BONUS FERMENTED TIP: BAKER’S PERCENTAGES FOR ALL MATH LOVERS AND THOSE WHO MIGHT GROW INTO ONES

In sourdough baking recipes are often written down in percentages and not in units of measurement. This means that the amount of all the ingredients is calculated based on the amount of flour used in the main dough of a recipe. We determine the exact amount of all the ingredients that will be added to the flour by dividing the weight of each ingredient with the weight of the flour.

Calculating the weight of the ingredients will be much easier if we start out with either 1000 g of flour or 500 g of flour. That’s why a good kitchen scale will be your best friend when it comes to sourdough baking.

Recipe example:

1000 g of flour is 100% –> 600 g of water is 60 : 1000 = 0.6 or 60%

This means that the hydration of the dough from all the liquid in it is 60 per cent.

20 g of salt is 20 : 1000 = 0.02 or 2 %

The amount of salt added to the dough is typically between 1.5 % and 2 %.

200 g of sourdough starter (levain) is 200 : 1000 = 0.2 or 20 %.

Let’s write down the recipe in percentages:

• 100% flour (50% T500 flour, 40% T850 flour, 10% rye flour)
• 60% water
• 2% salt
• 20% starter 

Slovene flours can’t absorb as much water as US flours can that’s why I always suggest starting with a lower percentage of hydration. You can always add water later, like you see me do in the video.

*No part of this course may be reproduced, copied, or redistributed in any other way, or be made available for public use, or forwarded to anyone who has not purchased the course.

@The creator of this course is Anita Šumer, drožomanija/sourdoughmania, 2021. All rights reserved.