What Is a Baker’s Ratio?
Pro bakers don’t work with recipes; they work with formulas
Want to scale a baked goods recipe up or down? With most home recipes, this can cause issues. Now imagine you have a recipe for a loaf of sourdough bread, and you want to make 30 loaves, not one. This is done by converting that recipe to a baking formula known as a baker’s ratio. And once you know your ratios, you can make that bread without carefully measuring out cup after cup after cup.
First, convert to a weight measure
My standard single loaf recipe is measured in grams, not with cups and spoons:
- 500g flour(s)
- 350g water
- 125g starter
- 11g salt
This requires a kitchen scale that you can zero out after you add an ingredient. For home cooks, a $10 digital scale works fine. Just make sure it is large enough to hold the mixing bowl without blocking the readout.
You start by putting the bowl on the scale, setting it to metric grams, and then zeroing it out so the weight of the bowl doesn’t affect things (no math required, yet). Dump flour in until it shows 500g, then zero it again and add the water by weight. Repeat with other ingredients, then proceed (this isn’t a recipe post…
