Comments on: Baker’s Percentage Tutorial, Part 2

By: Naan for 'jihva for ingredients - April'

Naan for 'jihva for ingredients - April' — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:17:34 +0000

[...] the bakers percentage do visit Susan’s blog ‘Wild yeast’ where she has started with a series of tutorials on the topic!It is of great help for the uninitiated like me who have not seen or learnt [...]

By: Rivermute

Rivermute — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:48:29 +0000

Amazing tutorials Susan!!! Waiting on pins and needles for Part 3 and 4!

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:39:37 +0000

Kat, honey is a sugar,and although it is about 17% water, I have not seen it routinely factored into hydration calculation. However, be aware that all sugar has a slackening effect on dough so when you add sugar the dough will feel as if water has been added, and sweet doughs consequently often have a lower hydration than other doughs. And the concept of hydration is useful as a relative term, but needs to be considered in the context of the entire dough and all of its ingredients. A 60% hydration dough with no sugar will feel and behave very differently from a 60% hydration dough with 20% sugar.

By: kat.

kat. — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:02:32 +0000

Thank you so very much for explaining this. I have been reading about baker’s percentage in various books, but this is the most clear explanation yet.

One question, however. Would honey be included in the liquid calculation or as sugar. It’s fluid, especially when warmed, but I know it doesn’t contain very much water naturally.

Thanks again.

By: Lucylu

Lucylu — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 04:26:52 +0000

Great explanation of BP! I finally feel I understand it and it explains why my attempts to scale recipes to suit my requirements have not resulted in complete success.

By: Tyrone Goins

Tyrone Goins — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:57:39 +0000

Hello, I just wanted to say thank you because I really find this information helpful. I wanted to ask how would you find the percentages if for instance the flour weight wasnt available? How would you also double, triple or even reduce a recipe? I have a big test in a 2 days.

By: Stella

Stella — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:57:54 +0000

Thank you for your articles on BP as I have learned much from reading them.
I have two questions. I am in a baking and pastry program, and one of our tests was to come up with our own artisan bread formula. As a guide we followed a baguette with poolish formula that had a 50% hydration using bread flour for both the poolish and the final dough. In our recipe we used rye flour (33%) in the preferment and bread flour for the final dough. The dough was very stiff and the baked product very dense. After reading part 2 of your article on hydration ratios, I know now why our bread turned out that way. We did not take into consideration the different hydration of different flours. You stated that when using rye flour we should up the hydration. What is the average ratio of hydration for rye, whole wheat and other whole grains?

Also, would other ingredients like garlic, cheeses fresh herbs that are added to the dough be included in the BP when coming up with a formula?
Thank you.

By: ann

ann — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:34:45 +0000

Hello Susan,

Thank you for your lovely articles, i will like to make a snack called puffs,it is supposed to be an african snack,but i need yeast to mix it,i have a 35kgs of wheat flour and 10kgs of sugar, but i am at loss what quantity of yeast i should incorporate. I have the instant yeast type, pls help me out,thank you.

P.S: the dough after fermentation,is supposed to be made into balls and deep fried.

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:03:05 +0000

OK…late comment…but here’s my question. I’m just starting to bake with the baker’s percentage, *but* from what I read, most formulas assume active dry yeast if they just say something like “3% yeast.” I use fresh for almost everything…based on what I’ve read, the conversion from dry to fresh appears to be about 1g active dry = 2.5g fresh. (A) is this roughly correct? (B) if I use that conversion for my baking, is there anything I need to do to adjust hydration, or is this negligible in my baking?

Thanks.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:16:42 +0000

also I guess if using butter which I think is about 20% water, that should also be figured into the hydration i.e. croissants dough?