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March 15, 2019 - 8:51pm

dmsnyder

Today's bake 3-15-2019: Mixed grain sourdough by a new/old method

Sourdough Bread

March, 2019

David Snyder

My recent trials of sourdough bread production methods have made some very good breads, but still not exactly what I want. I recall that, about 10 years ago, I baked some breads from a recipe developed by a home baker who was an active participant on The Fresh Loaf at the time, “Susan from San Diego.” At the time, I felt it was the bread I had baked closest to my ideal. So, I thought I would return to that bread, applying some procedures I had adopted with good results since that time.

Of note is that Susan's recipe called for two builds of firm starter before mixing the final dough. As I recall, it produced a rather sour, crusty loaf with a moderately open crumb. Back then, I mixed the dough with a stand mixer. For this bake, I mixed by hand.

I made two loaves. One, I cold retarded for 17 hours then left at room temperature while the oven pre-heated. The second loaf was cold retarded for 40 hours. I was eager to see whether the second would be much more sour, as one would expect.

Total Dough
Ingredient	Wt (g)	Bakers' %
High-protein flour	125	11
AP flour	803	69
Whole Wheat flour	138	12
Rye flour	92	8
Water	826	71
Salt	23	2
Total	2007	173

Starter 1st Build
Ingredient	Wt (g)	Bakers' %
High-protein flour	18	75
Rye flour	6	25
Water	12	50
Seed starter (liquid)	6	25
Total	42	175

Dissolve starter in water.
Add flours and mix thoroughly.
Ferment at 76ºF for 8 hours.
Proceed to 2nd build or refrigerate 1st build overnight and continue the next day.

Starter 2nd Build
Ingredient	Wt (g)	Bakers' %
High-protein flour	104	75
Rye flour	35	25
Water	69	50
Starter 1st Build	42	25
Total	250	175

Dissolve starter in water.
Add flours and mix thoroughly.
Ferment at 76ºF for 8 hours.

Note: If not ready to make the Final Dough when this starter build is ripe, the starter can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, until you are ready to proceed.

Final Dough
Ingredient	Wt (g)
AP flour	803
Whole Wheat flour	138
Whole Rye flour	50
Water	743
Starter 2nd Build	250
Salt	23
Total	2007

Procedures

In a large bowl, mix the water and the flours to a shaggy mass.
Cover the bowl and let rest (autolyse) for 1-2 hours.
Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add the starter in chunks.
Mix the dough to incorporate the added salt and starter uniformly.
Transfer to a clean, lightly-oiled bowl and cover.
Ferment until expanded by 75% with stretch and folds at 30, 60 and 110 minutes. (I do the first two S&F's in the bowl and the third on a lightly floured board.)
Divide the dough as desired and place in floured bannetons or on a couche. Cover.
Proof at room temperature for 1-3 hours, then refrigerate for 8-40 hours (or more?).
If you think the loaves need it, proof at room temperature for additional time before baking.
Transfer to a peel. Score as desired.
Bake: If baking in a Dutch oven, bake at 475ºF covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered at 450ºF for another 20 minutes or until done to satisfaction.
Bake: If baking on the hearth, pre-heat oven at 500ºF for 1 hour with baking stone and steaming apparatus in place. Turn down oven to 460. Load loaf and steam oven. After 15 minutes, remove steam and continue baking for 30-40 minutes, until loaf is baked. (Depends on size and shape of loaf.)
The bread is done when the crust is nicely colored and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. The internal temperature should be at least 205ºF.
Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and cool thoroughly before slicing.

The crust was crunchy in the darker-baked parts and chewy in the rest. The crumb was moderately open and mildly chewy. The flavor was complex, sweet and creamy. There was the slightest hint of acetic acid tang. Interestingly, even though the whole wheat was only 12% of the total flour, the distinctive flavor of Turkey Red wheat came through.

