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.
Baker’s Percentage Calculator
Enter the weight of each ingredient (in grams) to calculate the baker’s percentages and the final dough hydration. Note: Most people use a 100% hydration starter (equal parts flour and water).
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.
Hi Rebekah, for someone who claims to be poor in math you certainly did a great job developing your calculators. They’re a great help….thank you.
Thanks Norbert!
Thank you for all your information, but I am still a bit confused.
How do I scale down a recipe that has inclusions, specifically a Jalapeno Cheddar loaf. You mentioned your Tester Loaves were 375 g loaves. Can you show me how you figured that out. Do I include the inclusions while doing the math? Gosh, I am really not good at this but I keep trying! I use the Grant Bakes recipe, which I believe is on your website and it is delicious. Sometimes I like just a smaller loaf as I live alone (if I have a big loaf I eat the whole thing tooooo quickly). If you have the time and can respond it would be greatly appreciated.
Hey! I just use baker’s math to scale recipes up or down. So my usual bread recipe is 500g flour, 325g water, 120g starter, 10g salt. The baker’s percentages are 100% flour (flour is always 100%), 65% water, 24% starter, and 2% salt. To get these percentages, you can use the calculator above or you can simply divide the ingredients into the flour amount (325 / 500 equals 0.65 or 65% for the water). So to scale the recipe down to 375g of flour, I would use my baker’s percentages. 375 x 0.65 = 243g of water. 375 x 0.24 = 90g starter. 375 x .02 = 7g salt.
Thanks, Do you have this more detailed in a blog or other post. I assumed that if I wanted to make a smaller loaf I could just use say 80% of each of the ingredients. Now I don’t think that is correct. If I were trying to make a loaf at say 80 % size I think I would use 400 g flour, 320
Thanks for this information. I would like to make everything in smaller quantities. I am happy to share but I am single and so basically making for one person. I thought that if I wanted to make a smaller loaf or other item I could just scale down by just multiplying by a common factor. So, if I wanted to make a recipe at 75% I could just multiply each ingredient by 0.75. Is that incorrect? I am really new at this. I’ve had my starter for a couple of weeks and I have made two loaves of bread, your recent crispy pizza crust and some discard crackers. I know you mention other bakers to follow, is there someone in particular who makes smaller amounts? Thanks so much.
Lisa
You are correct! If I wanted to half a recipe, I’d multiply all the ingredients by .5. You’re on the right track. All of my recipe cards have a 0.5x button that allow you to half a recipe but I don’t have an in-between option – you’d just have to multiply all ingredients by .75 or .8 – whatever size you’re going for. I don’t know any bakers who specifically post smaller loaves, I’m sorry!!
What dose Nan mean? How do I now what the % of starter is if I need 139 grams for recipe.
Nan stands for Not a number. Make sure you’re just entering numerals.
Ok so what if we want to use a larger pan bread pan? My recipe is typically 500 gr of bread flour and 100 gr of starter and 250 gr of water. I’d like to make it in a 12” loaf pan instead of a standard.
I just did a similar conversion for two different-sized loaf pans, and it required cubic inch math. It was over my head… my husband did it for me. But if you ask AI (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.), it can probably do the math for you!
Hi Rebekah, is there any difference when it calls for bread flour thats 12% and kirkland all purpose flour? I can’t seem to adjust the water using your fool proof bread recipe that calls for bread flour to be able to use the kirkland AP flour. I don’t like high hydration sticky dough.
Thank you for your help!
Gina
Hey! Yes, higher protein flours can generally absorb more water than lower protein ones. So if you are using a lower protein flour like all purpose, you’ll want to decrease the water. I’d say something like 25g less water for one typical loaf. Start there and see how the dough texture compares to my photos!
In the table above, how do I know the percent of hydration of the starter I am using? Do I need to figure that out also?
If you feed your starter equal parts flour and water, it’s 100% hydration.
Hi Rebekah,
What is the hydration of my starter be if I feed 1-5-5? thanks
100% hydration (because the last two numbers are the same – if the flour and water are equal, it is considered 100% hydration)