Whether you're baking a single loaf or preparing a large batch, knowing the exact ingredient weights before you start helps eliminate guesswork and keeps every bake consistent.
This calculator works backwards from your desired final dough weight. Instead of starting with a flour quantity, you enter the total dough weight you want along with your baker's percentages, and it calculates the exact weight of each ingredient needed.
Simply enter your target dough weight, hydration, salt percentage, sourdough starter, and optional commercial yeast. The calculator determines the correct flour weight first, then calculates the corresponding water, salt, starter, and yeast weights while keeping your recipe ratios unchanged.
This is the same approach used by professional bakers to scale recipes accurately, maintain consistent formulas, and produce the exact amount of dough required—whether you're making one loaf or a full production batch.
Baker's percentage is the standard system used to write and scale bread formulas. Every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight, with flour always fixed at 100%. For example, a hydration of 70% means using 70 g of water for every 100 g of flour.
Because every ingredient is tied to the flour weight, recipes can be scaled to any batch size while keeping the same proportions. This makes baker's percentages the preferred method for creating, comparing, and reproducing bread recipes consistently.
Flour is the reference ingredient in every formula. All other ingredient percentages are calculated relative to the flour weight.
Total dough percentage is the sum of all ingredients. A dough with 70% hydration and 2% salt already totals at least 172%.
Once the percentages are defined, the recipe can be scaled to any dough weight without changing the ingredient ratios.
Baker's percentages describe the relationship between ingredients, not the final dough weight. Since flour is always 100%, the weight of every other ingredient is calculated as a percentage of the flour. Adding these ingredient weights together gives the total dough weight.
If you know the flour weight, calculating the complete dough formula is straightforward.
Each ingredient is first calculated from its baker's percentage, then all ingredient weights are added together.
For example, a dough made with 1,000 g flour, 72% hydration, 2% salt, and 0.5% instant yeast contains:
Accurate bread formulas depend on weight, not volume. Measuring ingredients by cups or spoons can produce different results depending on how they are filled, while weighing ingredients gives consistent, repeatable measurements every time.
Baker's percentages are based entirely on ingredient weights, which is why professional bakers formulate, scale, and reproduce recipes using grams or kilograms rather than volume measurements.
This calculator calculates ingredient amounts by weight and displays the results in grams by default, with optional conversion to kilograms, pounds, or ounces. If your recipe is written in cups, weighing the ingredients once and recording the values in grams will make future bakes far more consistent.
Hydration is the amount of water in a dough expressed as a percentage of the flour weight. It influences how the dough mixes, handles, ferments, and bakes, making it one of the most important values in any bread formula.
In general, lower-hydration doughs are firmer and easier to shape, while higher-hydration doughs are softer, stickier, and often produce a more open crumb. The ideal hydration depends on the type of bread you're making.
Hydration influences dough density, but it is not the only factor. Mixing, fermentation, flour type, and the amount of gas trapped in the dough also affect how much space a given weight of dough occupies. In general, higher-hydration doughs are softer and expand more during fermentation, while lower-hydration doughs tend to remain firmer and more compact.
For recipe calculations, however, the important value is weight. Whether a dough is 65% or 80% hydration, a target weight of 1,000 g is still 1,000 g. Higher hydration simply shifts the balance toward more water and less flour, while lower hydration does the opposite.
The chart above illustrates the relationship between dough density and hydration. As hydration increases, dough generally becomes less dense, requiring more volume to contain the same weight. Lower-hydration doughs are denser and occupy less space, while higher-hydration doughs are lighter, more extensible, and expand more during fermentation and baking.
Sourdough starter contains both flour and water, so it cannot be treated as a single ingredient. Its flour contributes to the total flour weight, while its water contributes to the overall hydration of the dough.
This calculator uses the standard total flour basis method. It automatically separates the flour and water contained in your starter based on its hydration, then calculates how much additional flour and water to add to reach your target dough weight and baker's percentages.
The amount of flour and water inside your sourdough starter depends entirely on its hydration level. Since starter is a pre-fermented mixture, its internal composition must be accounted for when calculating final dough ingredients.
Traditional recipes usually begin with a fixed flour amount, but real-world baking often starts with a target output: how much dough is needed? For example, filling six 800 g tins requires 4,800 g of dough — not an arbitrary flour quantity. The desired final weight defines the entire formula.
Start with the total amount of dough you need after mixing. This should account for production needs such as pan capacity, batch size, and any small losses during handling. This value is the fixed reference for all calculations.
Choose hydration, salt percentage, and any leavening (starter or yeast). These define the dough style and structure. Hydration affects texture and handling, while salt and yeast remain relatively stable across most formulas.
The total dough weight is divided by the sum of all ingredient ratios (1 + hydration + salt + leavening). This gives the flour weight, which acts as the base for all remaining calculations.
Once flour is known, water, salt, and yeast are calculated directly from their percentages. The result is a fully balanced formula that matches your target dough weight exactly.