I baked the second loaf 40 hours after retarding it, including the last hour at room temperature, while the oven preheated. It turned out ... well ... it was kind of spectacular, in my humble opinion.

The crust is crunchier. The crumb has the same chewing consistency - what I call tender/chewy - but it is substantially more open, and the flavor is substantially more sour. Interestingly enough, I think creamy, lactic acid flavors still predominate, but there is more of an acetic acid tang. Now, that is all based on a first taste when the loaf was just completely cooled. If the flavor profile evolves, I'll add a note.

As far as I can recall, I have only retarded dough for more than 24 hours once before. That was an experiment with my San Joaquin Sourdough, and the retardation was of the dough before dividing. Today's loaf is so good, that I believe I'm going to stick with this routine for a while. It sure made delicious bread.

Happy baking!

David

December 19, 2017 - 11:10am

Flour.ish.en

A Challenging Panettone

Didn't know making panettone was a challenge until I read a recent article on the New York Times referring to this traditional Italian bread as "the Mount Everest of baking." I tasted an exceptional piece of panettone made by Jim Lahey. Met him on his book tour in New York city when he spoke about his new book The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook. How difficult could it be to make the panettone armed with a detailed five-page recipe in the cookbook? This is what I've found.

Bread bakers deal with this process everyday: 1) prepare a preferment, 2) mix the dough, 3) bulk ferment 4) shape the dough, then 5) proof and 6) bake the bread. A fairly linear approach going from start to finish; done it, been there many times before. There are a few indispensable things to keep in mind. Among them, you'd need: a lively stiff starter, a stand mixer, panettone molds and long metal skewers. None too daunting. What I was not prepared was how long every stage of the process took. How many times I thought nothing good could possibly come out of this?

I'm starting to understand climbing Mount Everest requires endurance, a clear and focused mindset, a firm belief that you'll reach the destination and the discipline to ward off negative thoughts and resist messing around unnecessarily. It dawns on me that a recipe is just a set of guidelines; it's what we do with it that matters the most to the final outcome.

This Jim Lahey's recipe works, unequivocally. It's perfectly balanced. I have to keep reminding myself to stop messing around on the edges. It may take longer than 24 hours to get the preferment ready, 15 minutes at high-speed in the stand mixer to emulsify, 48 hours for the dough to quadruple during the bulk rise, 7 hours to get the dough to rise to the top of the panettone mold and 55 minutes to bake and several more hours for the inverted panettone to cool completely.

Who knows the unrelenting waiting game, especially if you haven't done it before (or you are type A like me), is the secret to a successful panettone? The panettone is weightless, cotton-candy airy, delicate, indulgent and far better than anything I've ever bought. More important, it's not about the bread. It's about a long and arduous journey, while keeping the hands and impulses (after all, I'm the master of the universe!) from interfering the dough and leaving it alone. Yes, sometimes it may take longer than you believe is sensible. That's the real challenge and a humbling experience.

Happy holidays to you all!

P.S. I have given these breads as gifts, therefore no crumb shots. I have another batch waiting.... Will post the interior pictures in a day or two.

Postscript:12/25

Finally, some crumb shots. Not too shabby. Certainly, there is room for improvement!

February 27, 2016 - 9:36pm

Danni3ll3

Baguettes Formulas

Alan, you offered to give me more detail on a variety of formulas for baguettes. I really appreciate this.

As to the 80% hydration baguettes that I made, I had no issue with the dough. I am not sure if it is the flour I have in Canada that absorbs more water or the fact I am working regularly with 78% hydration doughs, but shaping and handling is just fine for me.

Danni

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August 3, 2015 - 1:47pm

Isand66

Sunday Gravy Italian Style Sourdough

My Father-in-law is staying with us for a couple of weeks so my Wife made him some Sunday Gravy with meatballs, sausage, and pork and beef braciole. So of course I needed to make a good dipping sauce bread to go with it.

