23 Baker’s Percent

A baker’s percent are used to set out basic bread recipes as a series of percentages, making it very easy to change a recipe according to your needs. A baker’s percent always use weight, not volume. You can start with a recipe, like this:

• 5 pounds flour
• 3 pounds water
• 0.1 pound salt

You can change this recipe to a series of percentages, starting with making the flour 100%. For the water, you would figure out what percentage of the 5 pounds of flour the 3 pounds of water is. In other words, what percent of 5 is 3? The answer is 60%. Then you do the same with the salt. What percent of 5 is 0.1? The answer is 2%. So you can set out the basic recipe like this:

• 100% flour
• 60% water
• 2% salt

Now you can use this basic recipe for any amount of this basic bread you might want to make. Let’s say you want to use 12 pounds of flour. How much water should you use? It would be 60% of 12 pounds, or 7.2 pounds. The salt would be 2% of 12 pounds, or 0.24 pound. Your new basic recipe would look like this:

• 12 pounds flour
• 7.2 pounds water
• 0.24 pound salt

You can also use a baker’s percent to change a recipe based on particular conditions. For example, what if you want to change the hydration of the recipe to 70%? That would mean you would use 70% water instead of 60% water. In the original recipe above, you would use 70% of 5 pounds, or 3.5 pounds of water. In the revised recipe, you would use 70% of 12 pounds, or 8.4 pounds of water.

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Assignment

Purpose

Outcomes

Instructions

To complete this assignment…

1. Use the recipes you are given to calculate the bakery percentages.
2. Use the bakery percentages to modify the recipes as instructed.
3. Round all answers to the nearest hundredth, if necessary.

Tips for Success

Baker’s Percent Assignment

1) Calculate the bakery percentages for this quick bread recipe:

• 1000 grams flour
• 1000 grams water
• 500 grams eggs
• 500 grams butter

2) Modify the above recipe so that it uses 1500 grams flour.

3) If you want to decrease the water to 75%, how much water would you use in the original recipe?

4) If you want to increase the butter to 60%, how much butter would you use in the original recipe?

5) Calculate the bakery percentages for this bread recipe:

• 50 pounds flour
• 32.5 pounds water
• 1 pound salt
• 0.6 pound yeast

6) Modify the above recipe so that it uses 80 pounds flour.

7) If you want to increase the water to 70%, how much water would you use in the original recipe?

8) If you want to increase the salt to 2.5%, how much salt would you use in the original recipe?