Dan, baker's percentage is incredibly useful to bakers because it allows you to size up or down a recipe based on the weight of dough needed. Sometimes the same dough will be used in multiple recipes and so the dough weight becomes the critical factor, rather than the amount of loaves the recipe might yield. Essentially the equation for doing this involves dividing the weight of dough needed by the weight of dough the current recipe yields (what need/what have). This will yield a factor that each ingredient can be multiplied by to give you the new ingredient weights. This factor is similar to the "Formula Conversion Factor" in the Baker's Percentage reference page in which you divide the weight of dough needed by the total percentages in the original formula. Check it out! This post is scratching the surface when it comes to baker's percentage. It's a powerful tool that professional bakers use every day, although these days there is a computer program that figures the new recipe weights, based on the desired total weight. Barb@KAF

• Reply