I decided to make a version of a bread I modified from Peter Reinhart's Italian Bread from "The Bread Bakers Apprentice". He uses a Biga in his formula but I used a AP levain at 66% in mine. The starter is a pretty high percentage of the overall formal at 44% but in the end it all worked out great.

This is not a high hydration dough either, but the final result is a nice soft crumb with a slight sweet taste from the maple syrup with a chewy crust. The crumb is moderate which is great for mopping up the home made tomato sauce.

Formula

Download the BreadStorm File Here.

Levain Directions

Mix all the Levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled. I usually do this the night before.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours, and the water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute. Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes. Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces), oil, maple syrup and mix on low for 6 minutes. Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds. Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold. Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold. After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours. (If you have a proofer you can set it to 80 degrees and follow above steps but you should be finished in 1 hour to 1.5 hours).

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours. Remove the dough and shape as desired. Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature. Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf. I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 500 degrees and after another 3 minutes lower it to 450 degrees. Bake for 25-35 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

September 25, 2014 - 10:10am

WoodenSpoon

Rustic Chanterelle Levain

325g bf (78%)
25g rye (7%)
122g levain (15% flour, 15%water)
83g fresh chanterelles (20%)
316g warm water (77%)
8g salt (2%)

I have been baking quite a bit in my pullman pan lately and I figured I should change it up, also the pan was otherwise occupied so a rustic loaf was in the cards. Chanterelles are my favorite mushrooms and pretty much made to go in bread, all buttery and fragrant and whatnot and though I had never baked with them I figured it could only be a good thing. This loaf went fast so I only had it alone but I think it would of really been the best eaten with other food, or at least some good cheese. Also at around 92% total hydration this is probably the wettest non high whole grain bread I have made to date.

First I lightly sauté's the chanterelles with a little olive oil then roughly patted them dry with a paper towel, both to absorb the excess oil and to break them up into smaller pieces, then I combined all the ingredients but the salt and let it sit for an hour.

After the hour I gave it a brisk two minutes of slap and folds followed by a two minute rest and two more minutes of slapping and folding, 45 minutes later I gave it another two minutes of slapping and folding and forty minutes later I gave it a minute of slap and fold and then another forty minutes later I gave it a stretch and fold in the bowl, let it rest for 45 minutes then scraped it out and proofed it on a very heavily floured couche for thee and a hagfish hours.

once it was done proofing I rolled it over, using the roll to build some tension on the otherwise very very slack loaf. Then i peeled it onto my preheated stone, poured water on my lava rocks and baked it at 500 for five minutes and continued baking at 450 for another 55 minutes rotating periodically .

October 7, 2013 - 8:01pm

wassisname

Pumpkin Sourdough

First off, many thanks to Karin (hanseata) for posting her bake of Dan Lepard’s pumpkin whey bread. What a great idea, and not just for autumn bakes. This is a sourdough, whey-less take on that lovely bread.

I love what the pumpkin does for this bread! The colors are striking, the crumb is exceptionally moist, and the flavor is wonderfully complex. The amount of pumpkin added to the dough will affect the flavor of the finished loaf pretty dramatically. The flavor using this formula is subtle – there, but not up front – and fades over time. The flavor is much more pronounced with the addition of even 25g more pumpkin (reduce water by 15g to keep the hydration about the same).

I really do recommend an autolyse for this dough because it starts out very sticky. I tried mixing the first attempt straight off without an autolyse and it was a mess. I was convinced the dough was far too wet, but it eventually worked itself out and ended up being a little tight if anything. The loaves pictured here are the second attempt. They were handled much more gently and turned out much better for it.

Another idea I tried was to mix a bit of cinnamon and allspice with flour and use that to dust the bottom of the loaves. I kept it very light and the flavor didn’t come through in the finished bread, but it is something I will play with in future bakes.

And, there will certainly be future bakes of this one, because… YUM!

Marcus

Oh, and the type 85 flour could just as well be whole wheat, but it's what I have on hand at the moment.

