Advanced options
Baker's percentages: everything is a percentage of the flour weight. Salt 2%, dried yeast 1% (or sourdough starter 20%, itself half flour half water at 100% hydration). 65-70% hydration suits sandwich loaves and beginners; 75%+ gives open-crumb artisan loaves and stickier handling.
What The Bread Dough Calculator Works Out
- Water: flour x hydration. Professional recipes are ratios, every ingredient a percentage of the flour weight, so a 70% loaf from 500g of flour takes 350ml of water and the same percentages scale to any batch without conversion errors.
- Salt / leaven: salt at 2% (10g per 500g) is flavour and gluten control: much less tastes flat, much more slows the yeast. Dried yeast at about 1% gives a normal rise. Sourdough swaps the yeast for around 20% starter, and since a 100% hydration starter is half flour and half water, its water is deducted from the water you add.
- Dough weight: everything added together. About 800g to 900g fills a 2lb tin, 1,400g or more is two loaves.
- Hydration guide: 60% to 65% gives firm, easily kneaded dough for tins and sandwich loaves; 70% is the versatile middle; 75% to 85% gives the open, glossy crumb of ciabatta and modern sourdough at the price of dough that flows rather than sits. Strong white flour drinks more than plain, and wholemeal more again, so bakers adjust by feel around the arithmetic.
- Salt, yeast and starter percentages (advanced): override the 2%, 1% and 20% defaults and the starter's hydration. A stiff 50% starter or a liquid 125% one changes how much water you add; the true-hydration card shows the loaf's real figure once the starter is counted.
- Yeast you have (advanced): active dried yeast needs about a quarter more than instant and a wake-up in warm water; fresh yeast is three times the dried weight.
- Oil or butter (advanced): 3% to 10% fat gives a softer, longer-keeping crumb for sandwich and milk loaves; lean doughs have a crisper crust and stale sooner.
- Divide into and scale to a target (advanced): see the weight of each roll or loaf (80g to 100g for a dinner roll, 450g for a 1lb tin), or enter the total dough you want and the calculator works the flour and water backwards. Time is the other ingredient: slow cool rises build flavour, dough is ready by the poke test not the clock, and done bread is about 95C inside.