Dough Portions & Baker’s Percentage

When to use it

Use your own reliable four-ingredient straight-dough formula before weighing out a batch. All ingredient percentages are relative to flour, not total dough. The metric example is simulated and has not been baking-tested; 65% water and 1% instant yeast are not recipe recommendations.

Related calculations: Cake Pan & Recipe Scaling · Baking Ingredient Costs.

Inputs

Calculation method

Target raw dough weight = portions × weight per portion. Flour = target weight ÷ (1 + water ratio + salt ratio + instant-yeast ratio). Multiply flour by each ratio for the other ingredients. Flour is the 100% reference. Six portions of 280 g require 1680 g: with the example percentages, that is 1000 g flour, 650 g water, 20 g salt and 10 g instant yeast. All four weights add to the target before display rounding.

6 [Dough portions] × 280 [Raw weight each g] → Raw dough total g

Raw dough total g/(1 + 65 [Water to flour]% + 2 [Salt to flour]% + 1 [Instant yeast to flour]%) → Flour g

Flour g × Water to flour% → Water g

Flour g × Salt to flour% → Salt g

Flour g × Instant yeast to flour% → Instant yeast g

Change one input

Change portions from 6 to 9 while keeping portion weight and percentages fixed. Total raw dough becomes 2520 g; flour, water, salt and yeast all increase by 50%.

Results are displayed to at most two decimal places; later formulas use unrounded values.

Scope and limits

• Percentages are based on flour weight.
• Raw dough weight, not baked bread weight.
• Four ingredients only; no starter or fermentation prediction.

Portions must be a positive integer; portion weight, water ratio and instant-yeast ratio must be positive, and salt nonnegative. Zero salt is only an arithmetic boundary. This model excludes starter, preferments, milk, eggs, sugar, fat and process losses. Adding ingredients requires updating the denominator and ingredient calculations. If target weight stays fixed while hydration changes, flour weight changes too. Small amounts may round to zero; increase display precision where needed and use an appropriate scale. It does not prescribe fermentation time or baking conditions.

King Arthur Baking: baker’s percentage

Download and import into Calvance to edit the numbers. The canvas does not reject every invalid input; check the stated ranges.

Common questions

Does 65% hydration mean 65% of the dough is water?

No. It means 65 g water per 100 g flour. Salt and yeast also contribute to total dough weight.

Can I include sourdough starter?

Not in this four-ingredient model. Starter contributes both flour and water and requires separate accounting.

Is this the finished bread weight?

No. The target is raw dough before handling and baking losses. Download the canvas to adapt a proven formula in Calvance.

How to import your template

We recommend using the latest version of Calvance.

1. Save the file. Choose Download template and save the .calvx file to Files on your iPhone or iPad. From a computer, you can send it to your device with AirDrop.
2. Open Import. In All Canvases in Calvance, tap the add button to open the template screen, then choose Import.
3. Choose the file. Select the saved .calvx file to create your own canvas. Importing uses one canvas from your allowance.
4. Edit and check. Check the results against the worked example, then add your numbers. Duplicate the canvas to keep different versions.

Download .calvx file