Baking Ratios Explained
Master bakers use ratios instead of fixed recipes. Once you know the ratio, you can scale to any quantity — make 2 loaves or 20 without recalculating. All ratios are by weight, not volume.
Classic Ratios
- Basic bread: 5 parts flour : 3 parts water (60% hydration)
- Pie crust: 3 parts flour : 2 parts fat : 1 part water
- Pound cake: 1:1:1:1 (flour:butter:sugar:eggs)
- Cookie dough: 3 parts flour : 2 parts fat : 1 part sugar
- Pasta: 100g flour : 1 large egg (~50g)
- Pancakes: 2 parts flour : 1 part liquid : 1 part egg
- Muffins: 2 parts flour : 1 part liquid : 1 part fat : 1 part egg
Baker's Percentages
In baker's math, every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%. This lets you instantly scale any recipe and compare formulas.
Standard Bread Formula
- Flour: 100%
- Water: 60-75% (hydration — see below)
- Salt: 1.8-2.2%
- Instant yeast: 0.5-1% (or 1-2% active dry)
Example: For 1000g flour at 65% hydration: 1000g flour + 650g water + 20g salt + 7g yeast = 1677g total dough.
Hydration Guide
- 50-57%: Bagels, pretzels — stiff, dense dough
- 58-65%: Sandwich bread, rolls — easy to handle
- 65-75%: Artisan bread, baguettes — open crumb, harder to shape
- 75-90%: Ciabatta, focaccia — very wet, sticky dough with large holes
Why Weigh Ingredients
A cup of flour can vary 20-33% in weight depending on how it's scooped. Professional bakeries use weight exclusively because:
- Results are consistent every time, regardless of who measures
- Scaling is simple multiplication — double the batch by doubling every weight
- International recipes (grams) convert directly without cup-to-gram guesswork
- A $15 kitchen scale pays for itself by eliminating failed batches