Last updated: 2026-06-16

Baker's percentage is the standard way to describe a bread or pizza recipe. The flour is fixed at 100%, and every other ingredient is given as a percentage of that flour weight. A dough at 62% hydration uses 620 g of water for every 1000 g of flour, regardless of how large the batch is. Because the ratios stay constant, the same recipe scales from one pizza to fifty.

Working back from total dough

A recipe usually starts from how much dough is wanted rather than how much flour. With $n$ balls of weight $w$, the total dough is $n \times w$. Each part of the dough is a multiple of the flour weight $F$, so the total is

$F \times (1 + h + s + y)$

where $h$, $s$, and $y$ are the hydration, salt, and yeast ratios. Rearranging gives the flour, and the rest follow directly.

Worked example

Four 250 g balls give 1000 g of dough. At 62% hydration, 2.5% salt, and 0.3% yeast, the denominator is the sum of the ratios — 1.648 — so the flour and the rest follow directly:

Choosing the percentages

Hydration is the main lever on texture. Neapolitan dough runs about 58–65%, New York style 60–65%, and pan or focaccia dough 70–80%; higher hydration yields a lighter, more open crumb at the cost of a stickier dough. Salt typically falls between 2% and 3% of the flour. Yeast is small, around 0.2–0.4% for instant dry yeast. Fresh yeast is weaker, so about three times as much is needed (1 g instant is roughly equivalent to 3 g fresh). Using less yeast with a longer, cooler ferment develops more flavour than a fast rise.

For scaling other recipes, see the Recipe Scaler.