The all-in-one Sourdough| Calculator

TL;DR: Baker's percentage expresses every ingredient weight as a percentage of the total flour weight (which is always 100%). This mathematical system lets you instantly scale bread, sourdough, or pizza recipes to any size without changing the formula.

Baker's percentage (also called baker's math) is the universal language of professional baking. Every ingredient in a bread, sourdough, or pizza dough recipe is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight. This makes it effortless to scale any recipe — whether you're making a single loaf or a full bakery batch — while keeping every ratio identical. The Flourwise sourdough calculator fundamentally relies on this mathematical principle.

Worked example: You want to bake a simple sourdough bread with 1000g of flour at 65% hydration and 2% salt. Using the baker's percentage formula:

• Flour: 1000g (always 100%)
• Water: 1000 × 0.65 = 650g
• Salt: 1000 × 0.02 = 20g
• Total dough weight: 1670g

Need to double it? Just use 2000g flour and multiply each percentage — the math stays the same. This is why every professional sourdough calculator and bread hydration calculator uses baker's percentage as its foundation.

TL;DR: Dough hydration is the total water weight divided by total flour weight. Bagels use low hydration (55-60%), pizza dough uses moderate hydration (60-65%), and sourdough or ciabatta use high hydration (70-80%+).

Hydration is the single most important number in any bread or pizza dough recipe. It determines the crumb structure, crust character, and how the dough feels in your hands. According to the Flourwise methodologies, here is a reference table for common hydration ranges used by professional bakers:

For Neapolitan pizza dough, most pizzaioli target 60–65% hydration, while Roman-style pizza al taglio can go up to 80%+. Sourdough bread typically falls in the 68–75% range. The right hydration depends on your flour, technique, and the bread you're making.

Learn more: Sourdough Hydration Chart · Baker's Percentage Chart

TL;DR: Preferments (poolish, biga, levain) contain both flour and water. To calculate accurate baker's percentages, you must subtract the preferment's flour from your main flour weight, and its water from your main water target.

A preferment is a portion of flour and water that's fermented before mixing the final dough. It develops flavor, improves texture, and extends shelf life. When using the Flourwise sourdough calculator or any baker's percentage calculator, you need to account for the flour and water a preferment contributes to the dough network.

Example: A 200g poolish at 100% hydration contains 100g flour + 100g water. Your sourdough calculator must subtract these amounts from the main dough's flour and water to keep the overall baker's percentage accurate.

Learn more: Poolish vs Biga vs Levain

TL;DR: Enriched ingredients contribute hidden water to your dough: eggs are 75% water, whole milk is 87% water, and butter is 16% water. This hidden moisture must be added to your total hydration calculation.

In enriched doughs like brioche, challah, or milk bread, ingredients beyond water contribute significant moisture. Accurate bread hydration calculations require tracking this hidden water — especially when targeting a specific hydration percentage. The Flourwise calculator app automates this tracking.

If your brioche recipe calls for 100g eggs and 50g milk, that's 75g + 43.5g = 118.5g of hidden water. Subtract this from your target water amount for accurate hydration. The Flourwise sourdough calculator app handles this automatically — just add the ingredient and it tracks the water content for you.

When using our bread hydration calculator, you might wonder what exact baker's percentage you should target. Here is a breakdown of common dough types and their structural requirements:

Neapolitan Pizza Dough (62% Hydration)

A classic wood-fired pizza requires a dough that is easy to stretch without tearing. Targeting 60-65% water with a strong Tipo 00 flour allows for a long cold proof and results in a perfectly airy cornicione capable of withstanding intense oven heat.

Rustic Ciabatta (80% Hydration)

Ciabatta literally translates to a "slipper," famously referencing its flat shape and highly irregular, open crumb. Achieving this requires a very high hydration dough (typically 75-85%). Because it's so wet, strong gluten development via the stretch and fold technique and the bassinage method is essential.

New York Style Bagel (55% Hydration)

Bagels demand a very stiff dough, landing around 50-55% hydration. This exceptionally low moisture content, paired with high-protein bread flour and malt syrup, is what creates that undeniably chewy texture. The dense structure must survive the boiling stage before baking.

TL;DR: A cup measures volume, not weight — so 1 cup of flour (120g) and 1 cup of sugar (200g) are very different. Professional bakers always weigh in grams for consistent results.

One of the most common baking questions is how many grams in a cup. The answer depends entirely on the ingredient, because density varies wildly. Use this cups to grams conversion chart every time you adapt a recipe from cups to a baker's percentage calculator.

Note: 1 US cup = 240 ml (legal metric cup). Values below are measured using the spoon-and-level method (spoon the ingredient into the cup, then level off with a knife). Scooping directly from the bag compacts flour and can add 20–30g extra per cup.

Why cups are unreliable for baking: A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 120g to 160g depending on how you scoop it. That 40g difference in a recipe with 3 cups of flour means up to 120g of extra flour — enough to change the hydration by 10–15% and ruin your bread or sourdough. A kitchen scale ($10–15) is the single best investment for consistent baking.