Sourdough Baker’s Percentage & Hydration Level Calculator

Once you start getting into the world of sourdough, you’ll probably start hearing bakers talking about hydration levels and baker’s percentages.

This is where new bakers typically get absolutely lost (ahem, ME), wondering if this whole sourdough thing is just too complicated after all.

We are not going to get lost, OK?

I created a calculator for all of us to break down baker’s percentages and a dough’s hydration level. I’m also going to explain what these things mean so you don’t give up on your sourdough journey!

Sourdough Baker’s Percentage & Hydration Level Calculator

For those of you who just want to use the calculator, here she is in all her glory. More education and explanations follow.

You may also like: Sourdough Starter Ratio Calculators

How Do Baker’s Percentages Work?

Baker’s percentages express each ingredient as a percentage of the total flour weight, with the flour always being 100%.

The baker’s percentage formula looks like this:

(Weight of ingredient / Weight of flour) x 100 = Baker’s Percentage

So, if you’re using 500 grams of flour and 300 grams of water, the water percentage would be:

(300 / 500) x 100 = 60% hydration

This is how bakers talk about their dough recipes. When you hear someone say, “I’m making 70% hydration dough,” it means that for every 100 grams of flour, they’re adding 70 grams of water.

This might sound a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s like second nature.

What Does Hydration Level Mean?

When bakers talk about a dough’s hydration level, they are referring to how much total water there is in relation to the flour. That includes the water from the actual recipe plus the water that’s present in your sourdough starter.

The higher the hydration level, the wetter and stickier the dough will be.

Low-hydration doughs tend to be stiffer and easier to handle but result in a tighter crumb—think sandwich bread. My soft, easy sourdough sandwich bread has around a 50% hydration level and is dead easy to make.

Higher hydration doughs (70% and up) are wetter, trickier to work with, and help produce those airy, open crumbs you see in artisan-style loaves.

Sidenote: Hydration level isn't the whole story – dough handling and proper fermentation are a part of it – but the higher hydration definitely helps create a more open crumb. Check out the e-book Open Crumb Mastery by Trevor J. Wilson if you want to dig into that more.

Why Are Baker’s Percentages Useful?

Baker’s percentages allow you to easily scale recipes up or down.

Once you know the percentages of each ingredient, you can adjust the total flour amount to fit how much dough you want to make.

Let’s say you want to make a big batch of dough for a party or a smaller loaf just for yourself. If you know your recipe is 70% hydration, you can pick any amount of flour and quickly calculate how much water to use.

By using baker’s percentages, you’re not tied to exact recipes. It’s more of a formula that you can use to create anything!

What About Salt and Sourdough Starter?

Salt and sourdough starter are also typically calculated as a percentage of the flour.

Most bakers use around 2% salt, which means for every 100 grams of flour, you’ll add 2 grams of salt.

The average percentage of sourdough starter seems to vary, and you can adjust it based on a few things:

• How quickly you want your bread to ferment: more starter means your dough will ferment faster and vice versa.
• How healthy and happy your starter currently is: the fresher and less acidic your starter is, the more you can safely add to your dough. But if your starter is old and sour, using a lot of it can make your dough dense because the flour in the starter has already broken down.
• How sour you want your final loaf to be: The less starter you use, the slower your dough will ferment, which usually means your loaf will end up with a more sour flavor.

I’d say 10-20% starter is fairly standard, though I’ve recently been testing a dough that has 50% starter, and it has been some of my best bread yet! The world is your oyster.

Hydration & Flour Types

Different types of flour absorb water differently.

Whole wheat and rye flour, for example, tend to soak up more water than all-purpose or bread flour.

So, a 70% hydration dough made with whole wheat might feel a bit stiffer compared to one made with white flour.

If you’re experimenting with different flours, you might have to adjust your hydration levels slightly to get the dough texture you’re aiming for.

This chart can be a good baseline for experimenting with different hydration levels:

Conclusion

Understanding baker’s percentages and hydration levels is like unlocking a secret sourdough code. It might seem tricky at first, but it’s just a way to give you more control and flexibility over your dough.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different hydration levels to see what works best for you and your baking environment. And most importantly, have fun with it!

Sourdough is a journey, and every loaf you bake, whether it’s perfect or not, gets you one step closer to mastering this craft.