Baker's Percentages for Production Formulas

Scaling a simple bread recipe is the first step in baker's math. In a production bakery, the math goes further. You need 120 baguettes at an exact weight, the formula has a preferment in it, the flour came in cold from the storeroom, and the mixer heats the dough as it runs. Getting the numbers right is what makes Tuesday's batch match Saturday's.

You already know that flour is always 100 percent and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour's weight. Here you'll use that to run real batches.

What You Will Be Able to Do

• Turn a recipe into a formula, and read what the percentages tell you.
• Scale a formula to an exact piece count, with an allowance for dough loss.
• Split a formula into a preferment and a final dough.
• Work out the water temperature you need, including how much ice to use.
• Convert between yeast types, and adjust for sweet doughs.

Reading a Formula at a Glance

Percentages let you judge a dough before you touch it.

A dough at about 60 percent hydration handles firmly, like a sandwich loaf. One at 75 percent or more is soft and sticky, like ciabatta. Those are general ideas, since flour varies. Whole grain flour absorbs more water than white flour, so the same percentage feels stiffer.

Hydration on a formula sheet usually means the water alone. Other ingredients carry water too. Eggs are about 75 percent water, milk is mostly water, and butter holds about 16 to 18 percent.

Worked example. A brioche formula lists 9 percent water, 50 percent eggs and 50 percent butter. The sheet says 9 percent hydration, but the true water content is much higher:

• Eggs: 50 x 0.75 = 37.5
• Butter: 50 x 0.17 = 8.5
• Water: 9
• Total: 55 percent, close to a firm bread dough

That's why a dough that looks dry on paper mixes up soft.

Turning a Recipe into a Formula

Divide each ingredient by the flour weight, then multiply by 100.

Worked example. A recipe uses 2,500 g flour, 1,750 g water, 50 g salt and 15 g instant yeast.

Scaling to a Piece Count

Production starts from what you need to sell, not from a batch size in a book. Work through these steps in order.

1. Multiply the piece count by the scaled weight of each piece.
2. Add a loss allowance, because some dough sticks to the mixer and the bench.
3. Divide by the formula total, as a decimal, to get the flour weight.
4. Multiply the flour weight by each percentage.

Worked example. You need 120 baguettes, scaled at 350 g each, using the formula above. Your bakery loses about 2 percent of a batch.

• Dough needed: 120 x 350 = 42,000 g
• With loss: 42,000 divided by 0.98 = 42,857 g
• Flour: 42,857 divided by 1.726 = 24,830 g
• Water: 24,830 x 0.70 = 17,381 g
• Salt: 24,830 x 0.02 = 497 g
• Yeast: 24,830 x 0.006 = 149 g

Check your work by adding it up. 24,830 + 17,381 + 497 + 149 = 42,857 g. If the total doesn't match, a number is wrong. Find the error before you pour anything into the bowl.

Divide by 0.98 for a 2 percent loss. Don't multiply by 1.02. The two answers are close, but only dividing gives you the right amount.

Measure your own loss. Weigh what you scale out and compare it with what the batch should have made. The right number depends on your mixer and your people.

Match the scale to the ingredient. A floor scale that reads in 10 g steps can't weigh 149 g of yeast accurately. Weigh salt and yeast on a smaller scale. An error of 10 g in 25 kg of flour doesn't matter, but 10 g of yeast is a big change.

Allowing for Bake Loss

Bread loses weight in the oven as water turns to steam. If a loaf must weigh a set amount when sold, scale it heavier.

Worked example. You weigh ten baguettes before and after baking, and they lose 14 percent on average. To sell a 300 g baguette, scale 300 divided by 0.86, or about 349 g.

Bake loss changes with the shape, the oven and the bake time. Find your own figure this way, and check it when anything changes. If you sell by a stated net weight, your local weights and measures rules also apply.

Working with a Preferment

A preferment is a portion of the dough that's mixed and fermented before the final mix. It adds flavor, helps the crumb and can extend shelf life. Common kinds include:

The key idea is that the preferment's flour and water are part of the total. A common mistake is to add a poolish on top of a full recipe. That gives you too much dough, and it's too wet.

Worked example. Your overall formula is 100 percent flour, 70 percent water, 2 percent salt and 0.4 percent yeast, on 10,000 g of flour. You want 30 percent of the flour in a poolish, with a small amount of yeast.

First, the overall batch:

Next, the poolish. 30 percent of 10,000 g is 3,000 g of flour. A poolish uses equal water, so that's 3,000 g of water. Your formula calls for 3 g of yeast in it. Total poolish: 6,003 g.

Then subtract the poolish from the overall batch to find the final dough:

The totals match, which tells you the split is right. Note how little yeast this needs. A preferment brings active yeast with it, so formulas that use one tend to add less.

Plan the time as well. A poolish is often made the day before, and it needs to be used when it's ready. If it's domed and bubbly, it's ready. If it's fallen and smells sharply of alcohol, it has gone too far, and the bread will show it.