The calculator follows a fixed sequence of steps to convert baker’s percentages into exact ingredient weights. Every stage is deterministic, meaning the same inputs always produce the same results.
All inputs (grams, kilograms, pounds, or ounces) are converted into grams internally. This ensures all calculations are consistent and unit-independent.
The reverse baker’s percentage formula is applied:
Flour = Total Dough Weight ÷ (1 + hydration + salt + yeast [+ starter adjustment]).
This establishes flour as the reference base for all other ingredients.
Each ingredient is calculated directly from flour weight: water from hydration %, salt from salt %, yeast from yeast %, and starter from starter %. This keeps all ratios consistent with baker’s percentage structure.
Starter is split into its internal components based on hydration. Flour inside starter and water inside starter are calculated separately, then deducted from the total to determine fresh flour and fresh water additions.
The final ingredient weights are checked against the target dough weight for consistency. Results are then displayed as a full breakdown, including fresh additions and total composition.
Approximate ingredient weights for a 1,000 g target dough weight. Use the calculator above for any other target weight or custom percentages.
| Bread Style | Hydration | Salt | Leavening | Flour (g) | Water (g) | Salt (g) | Leaven (g) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic White Sandwich | 68% | 2% | 0.8% instant yeast | 570 | 388 | 11.4 | 4.6 |
| Sourdough Country Loaf | 75% | 2% | 20% starter (100% hydration) | 513 | 385 | 10.3 | 103 |
| Baguette | 65% | 2% | 0.3% instant yeast | 588 | 382 | 11.8 | 1.8 |
| Focaccia | 80% | 2% | 0.5% instant yeast | 549 | 439 | 11 | 2.7 |
| Ciabatta | 85% | 2% | 0.4% instant yeast | 534 | 454 | 10.7 | 2.1 |
| Bagels | 55% | 1.8% | 1% instant yeast | 624 | 343 | 11.2 | 6.2 |
| Pizza Dough (Neapolitan) | 62% | 2.8% | 0.1% instant yeast | 601 | 373 | 16.8 | 0.6 |
| Whole Wheat Loaf | 72% | 2% | 1% instant yeast | 526 | 379 | 10.5 | 5.3 |
* All figures rounded to the nearest gram. Sourdough starter amounts are "fresh add" values assuming 100% hydration starter and total flour basis method. Use the calculator for custom percentages or different starter hydrations.
Click any example to load it into the calculator above.
Baker’s percentage is a standard formula system where all ingredients are expressed as a percentage of total flour weight. Flour is always 100%, and all other ingredients are scaled relative to it. For example, 70% hydration means 70 g of water per 100 g of flour. This system ensures formulas are scalable, consistent, and reproducible across any batch size.
Start from your production goal: number of loaves, pan capacity, or portion size. Multiply by the desired pre-bake dough weight per unit. In most breads, expect 10–15% weight loss during baking due to moisture evaporation and oven spring. For example, an 800 g finished loaf typically requires about 900 g of dough. That adjusted figure becomes your target dough weight.
A standard lean dough usually contains 100% flour, 60–75% water, 1.8–2.2% salt, and 0.1–1% instant yeast depending on fermentation time. Sourdough formulas replace commercial yeast with 10–25% starter (based on flour weight). Enriched doughs include additional ingredients like fat, sugar, and eggs, which increase overall formula weight significantly.
Volume measurements are inconsistent because flour compacts differently depending on scooping method, humidity, and regional measuring standards. A cup of flour can vary by 20–30% in weight, which directly affects hydration and dough structure. Weight measurements (grams) eliminate this variability and ensure consistent, repeatable results in every bake.
Yeast is scaled using baker’s percentage just like any other ingredient. For example, at 0.5% instant yeast, 25,000 g of flour requires 125 g of yeast. At 1%, it would be 250 g. The percentage stays constant regardless of batch size, which makes scaling predictable and accurate.
Yes. Baker’s percentage is specifically designed for scaling. All ingredients scale proportionally with flour. However, at very large batch sizes, fermentation speed can increase due to heat retention in larger dough masses. In those cases, bakers may slightly reduce yeast or adjust fermentation time, but the formula ratios remain the same.
The calculation works backward from total dough weight. Flour is calculated first using the total percentage sum: flour = dough weight ÷ (1 + hydration + salt + yeast [+ starter contribution]). Once flour is known, all other ingredients are derived by multiplying flour by their respective percentages. For sourdough, starter is split into its flour and water components so only the “fresh additions” are measured separately.
Baker’s percentage is a simple framework that removes uncertainty from bread formulation. Once you understand it, recipe scaling and adjustments become consistent and predictable — whether you are baking a single loaf or producing in bulk.
Working from a defined target dough weight rather than starting with a fixed flour amount gives you control over yield from the beginning. Before mixing anything, you already know exactly how much dough you will produce and how each ingredient contributes to it.
The calculator handles the mathematical structure behind the formula. What it does not replace is practical baking judgment — factors like fermentation strength, dough temperature, flour behaviour, and oven performance still shape the final result. The numbers give you consistency; experience refines it.
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