Bread formulas and techniques
Baker's percentages
Also known as Baker's maths.
It is simply a method of presenting the (relative) quantities of the various ingredients in the recipe. Flour is always calculated as 100%. Other ingredients are calculated as a percentage by weight of the amount of flour, e.g. 500g flour with 310g water would be 100% flour, 62% flour.
Example:
| Ingredient | Weight | Baker's % |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 500g | 100% |
| Water | 310g | 62% |
| Yeast | 20g | 4% |
| Salt | 8g | 1.6% |
| Olive oil | 2 Tbsp = 30ml ≅ 30g | 6% |
Bread : A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes Jeffrey Hamelman
Desired dough temerature
This is a formula for calculating how hot the liquid added to the dough needs to be to get a certain desired dough temperature.
This rough and ready method takes the desired temperature of the dough and multiplies that by 3 (or 4 if using a pre-ferment). The subtract the temperatures of the flour, room and pre-ferment. Subtract a fiddle factor to allow for heat added by mixing. This will depend on the method and machine used to mix and by the mixing time - e.g. 14 for my Kenwood mixer kneading for 2 minutes at speed 1 and 6 minutes at speed 2. The final result is the required temperature for the added liquids.
Example:
| Factor | Straight dough | Dough with pre-ferment | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DDT | 24.5℃ | 24.5℃ | 24.5℃ | 24.5℃ |
| Multiplication factor | x3 | 73.5 | x4 | 98 |
| minus Flour | 20℃ | 53.5 | 20℃ | 73.5 |
| minus Room | 20℃ | 33.5 | 20℃ | 53.5 |
| minus Pre-ferment | n/a | 33.5 | 22℃ | 31.5 |
| minus friction1 | 14 | 19.5 | 14 | 17.5 |
| Water/liquids for DDT | 19.5℃ | 17.5℃ | ||
1 To calculate the friction factor, do the formula in reverse. Mix some dough, take the temperature and multiply by 3 (or 4 with pre-ferment). Subtract the flour, room, pre-ferment (if any) and liquid temperatures. The result is the factor added by the process of mixing and kneading.
Bread : A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes Jeffrey Hamelman
Yeast conversions
To convert from fresh yeast to active dry yeast (which requires dissolving in water before incorporating in dough) or instant dry yeast (which can be added with the other dry ingredients).
| Fresh yeast | Active dry | Instant dry |
|---|---|---|
| Factor | x 0.4 | x 0.33 |
| 21g | 8.4g | 7g |
Bread : A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes Jeffrey Hamelman
Yeast quantities for pre-ferments
The amount of yeast to add to a pre-ferment, i.e poolish or big etc, depends on how long it will ripen for and on the room temperature.
For a room temperature of 21℃
| Length of ripening at 21℃ |
% yeast |
|---|---|
| up to 8 hours | 0.7 - 1.0% |
| 8 - 12 hours | 0.3 - 0.6% |
| 12 - 16 hours | 0.1 - 0.25% |
Bread : A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes Jeffrey Hamelman
Bread shaping techniques
Some links to videos by Robèrt van Beckhoven on shaping dough.