May 15, 2013 - 11:59am

dmsnyder

Sourdough Honey Whole Wheat Multigrain Bread

Sourdough honey whole wheat multi-grain ciabatta rolls and boule

May 11, 2013

After last week's San Francisco-style Sourdough with 30% whole wheat, I considered a number of modifications of the formula. The leading candidates were 1) increasing the whole wheat to 50%; 2) adding some honey or other sweetener; 3) adding a mixed grain/seed soaker. In the background but not very far back was my wife's request that I make her some soft sandwich rolls that were low profile. When she gets a rather spherical roll, she cuts a horizontal section out of the middle.

So, starting with the my San Francisco-style Sourdough formula, I attempted to accomplish all of the above in one swell foop.

I increased the whole wheat to 50% of the total flour. That was the easy part. I had bought a mix of grains and seeds called “Harvest Blend” from KAF and decided to use that as a multi-grain soaker. I planned to add this at 18% of the total flour weight. I had no clue as to the appropriate amount of water to use for the soaker, so I used 125% of the weight of the Harvest Blend, which is what some similar multi-grain soaker's in Hamelman's Bread calls for. I added 4% honey, on a similar basis.

This all seemed quite reasonable to me. I thought this new formula ought to make a pretty tasty loaf and also good sandwich rolls, if I could figure out how to make them as flat as my wife wanted.

What's the saying? “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Or is it, “No guts, no glory?” Or maybe it's Pat's, “Sometimes you gets the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.” Well, there were times when I thought I felt the hot breath of that bear on the back of my neck.

After letting the levain ferment overnight and the soaker soak, they both looked very good in the morning. So I mixed the flours and water and let them autolyse for 30 minutes. I then added the salt and levain. I decided to hold back the soaker until the dough had pretty good gluten development. As I mixed, I thought the dough was on the dry side, so I added some water - maybe 30 cc's. After mixing for 6-7 minutes, I added the soaker. Yikes! There was 20 to 30 cc's of free water hiding underneath the soaked grains and seeds. When I turned the mixer back on, my dough was severely goopy. As I continued mixing, the dough was looking like 90+% hydration rather than the 78-80% hydration I had intended. So, my plans for the dough changed.

Rather than fermenting for 2-3 hours with a couple stretch and folds, then shaping and retarding to bake the next day, which is what I had planned, I treated the dough more like a San Joaquin Sourdough. I did S&F's in the bowl every 30 minutes for 2 hours then retarded the dough. The next day, I preheated the oven and divided the dough into one 500 g piece, which I shaped into a boule and retarded to bake the following day. The rest I scaled to 4 oz and “shaped” as ciabatta rolls, which is to say, by simply folding the pieces like envelopes.

Rolls proofing

I proofed the rolls for about 50 minutes, as the oven was heating. I then baked them at 480ºF with steam for 10 minutes and then for another 5 minutes at 455ºF/Convection bake in a dry oven.

After a night in the refrigerator, the boule was warmed at room temperature for a couple hours while my wife roasted some beets and my baking stone pre-heated. I baked the boule at 460ºF with steam for 15 minutes then for another 15 minutes at 435ºF/convection in a dry oven. The loaf remained on the baking stone with the oven off and the door ajar for another 20 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. I let the loaf cool for several hours before slicing, thinking that this very wet dough need some “curing” time like a high-hydration, high-percentage rye bread does.

For both the rolls and the boule, the crust was soft and chewy. The crumb was very moist and almost gummy, but not really. The aroma and flavor were very assertive. Whole wheat predominated with very apparent poppy seed and less apparent sunflower seed flavors. There was a definite honey flavor to me, but my wife did not find it too strong. We made toscano salami sandwiches with the rolls and had slices of the boule with sweet butter with a dinner of salmon cakes and a salad.

