Calculate the exact amounts of flour, water, starter and salt for your sourdough bread. Adjust hydration percentage for the perfect crumb texture.
Hydration percentage is the ratio of water to flour in your dough, expressed as a baker's percentage. A 75% hydration dough contains 75 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. This single number has the biggest impact on your bread's texture. Lower hydration (60 to 65%) produces a tight, even crumb ideal for sandwich bread. Medium hydration (68 to 75%) gives a balance of structure and openness suitable for most artisan loaves. High hydration (78 to 85%) creates the large, irregular holes prized in ciabatta and certain sourdough styles, but demands stronger shaping skills and longer autolyse times.
The amount of sourdough starter (also called levain or pre-ferment) relative to total flour controls how fast your dough ferments. A typical 20% starter inoculation (100 grams of starter for 500 grams of flour) produces a 4 to 6 hour bulk fermentation at room temperature (21 to 24 degrees Celsius). Reducing the starter to 10% extends bulk fermentation to 8 to 12 hours, developing more complex flavors and a stronger sour note from acetic acid. Increasing to 30% shortens fermentation to 2 to 3 hours, giving a milder, more lactic tang. Our calculator adjusts water and flour amounts based on the starter's own hydration, ensuring your final dough hits the target hydration exactly.
Baker's percentage is a universal system used by professional and home bakers worldwide. Every ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%. If a recipe uses 500 grams of flour, 375 grams of water (75%), 100 grams of starter (20%), and 10 grams of salt (2%), those percentages remain the same whether you scale up to 5 kilograms of flour or down to 250 grams. This makes it easy to scale recipes, compare formulas across different sources, and communicate with other bakers. Our calculator handles the math automatically, so you just enter your target dough weight and hydration.
Source: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/guides/sourdough
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