I just came across some videos explaining bakers math and making baguettes.

http://www.stellaculinary.com/podcasts/video/how-to-make-a-basic-baguette-video-recipe

Is there a "standard" format for communicating a bread formula? If there is, I'd love it if some whould guide me to it.

I think Bakers' math is wonderful: a tool that carries so much information, in so few symbols. It's akin to tensor analysis. However, when I both read or write a bread formula I find myself stumbling. How do I "correctly" communicate the amount of preferment (sourdough starter, poolish, biga, pate fermente, etc.)? What useful information does the bakers' percentage of the total dough weight communicate? A check-sum digit?. 

For example, as a home baker who keeps his seed starter refrigerated, I don't have a bubbling pot of fresh levain handy on the kitchen counter, for those moments when I think, "Why don't I just whip out a loaf before dinner time." Before each sourdough bake--or for that matter any bread incorporating any preferment--I have to build the budgeted amount of ripe levain needed by the amount of dough planned for. Of course, I have to account for the water and flour in the preferment in the final dough's balance. In my head (and in the spreadsheet program I wrote more than two years ago) I simply account for the flour in the levain--its weight(s) and type(s)-- in the planned flours' budget. Similarly, I account for its liquid weight in the planned liquid's budget. This has worked for me since day one; however, since day two--wanting to post/boast of my success--after I'd looked throughout TFL for a way to list, not a recipe, but this new found tool, a Formula--I was, and remain to this day confused. Now when I post the ratios of ingredients on a bread I've baked, I report the baker's percentage of the flour(s) used building the levain, and the levain's hydration. I think it is an accurate and complete communication, but it seems cumbersome. Furthermore, on both TFL, and in published breadbooks, I've not found a "standard" practice.

I've never listed the bakers' percentage of the total dough.Mea culpa.

In the words of the Beatles, "Help me, if you can!

David G

Hi all,

Two questions for all you experts :-)

#1 Regarding baker's percentages....For my Desem-type loaf (not made per Laurel...my own bastardization, mostly from Alan Scott) if my flour weight ( in this case 100% whole wheat) is 375 g and my leaven weight is 225g (100% whole wheat, 100% hydro) and my water weight is 283g and my salt weight is 10g....is my overall hydro  81% (if I calculate in the weights of water and flour in my leaven) or is it 75% (if I do not calculate the weights of water and flour in my leaven)?

The math difference is more dramatic when figuring the % of leaven against the flour weight...without adding in the leaven ingredients, the formula above would represent 60% leaven and figuring with the leaven ingredients would represent only 46% leaven.

I am so confused.

#2 If I choose to retard my desem loaves 8-12 hours, should I reduce the leaven in the recipe and if so, by how much? Also, if I retard, should I allow the loaves to proof briefly at room temp after bulk fermentation and before retard? If so, for how long? I am worried I will over proof the loaves under retard with Scott's crazy percentage of leaven (2-3 times that of other recipes).

BTW, my loaves come out wonderfully at this leaven percentage when BF 4hrs at cool temps and proofed 1.5 hrs at warm room temps. I am looking to get a more sophisticated and slightly more sour flavor from the overnight retard.

Lastly, I do not knead the bread at all, simply autolyse 30 min, add salt and then turn in the bucket every 45 min during BF. I get lovely open crumb that rivals white flour loaves and awesome oven spring if I closely monitor proofing.

Thanks all for your input!

Cheers

~Krista

Help, I cannot make sense of the online tutorials for bakers math. And then when I found Jeremy Shapiro's sourdough recipe, his math sends my wittle bwain into a tailspin. What I want to do is to make 2 (two)  500 gram boules using his recipe.

Please help me out. Thanks!

http://sourdough.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1914