The boule was placed in a plastic bakery bag, and slices were eaten both toasted and un-toasted over the following 4 days. The bread stayed moist but became less sticky. The flavor became more mellow and balanced, to my taste, over time. I enjoyed it more (un-toasted with Cotswold cheese) on day 4 than when “fresh.”

I thought both the rolls and bread were pretty good and improved after the first day – definitely worth making again with some modifications. The thing is, my wife thought they were fabulous. She absolutely loved the flavor.

The next steps will be to decrease the hydration and either eliminate the honey or substitute another sweetener.

David

May 8, 2013 - 4:13pm

breadforfun

Mixed Flour Levain with Long Autolyse - Take 2 (and 3)

A few weeks ago I wrote about this formula, and after many suggestions from readers out there, I followed up with two bakes. This post shows the outcome when including all the flours in the long autolyse, based on suggestions from Khalid and David. Essentially the method was the same as previous with these two exceptions: for bake 2, the autolyse included all the water and all the flours as listed plus 3 gm salt, and for bake 3 the salt was eliminated in the autolyse and the overall hydration was increased to 75%.

Bake 2, I included the small amount of salt as a hedge against overactive enzymatic activity of the rye (and possibly the spelt) flour. The autolysed dough was maintained at 74˚F for a little more than 11 hours, the same time to allow for the final levain build to mature. It was more hydrated than the original version, and the autolysed flours already had a nutty aroma. Here are the final bakes:

The loaves seemed more flavorful than the last time (but it may be wishful thinking), and the crumb was definitely moister. Sorry, no crumb shot, but it was very similar to the one below.

For Bake 3, I eliminated the salt altogether from the autolyse, and increased the overall dough hydration to 75% from about 72.5%. I also made a double batch, which turned out to be a bit problematic as I am not really equipped to handle over 4 kg of dough. It also turned out to be an unusually hot week in San Francisco, so the bulk fermentation got a bit out of hand and I probably went too long. This made the dough a bit sticky and more difficult to shape. Still, the breads turned out fine, although the bloom was not as large as usual for this bread. The crumb, again, ws quite moist, even moreso than the previous bake due to the added hydration.

As mentioned, the crumb was moist and airy.

A few of folks have mentioned the boule scoring, so here are some photos. This boule was 1500 gm of dough, which is the largest I've done with this score.

The flavors of both bakes were quite close, with good nuttiness and noticible tang that increased over the next few days. Bake 3 was a bit bolder, in part to compensate for the added hydration, and had nice singing and cracks are seen throughout the loaves. It was also more sour, presumably due to the increased fermentation from the higher ambient temperature.

I don't really have a conclusion on whether the salt was necessary for the autolyse, but I think it is not. The autolysed flours for bake 3 were softer, but that was more likely due to the increased hydration rather than omission of salt.

Another thing I learned: the wheat germ absorbs a lot of water, much more than I expected. Since it was the only ingredient other than the salt added when mixing the final dough, and I held back a small amount of water for the add, it was easy to see that all the water went straight to the wheat germ. Next time, maybe include the wheat germ in the autolyse - has anyone ever done that?

Have fun baking!

-Brad

April 30, 2013 - 12:17pm

Floydm

Hawaiian Sweet Bread with Tangzhong

I only recently discovered that one thing that doesn't appear to be available in Canada is Hawaiian Sweet Bread. At least on the West Coast in the US, King's Hawaiian bread is easy to find at most any grocery store. It's something I grew up with and that I associate with being a kid and snacking on in the car. We certainly fed it to our kids a number of times on road trips.

I've tried making Hawaiian sweet bread a couple of times in the past. While the flavour was right, I've never been able to get close on texture.

The other day it dawned on me that the Hokkaido Milk Bread with Tangzhong was quite similar to Hawaiian Sweet Bread, both in flavour and texture. With a few tweaks to that recipe, I got as close to Hawaiian Sweet Bread as I've ever come in the past.