Hitting the Right Dough Temperature

Temperature controls how fast dough ferments. A dough that comes off the mixer 6 degrees too warm can be ready long before the shaping crew and the oven are ready for it. In general, wheat doughs should finish mixing at about 75°F to 78°F. Your formula may set another target.

You can't change the room or the flour temperature at the last minute, but you can change the water. That's why bakers use a formula called desired dough temperature, or DDT.

For a straight dough (no preferment):

Water temperature = (DDT x 3) - flour temperature - room temperature - friction factor

With a preferment:

Water temperature = (DDT x 4) - flour temperature - room temperature - preferment temperature - friction factor

Friction factor is the heat the mixer adds. It changes with the mixer, the speed, the mix time and the batch size.

Worked example: straight dough. You want 76°F. The flour is 70°F, the room is 72°F and your friction factor is 24.

• 76 x 3 = 228
• 228 - 70 - 72 - 24 = 62°F water

Worked example: with a preferment. You want 75°F. The flour is 68°F, the room is 70°F, the poolish is 72°F and your friction factor is 26.

• 75 x 4 = 300
• 300 - 68 - 70 - 72 - 26 = 64°F water

Finding Your Friction Factor

1. Mix a normal batch, and write down the speeds and the mix time.
2. Take the dough temperature right after mixing.
3. Multiply that temperature by 3, or by 4 if there's a preferment.
4. Subtract the flour, room and water temperatures, and the preferment temperature if you used one.

Worked example. A straight dough finishes at 80°F. The flour was 70°F, the room 74°F and the water 65°F.

• 80 x 3 = 240
• 240 - 70 - 74 - 65 = 31

Your friction factor is 31 for that mixer, batch size and mix time. Change any of these, and the number changes. Keep a record for each dough.

When You Need Ice

In summer, the formula may ask for water colder than your tap. Ice replaces part of the water. A common bakery formula for this, in degrees Fahrenheit, is:

Ice weight = total water x (tap temperature - needed temperature) divided by (tap temperature + 112)

Worked example. A batch needs 17,000 g of water at 45°F, and your tap runs at 60°F.

• 60 - 45 = 15
• 60 + 112 = 172
• 17,000 x 15 divided by 172 = 1,483 g of ice
• Water: 17,000 - 1,483 = 15,517 g

The ice and water together must still add up to the formula's water. Use small pieces or flake ice, so that it melts fully during the mix. Any ice used in food must be made from safe drinking water and handled like food, so use a clean scoop.

Choosing and Converting Yeast

Fresh, or compressed, yeast is about two-thirds water, so you need more of it by weight than dry yeast. Red Star, a major yeast maker, suggests a little less than 3 times the weight of dry yeast when using cake yeast.

Worked example. A formula calls for 300 g of fresh yeast, and you only have instant dry. 300 divided by 3 is about 100 g.

Treat conversions as a starting point. Brands and strains differ, and suppliers don't all give the same number. Check your supplier's chart, run a test batch, and change the fermentation time if you need to.

Sugar changes the rules. Lallemand, a major yeast supplier, notes that normal yeast can be held back in sweet doughs with about 10 to 25 percent sugar on flour weight, since sugar draws water out of the yeast cells. For a dough in that range, you can use more yeast, allow more time, or use an osmotolerant yeast, which is a strain made for high-sugar doughs.

Common Mistakes

Check Your Understanding

1. A formula totals 165 percent. You need 200 rolls at 80 g each, and you lose 2 percent. How much flour do you need?

200 x 80 = 16,000 g. 16,000 divided by 0.98 = 16,327 g. 16,327 divided by 1.65 = 9,895 g of flour.

2. Your overall formula has 8,000 g flour and 5,600 g water. You want 25 percent of the flour in a poolish. How much flour and water go in the final dough?

The poolish uses 2,000 g flour and 2,000 g water. The final dough gets 6,000 g flour and 3,600 g water, plus the poolish.

3. You want a straight dough at 77°F. The flour is 64°F, the room is 68°F and the friction factor is 26. What water temperature do you need?

77 x 3 = 231. 231 - 64 - 68 - 26 = 73°F.

4. Your dough keeps coming off the mixer at 82°F, even though you did the DDT math. You doubled the batch size last week. What's likely wrong?

The friction factor changed with the batch size. Mix a batch, take the temperature, and work out a new friction factor for that size.

5. You switch a sweet bun dough from 8 percent to 18 percent sugar and change nothing else. What will you notice, and why?

It will ferment more slowly, since the extra sugar puts stress on the yeast. Allow more time, use more yeast, or use an osmotolerant yeast.

Key Takeaways

• Scale from the piece count, add a loss allowance by dividing, and check that the total adds up.
• Weigh small amounts on a scale that can read them.
• The flour and water in a preferment are part of the overall formula, so subtract them from the final dough.
• Use the DDT formula to set your water temperature, and find your friction factor by testing.
• Ice replaces part of the water, and it doesn't add to it.
• Yeast conversions are a starting point, and high sugar slows normal yeast.