The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Bread Calculator

andytlr's picture
andytlr

Bread Calculator

I made a little bread calculator that uses bakers percentages to scale a recipe up/down, calculate final hydration, dough weight and number of boules/pizzas.

It's a web app so it'll work on iOS, Android and desktop: http://brdclc.com/

You can scale by changing the flour value or the desired dough weight. It also appends the values you use to the URL, so you can share or bookmark a recipe, e.g. http://brdclc.com/?F=1000&W=75&S=2&L=20&LH=100

I know a lot of people use their own spreadsheets, keen to hear any feedback—especially on math or desired functionality.

I'm considering removing the ability to edit the final dough weight in favor of adding the ability to set number of loaves you'd like to make. Does anyone scale up by desired dough weight? Would adjusting the flour and seeing the dough weight scale accordingly suffice?

GAPOMA's picture
GAPOMA

I do scale up by weight sometimes, so that functionality would be welcomed by me.

- Greg

andytlr's picture
andytlr

Could you elaborate on why/when you'd scale up by dough weight. E.g. What problem is a dough weight adjustment solving. 

Modern Jess's picture
Modern Jess

Your calculator is pretty cool.

I'm not sure if this is what gapoma was getting at, but I'll often have a recipe that is already given in weight (not baker's percentages) and need to scale it up / down. For myself, I generally target a loaf that has 500g of flour, and so if I have a recipe that specifies 400g of flour, I will need to scale everything so that flour is 500g and everything else is scaled proportionately. 

Also, 2.5% is not a lot of salt. If the calculator popped up an alert every time I used more than 2.2% salt, I would almost certainly just stop using it.

andytlr's picture
andytlr

Great feedback thanks!

andytlr's picture
andytlr

I feel like this is a much more common use case than scaling up or down based on a final dough weight.

OldWoodenSpoon's picture
OldWoodenSpoon

i don’t always bake to the same target number of loaves, nor to the same weight per loaf.  The most common scale equation for me begins in my head where I determine what loaf style I will bake, and what banneton I will use for proofing, if any.  That equation determines how much dough I need, and I then scale to that dough weight from the basic formula.

Just more feedback for you...  Best of luck with a cool project.

OldWoodenSpoon 

 

 

andytlr's picture
andytlr

I've pretty dramatically rethought this: removed the final dough weight and leaven hydration (assumes 100% hydration) and added gram inputs for water, salt and leaven. I think this makes it much, much easier to scale up or down a recipe. Also removed the warnings.

I still want to make scaling (by changing the flour value) more obvious. And I'm thinking about making it so you can switch between naturally leavened or instant yeast.

inumeridiieri's picture
inumeridiieri

compliments.

Gaetano

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Very nice.

itbakes's picture
itbakes

This looks awesome! thanks for sharing!

andytlr's picture
andytlr

Thanks everyone. I added imperial conversions but these make no sense to me. Thinking about replacing them with volume measurements based on AP flour weight and sea salt weight. I figure if you're using scales you can just use grams but volume might be handy for some.

dancy78's picture
dancy78

Great tool. Only useful if one understands baker's percentages, hydration, etc. The free version of app is available on both Vshare APK and Tutuapp APK.

_vk's picture
_vk

Hello @andytlr

Thanks for sharing this great tool. I'm using it all the time.

Simple and efective.

Some suggestions:

I'd love to be able to split my flours. Like 1600kg of total flour divided 50% WW 40% BF and 10% spelt. 

I'd like if I could, sometimes,  determine the total dough weight and have the rest calculated.

Sometimes I'd like to lock some fields. Like, lock the water (weight) change the hydration percentage and have the flour adjusted. Or something like this ;)

 

Also I could try to translate it to portuguese if you want.  I have some few programing skills. That should not be very difficult I guess. An array of strings?

happy Baking.

gabriel's picture
gabriel

Hi, this calculator and its sharebility is awesome!

For future development I would be glad to have, it is not too complex: 

- localisation for other languages (we may help you... community force)

- add some custom ingredients, like yoghurt, with custom hidratation (I know, there is milk, but it's not the same)

dan1's picture
dan1

Instant favorite, only thing missing is a favicon!

bearhunter's picture
bearhunter

Thank you very much.

This just goes to prove ( no pun intended ) that our collective obsession with pursuit of the perfect loaf transcends the actual bread it's self.

Rodeojones's picture
Rodeojones

This is extremely helpful and bookmarked!

Thank you very much.

rgrgeo's picture
rgrgeo

Great app!  

I realize I am late to discover this app. I have been using Breadstorm, but since that app is now dead, I have been looking for other options.  Your app is a great replacement, if not better.  Your loaf weight calculator is so needed, and the hydration + preferment calculation is really useful. The only limitation appears to be the ability to add and scale different flours.  I often use a combo for 2 or 3 flours in my recipes.  This is minor though since I can work this out on the side.  Overall, really good work, simple and effective.

I hope you are still developing this web app, with Breadstorm gone I believe this is a great successor.

Roger