I love to teach the Bake’s Percentage. A simple set of parameters that allow you to free form the bread making process.

The Baker’s Percentage states that every ingredient is a % of the total flour amount.

If I am making 3 loaves of bread and each loaf needs 700g of flour, then the total flour is 2100g.

My bread tins take anywhere between 700g and 900g of flour. Any less than 700g of flour and the resulting dough will be too small for the tin.

Any more than 900g of flour and the resulting dough will end up spilling out of the tin.

So with my total flour being 2100g, the bake’s percentage states the following:

The salt amount of most breads is 2% of total flour

The leaven amount can be anywhere between 2% and 40%

The water amount anywhere between 65% and 75%.

For this example I am making three loaves and each loaf uses 700g of flour = 2100g

Hence this creates the following recipe.

Salt 2% of 2100g = 42g

Leaven 20% for most of my recipes hence, 20% of 2100g = 420g

Water: I use mostly 68%, hence 68% of 2100g =1,428g of water.

Knowing this allows me to scale up or scale down, from one loaf to dozens.

Photos from a recent wild yeasted/sourdough bread baking class.