Scale recipe quantities
Scale an ingredient list by servings or by the amount of one ingredient available. Select a reference ingredient from your list when working backwards.
Understand the numbers · Make life easier
Baker percentages and dough weight
Build a dough formula from total weight and baker percentages. Flour is the 100% reference, rather than the entire dough.
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Total flour needed
1,000g
These are not percentages of total dough weight. Switch to the appropriate mode for starter and other ingredients.
Total flour1,000 g
Water600 g
Salt20 g
Yeast10 g
Worked steps
- Total formula percentage = 100 + 60 + 2 + 1.
- Total flour = target dough weight ÷ (total formula percentage/100).
- Each ingredient = total flour × its percentage/100; rounding weighed amounts can cause small differences.
This basic formula contains only total flour, water, salt and yeast, all weighed in grams, with flour as the 100% denominator. These are not percentages of total dough weight. Recipes with starter, sugar, eggs, dairy, oil or other ingredients do not fit this mode; do not treat all egg or dairy weight as water. To scale a complete recipe with known weights by servings, use the recipe scaling tool.
Method and scope
Divide total dough weight by the sum of ingredient percentages expressed as factors to find total flour. Starter mode includes starter flour and water within those totals, then subtracts them to find fresh flour and water additions.
Basic mode contains only flour, water, salt and yeast. Starter mode separately handles prefermented flour, starter hydration and other ingredients such as sugar or oil.
Starter water cannot exceed total required water. Eggs and milk are not treated as pure water; this is not an automatic fermentation, baking-time or food-safety model, and full ingredient lists can instead be scaled in the recipe tool.
References:King Arthur Baking：Baker’s Percentage
What this helps you do
Build a dough formula from total weight and baker percentages. Flour is the 100% reference, rather than the entire dough.
What to enter
Start with target total dough weight (g), then fill the other relevant fields in the units shown. Available calculations are Basic dough without starter, Include starter and other ingredients.
How the calculation works
Divide total dough weight by the sum of ingredient percentages expressed as factors to find total flour. Starter mode includes starter flour and water within those totals, then subtracts them to find fresh flour and water additions.
Worked example
At 60% water, 2% salt and 1% yeast, 1,630 g dough contains 1,000 g flour, 600 g water, 20 g salt and 10 g yeast. Percentages refer to flour weight.
Understanding the answer
Basic mode contains only flour, water, salt and yeast. Starter mode separately handles prefermented flour, starter hydration and other ingredients such as sugar or oil.
Scope and limitations
Starter water cannot exceed total required water. Eggs and milk are not treated as pure water; this is not an automatic fermentation, baking-time or food-safety model, and full ingredient lists can instead be scaled in the recipe tool.