Hi Tina and Paul, Baker's Math, and describing each of the ingredients as a percentage of the flour weight, makes sense to professional bread bakers in the same way that musical notes make sense to musicians. It's a way of expressing a bread formula that is clear and instantly communicates information about the type of bread being made. For example, when bakers see that the hydration percentage (the weight of the water as compared to the flour) is 80%, that's going to be a pretty wet dough, whereas a dough that is 60% hydration will be much stiffer. In the first case you may be making ciabatta, while the lower hydration recipe is more likely to be a sandwich bread or bagel. Creating a formula in this way also makes scaling a recipe up or down easier for professional bakers. But you are both totally correct that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and you can also adjust a recipe as you described. We always recommend doing what works best for you, so if this method doesn't make sense to you, then there's no reason you need to adopt it. 

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