What is a Baker's Percentage and How Does It Work?

In the baking world, normal recipe measurements change too much depending on how tightly you pack them. To fix this, professional bakers use a simple trick called Baker's Percentages. Instead of treating the whole recipe as 100%, we look at Flour as the absolute anchor of the entire recipe, making it exactly 100%. Every other ingredient is measured as a direct comparison to that flour weight. This makes scaling any recipe up or down completely foolproof.

Dough Hydration: How Water Changes Your Bread

The Hydration Percentage is just a baker's term for how much water is in your dough compared to your flour. Low hydration (55%-62%) makes dough firm, stiff, and easy to shape for pizza and bagels. Medium hydration (63%-72%) is the perfect sweet spot for an everyday standard table loaf. High hydration (73%-85%+) creates loose, sticky dough that turns to steam in a hot oven, producing the large air pockets found in artisan sourdough and airy Italian Focaccia.