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Cooking & techniques

Baker’s percentage calculator

Every ingredient as a percentage of total flour weight — the language professional bakers use. Set your target dough weight; we return precise gram amounts for flour, water, salt, yeast and add-ins.

Free tool

High (open crumb, sourdough range)

512.8g flour

  • Flour (100 %): 512.8 g
  • Water: 369.2 g · 72 %
  • Salt: 10.3 g · 2 %
  • Yeast / starter: 7.7 g · 1.5 %
  • Total: 900.0 g

Salt at 1.8–2.2 % of flour weight is the standard for table bread — under 1 % tastes flat, over 2.5 % inhibits yeast and slows fermentation noticeably. For commercial yeast use 0.5–2 %; for a stiff levain (50 % hydration sourdough starter) 15–25 % is a typical addition. If you’re using a 100 %-hydration sourdough starter, the water and flour in the starter are usually counted toward the totals — adjust the main hydration % down accordingly.

Why baker’s percentages exist

Volumetric measurements (cups, tablespoons) are a terrible system for bread: a cup of flour can vary 20 % in weight depending on how it was scooped, packed and settled. Once you cross from a cake (where +/-10 % flour is recoverable) into bread (where it controls hydration and crumb structure), you need weight-based formulas. Baker’s percentage normalises everything against flour weight = 100 %, so a recipe is portable across batch sizes and flour brands.

The five ingredients that matter

Flour, water, salt, leavening (yeast or sourdough starter), and time. Almost every bread recipe in print is a permutation of those five with optional add-ins (oil for sandwich bread, sugar for buns, eggs for brioche). Once you understand the ratios, you don’t need recipes — you need a target hydration and a fermentation schedule.

Common starting ratios

Lean rustic bread: 100 % flour, 70 % water, 2 % salt, 0.5–1 % instant yeast (or 20 % sourdough starter). Pizza dough: 100/62/2.5/0.5 with 2 % oil. Brioche: 100/30/1.8/2 with 50 % butter, 50 % egg, 12 % sugar. Sandwich bread: 100/65/2/1.5 with 5 % oil and 5 % milk powder. These are all in baker’s percentage notation — flour is always 100 %, everything else is relative.

This tool is for educational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a licensed Canadian healthcare professional. Read our full disclaimer.