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

makes 3 loaves

Tangzhong

2/3 cup pineapple juice

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup all purpose flour

Final dough

800g (around 5 C) all purpose flour

1/2 C sugar

50g (1/2 C) milk powder

1/2 C half and half

3/4 C milk

2 eggs

4 T butter

4 t instant yeast

1 t salt

1 t vanilla extract (optional)

1 t lemon extract or some lemon zest (optional)

1 t orange extract or some orange zest (optional)

all of the tangzhong

1 more egg, beaten, for the eggwash

The tangzhong I made the same as the previous time: 1 cup of liquid (milk or water or juice) to 1/3 cup flour, or a 5 to 1 liquid to solid ratio (so 250g liquid to 50g flour) and mix it together in a pan. Heat the pan while stirring constantly. Initially it will remain a liquid, but as you approach 65C it will undergo a change and thicken to an almost pudding like consistency. Here is a video I made of it undergoing that change.

Let the tangzhong cool for at least a half an hour, then combine it and the rest of the ingredients. Mix it very well, for 10-15 minutes with a standmixer. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, approximately an hour.

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

Divide the dough into three even pieces. Place them in greased pans, cover loosely, and let them rise for 45 minutes to an hour until they are approaching twice their original size. Glaze them with eggwash before putting them in the oven.

Bake at 350 for approximately 45 minutes. If you can, cover the loaves with a pan or foil for the first ten minutes to trap some of the steam in with the loaf and to keep them from browning too quickly. I acually used a large metal mixing bowl which I inverted over each loaf when placing them in the oven.

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

I like the way the loaves puckered as they cooled (compare this photo with the top most photo), just like King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread. This is definitely the closest I've gotten to making Hawaiian Sweet Bread at home.

April 27, 2012 - 10:07pm

dmsnyder

Baker's Math: A tutorial

In October, 2008 I posted a formula for Greenstein's Jewish Sour Rye which converted his recipe, which was written in volume measurements, to ingredient weights. I have made this bread many times since, but I've never bothered to calculate the baker's percentages for the formula. I decided to do so today and thought I would post the procedures as a tutorial on “baker's math” for new baker's and others who have just never gotten comfortable with this very valuable tool.

Here is the formula I wrote in 2008.

Ingredients	Wt (g)
First Clear flour	500
Water (80-199ºF)	240
Sea salt	12
Ripe rye sour (100% hydration)	750
Instant yeast	7
Altus (optional)	1/2 cup
Caraway seeds	1 T
Cornmeal for dusting parchment
Cornstarch glaze

Converting the formula to baker's math

Baker's math is a method of expressing the quantity of all ingredients, always expressed as weights, as a proportion of the total flour in the formula. This provides a way of comparing formulas and of easily converting them to make a larger or smaller batch of dough. By convention, the total flour is always 100%. If your formula uses more than one type of flour, their total is 100%. So, to use a simple baguette-type dough as an example, the formula might be:

Ingredients	Baker's %
AP flour	100
Water	65
Salt	2
Instant yeast	1
Total	168

Note that the total is over 100%. This is confusing to many initially. Get used to it. This total baker's percentage is an important number, as you will soon see. Again, this formula does not tell you how much of any ingredient to use, so far, only their proportionate amounts. In fact, knowing these proportions gives you all the information you need to make any amount of dough you need for a bake, whether its 500 g or 100 kg.

We have the ingredient amounts for a “batch” of Greenstein's rye bread, and we want to calculate the baker's percentages, so we can make a bigger (or smaller) batch of dough than the original recipe produces.

This bread uses a rye sour – a rye sourdough starter. When working with a pre-ferment like a poolish or a rye sour, there are two ways of representing it in baker's math. One is to treat it a distinct ingredient, like water or salt. The other is to break the pre-ferment down into its flour and water content and add the flour to the total flour and the water to the total water in the formula. These two approaches are equally accurate, but the second approach provides the more accurate representation of the dough characteristics, especially in regard to hydration. In the following table, I have used the second approach.

