jimtrue.com : school : CUL115 : Week 5 - Baker's Percentages and Sourdough Starters

Posted by Jim True on March 22, 2010 10:50 AM. Last Updated March 22, 2010 10:50 AM

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Week 5 - Baker's Percentages and Sourdough Starters

Baker's Percentage

• Is the standard method of calculating the proportion of ingredients in a bread dough
• The flour is always 100% and each of the other ingredients are expressed as a percentage of the flours weight
• Computing Pounds from Percentages
  • When we know the % of ingredients (100% flour, 37.5% sugar, 43.7% butter, 6.2% vanilla extract)
  • We can get the weights of the ingredients from the percentages:
  • We want at least 8 #'s of flour = 100%
  • 8 x 16 (lb) = 128 oz
  • 128 x .375 = 48 oz sugar
  • 128 x .437 = 56 oz butter
  • 128 x .062 = 7.9 oz vanilla ex
  • 187.4% or 15 #
• Computing Percentages in a Formula
• When we know the weight of ingredients (flour 75#, water 49.5#, salt 1.5#, yeast .9#)
• We can get percentages of the ingredients from the weight:
• Flour, 75# is 100%
• Water 49.5 / 75 = .66 x 100 = 66%
• Salt 1.5 / 75 = .02 x 100 = 2%
• Yeast .9 / 75 = .012 x 100 = 1.2%
• Resizing a formula using the formula conversion factor:
• Flour, 120# 100%, water 78# 65%, salt 2.4# 2%, yeast 1.5# 1.25%, total 201.9#, 168.25%
• Need 150# of dough, 150# is the desired dough weight
• 168.25% is the dough units (total % dough weight)
• 150 / 168.25 = .8915 formula conversion factor
• Flour 100% (.892 x 100 = 89.2 #)
• Water 65% (.892 x 65 = 57.98 #)
• Salt 2% (.892 x 2 = 1.78 #)
• Yeast 1.25% (.892 x 1.25 = 1.12#)
• Total weight = 150.08 #


• Need 20 # of dough (20 / 168.25 = .119 formula conversion factor)
• Flour 100% (.119 x 100 = 11.9#)
• Water 65% (.119 x 65 = 7.73#)
• Salt 2% (.119 x 2 = .238 #)
• Yeast 1.25% (.119 x .0125 = .15#)
• Total weight = 20.02#

Sourdough Starters

• Is a culture of microorganisms often perpetuated for many years, which contains wild yeast and bacteria
• a sourdough culture provides both leavening and flavor to bread
• Areas of europe, mainly France, Spain and italy are where wheat flour grew rapidly, more so than rye. Therefore the sourdough cultures from these regions were generated from white and whole wheat flours. This is how we got to enjoy levain breads
• Microorganisms that are in the ripe culture acidify the flour
• Sourdoughs ripen in 14-16 hours at 70ºF.
• Ripe sourdough should be domed, with a pleasing acidic tang
• If the sourdough has collapsed, the room it ripened in is too warm or the length of ripening is too long

Aloo Paratha

• Are filled flat breads originating from India
• Filled with potatoes, herbs and spices
• Cook potatoes, cool, deskin and grate
• Toast spices and grind for a more robust flavor
• Mix dough for about 8 minutes (the dough should be soft), let stand in bowl for at least 30 minutes
• Divide dough and filling into 8 pieces
• Flatten the dough into a 7" circle with the rolling pin, place potato filling on top and fold 1/2 of the dough onto the other 1/2 (should look like a half moon)
• Roll out the filling and dough into a thin (as you get to evenly distribute the filling into the dough) round circle (as round as you can get without the filling bursting out of the dough) place on floured or greased parchment paper pan
• Cook on a hot pan (medium heat) for 2-3 minutes, flip and lightly brown the other side for 2-3 minutes
• Use clarified butter to cook with and brush on the flat bread
• Use sweet tai chili sauce as an accompaniment with the flat bread

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