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Flour, ratios & scale · Beginner

Baker’s math, made simple

Calculate hydration, salt and starter contributions without losing track of the whole dough.

Lesson 2 of 4

Count what the starter contributes

A starter carries flour and water into your dough before the mixing water ever goes in.

Ingredients for this learning path

  • A written bread formula for practice

Equipment

  • Calculator
  • Digital scale
  • Notebook

The lesson

  1. For 100 g of 100%-hydration starter, count 50 g flour and 50 g water.
  2. For 90 g of 50%-hydration starter, count 60 g flour and 30 g water: starter flour = starter weight ÷ 1.5.
  3. Add starter flour to added flour, and starter water to added water, before calculating the final hydration.

The baker’s note

In enriched doughs, milk and eggs also contain solids; do not count their full weight as pure water.

Practice

Calculate total hydration for 500 g flour, 350 g water and 100 g liquid starter.

Technique lessons may require a separate complete formula. Read the full path before mixing.

LESSON 2 OF 4 · 6 min read

Count what the starter contributes

A starter carries flour and water into your dough before the mixing water ever goes in.

Go to guided practice & lesson check

Let’s work through it

  1. For 100 g of 100%-hydration starter, count 50 g flour and 50 g water.
  2. For 90 g of 50%-hydration starter, count 60 g flour and 30 g water: starter flour = starter weight ÷ 1.5.
  3. Add starter flour to added flour, and starter water to added water, before calculating the final hydration.

LEARN IT. TRY IT. MAKE IT YOURS.

Your practice bench

Read the whole lesson first, then work at your own pace. Check a step when you’ve practiced or reviewed it.

0 of 3 steps

STEP 1 OF 3

For 100 g of 100%-hydration starter, count 50 g flour and 50 g water.

MAKE THE BAKER’S CALL

Why count flour and water in the starter?

TAKE IT TO YOUR OWN KITCHEN

Your next small experiment

Calculate total hydration for 500 g flour, 350 g water and 100 g liquid starter.

Record what happened in my journal
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Make it part of your practice

Calculate total hydration for 500 g flour, 350 g water and 100 g liquid starter.

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YOUR BAKING JOURNAL

Remember what the dough taught you.

Record your temperatures, timing, observations and one thing to try next.

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