The rye sour is 100% hydration. That means that the amount of water in it is exactly equal to the amount of water (water = 100% of total flour.) So, 750 g of rye sour consists of 375 g of rye flour and 375 g of water. Therefore, for example, the total water in the dough consists of the 375 g from the rye sour plus the 240 g added to the final dough.

Total Ingredients	Wt (g)	Calculations	Baker's %
First Clear flour	500	Total flour =500+375=875. 500/875=57.	57
Rye flour	375	Total flour =500+375=875. 375/875=43.	43
Water (80-100ºF)	615	Water/Total flour=615/875=70	70
Sea salt	12	Salt/Total flour=12/875=1.4	1.4
Instant yeast	7	Yeast/Total flour=7/875=0.8	0.8
Total	1509		172.2

Now we can see that the original recipe makes 1509 g of dough. (Well, it is actually more because the weight of the caraway seeds and altus, if used, is not included in these calculations.) Adding up the Baker's percentages, you have 172.2. Think of this as meaning that the dough consists of 172.2 “parts,” 100 of which is flour, 70 of which is water, etc. Recall that these numbers represent the relative amounts of each ingredient.

Scaling the recipe

Now, let us assume you want to make Greenstein's Jewish Sour Rye, but you want to make 600 g loaves, and you want to make two of them. So you will need 1200 g of dough.

Since you know your formula consists of 172.2 parts, to determine the weight of each ingredient needed to make 1200 g of dough, what you need for your calculations is the weight of each part. If the total is 1200 g, you get this by dividing 1200 g by 172.2 parts. This equals 6.97, rounded off. This number is called “the conversion factor.” Now we can calculate the amounts of each ingredient in 1200 g of dough. Weights are rounded to the nearest gram.

Total Ingredients	Baker's %	Calculations	Wt (g)
First Clear flour	57	57x6.97=397	397
Rye flour	43	43x6.97=300	300
Water (80-100ºF)	70	70.6.97=488	488
Sea salt	1.4	1.4x6.97=10	10
Instant yeast	0.8	0.8x6.97=6	6
Total	172.2		1201

What this way of representing the formula does not show is how much rye sour you have to build. However, we know from the original recipe that the weight of the rye sour is 1.5 times the weight of the First Clear flour (See the first table, above.) So, for the 1200 g of dough, we will need 1.5x397=595 g of Rye Sour. In the bread books written for professionals, for example, Hamelman's Bread and Suas' Advanced Bread and Pastry, the formulas have separate tables for “Total Dough” which takes the second approach described above and another for “Final Dough” which takes the first approach. You get the best of both worlds. The “Final Dough” would be as follows:

Final dough ingredients	Wt (g)	Baker's %
First Clear flour	397	100
Water (80-199ºF)	191	48
Sea salt	10	2.4
Ripe rye sour (100% hydration)	596	150
Instant yeast	6	1.4
Total	1200
Altus (optional)	1/2 cup
Caraway seeds	1 T
Cornmeal for dusting parchment
Cornstarch glaze

You can see that, while this representation of the formula is more helpful for making the final dough, the Baker's Percentages distort the ingredient proportions. They make the dough look like it has a lower hydration than it really does, and it makes the amounts of salt and yeast seem very high.

Baker's math is an invaluable tool. Once you understand the basic approach and scale a few of your favorite recipes, it becomes easy to use. After a while, if you use it regularly, it becomes intuitive. You will find yourself doing it in your head as you look at new recipes. You can use it for modifying recipes you want to tweak. It will make you a better baker. It is not yet known if it prevents senile dementia, but I bet it helps. I'll let you know, if I remember to.

Addendum 5/1/16: I just found a very good Baker's Math reference on the King Arthur Flour web site. Here is a link to it: Baker's percentage

Enjoy!

David

The Fresh Loaf

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