Computing Baker's Percentage
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Here is how it works...
As a main ingredient in most recipes, flour is always designated as 100%. Each of other ingredients is expressed as a percentage of the total amount of flour.
The following two hypothetical baking recipes will illustrate this point.
Recipe 1
| Ingredients | Quantity | Baker’s Percentage |
| All purpose flour | 3 cups | 75% |
| Cake flour | 1 cup | 25% |
| Granulated sugar | 1 cup | 25% |
| Butter | ½ cup | 12.50% |
| Eggs, 2 large | 4 oz or ½ cup | 12.50% |
| Total | 150% |
Recipe 2
| Ingredients | Quantity | Baker’s Percentage |
| All purpose flour | 2 cups | 50% |
| Cake flour | 2 cups | 50% |
| Brown sugar | ½ cup | 12.50% |
| Honey | ¼ cup | 6.25% |
| Butter | ¼ cup | 6.25% |
| Egg, 1 large | 2 oz or ¼ cup | 6.25% |
| Oil | 2 Tbsp or 1oz | 3.12% |
| Total | 134.37% |
Please note:
- When there is more than 1 type of flour, their total percentage must add up to 100%.
- When baking recipes do not call for flour, the predominant ingredient is designated as 100%.
For example, in the cookie recipe for gluten free biscotti, the predominant ingredient is unblanched whole almonds.
The following basic conversion units are helpful.
| 1 cup = 8 oz |
| 1 whole egg = about 2 oz |
| 1 egg white = about 1.25 oz |
| 1 egg yolk = about 0.75 oz |
| 1 Tbsp = 2 oz |
With the exception of eggs, butter, oil, milk, and water, weight measurement is not the same as volumetric measurement. In other words, 1 cup of flour may have a volume of 8 oz, but does not necessarily weight 8 oz.
Baker's percentage makes adjusting any baking recipes, either up or down, an easy task. Take hypothetical recipe 1, for example.
Suppose I want to use 3 cups of flours in total instead of 4. I can easily figure out the measurement for other ingredients as follows.
Recipe 1
| Ingredients | Baker’s Percentage | Quantity |
| All purpose flour | 75% | 2+1/4 cups |
| Cake flour | 25% | 3/4 cup |
| Granulated sugar | 25% | 3/4 cup |
| Butter | 12.50% | 0.375 cup or 3oz |
| Eggs | 12.50% | 3oz or |
| approximately 1 whole egg and either a yolk or white | ||
| Total | 150% |
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