 120g flour x 1.2 = 144g water.
2. Determine Additional Water Needed: Subtract the current water weight (60g) from the total water needed (144g).
   • 144g - 60g = 84g.
3. Add Water: Add 84g of water to the starter.

Your starter now consists of:

• 120g flour + 144g water = 264g total weight.

Maintaining Hydration Levels

You might think working with odd numbers is difficult, but you can always start with any amount you like for the next feeding. For instance, to maintain 80% hydration, you could begin with:

• 180g starter (100g flour + 80g water)
• 90g starter (50g flour + 40g water)

Then, simply add the same respective amounts of flour and water to keep the hydration consistent.

Scaling Recipes

Understanding baker's percentages allows you to scale any recipe easily. To double or triple a recipe, just multiply the weight of each ingredient. To change the weight of your loaf, adjust the flour amount and multiply each other ingredient by its baker’s percentage.

Here’s an example of scaling: If your recipe calls for 500g of flour and you want to double it, use 1000g of flour and double the other ingredients accordingly based on their percentages.

Once you really understand baker's percentages you will be able to scale any recipe to any size easily. Want to bake two or three loaves instead of 1? Just double or triple the weight of each ingredient. That’s easy, but what if you want to change the weight of your loaf? You can easily scale a recipe to any weight by adjusting the flour amount and multiplying each of the other ingredient amounts by their baker’s percentage.

Here’s an example:

You can also use baker’s percentages to compare two different recipes. This is helpful if you want to see how similar/different they are in terms of relative ingredients. If all you have is weights of each ingredient, you can't easily compare them.

Take a look at these two brioche recipes as an example:

Now let’s look at the same recipes but with just the baker’s percentages:

The baker’s percentages remove dough weight from the equation, and allow you to easily compare relative amounts of each ingredient.

Now let’s look at another basic dough example, going through the process of scaling the weight of each loaf down from 900g to 750g, and then calculating total weight of all ingredients to produce 12 loaves:

In the above example, if you wanted to change your individual loaf weight from 900g to 750g, you can use baker’s percentages to figure out how much flour to use. You add up the total of all the percentages and convert it to decimal form (in this case 200% is 2.0). Then divide your loaf weight by 2 (750 / 2 = 375). So your flour weight is 375g and every other ingredient can be calculated by multiplying 375 by their respective percentages in decimal form. 

Now let's say you want to scale up the 750g loaf to a much larger batch size. If you wanted to make a dozen of those loaves, you just figure out what that equals in terms of total dough weight, which is 12 x 750 or 9,000g. Then divide that number by your total baker's percentages in decimal form to give you your flour amount, then calculate all the other ingredients based on their baker’s percentages.

Using this kind of math for calculations is likely going to be completely foreign at first, but the more you use it, the easier it will become. And, in the long run, it will greatly simplify the work in calculating ingredient amounts for each of your bakes, and will allow you to adjust and adapt formulas with greater ease also!