percentage | The Fresh Loaf

Submitted by kristakoets on July 13, 2011 - 1:01pm

baker's math and leaven percentages

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

9 comments

Submitted by cranbo on February 20, 2011 - 2:06pm

wheat flours, protein percentages and fortifying flour

EDIT: based on some feedback, I have corrected my original post.

I set out to locate a list of protein levels in common flours, and I found a handy list, reposting for your perusal:

Flour Names & Protein Percentages

King Arthur Queen Guinevere Cake Flour (8.0%)
King Arthur Round Table Pastry Flour (9.2%)
Caputo 00 Extra Blu Flour (9.5%)
Generic All-Purpose Flour (10.3%)
King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (11.7%)
Caputo 00 Pizzeria Flour (12.0%)
General Mills Harvest King Flour (12.0%)
Robin Hood All-Purpose Flour (12.0%)
King Arthur Bread Flour (12.7%)
Bob's Red Mill Semolina Flour (12.9%)
Five Roses All-Purpose Flour (13.0%)
Eagle Mills All-Purpose Flour (13.3%)
King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour (14.0%)
King Arthur Whole Wheat Organic Flour (14.0%)
King Arthur Sir Lancelot Flour (14.2%)
Arrowhead Mills Vital Wheat Gluten Flour (65.0%)
Hodgson Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour (66.6%)
Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour (75.0%)
Gillco Vital Wheat Gluten Flour (75.0%)
King Arthur Vital Wheat Gluten Flour (77.8%)

FYI, this came from a very handy page & calculator I came across at http://tools.foodsim.com/

The reason I was interested in this is because I wanted to find out how much my protein would be boosted by adding vital wheat gluten to my flour.

I usually use KA All Purpose, which has 11.7% protein. To supplement, I planned to use Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten Flour.

WARNING...MATH AHEAD :)

1 cup KA AP flour weighs about 125g. If 11.7% is protein, then there is about 14.63g of protein per cup of this flour
1 tbsp of Bobs Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten weighs about 8.5g. If 75% is protein, then 6.375g of protein per tbsp of this flour.
1 cup KA AP + 1 tbsp Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten = 21g TOTAL protein
21g of protein / 133.5g total ingredient weight = .161, or 15.73% of protein in the flour mixture

You can use this same method to calculate the adjusted protein in your flour.

END OF MATH :)

What's interesting to me is that at the recommended dosage, adding 1 tbsp. of Bob's Red Mill gluten to every 1 cup of KA flour would make an extremely high protein flour, higher than what is typically commercially available. I wonder if it would make it totally unusable & gummy?

Then again, if you had a relatively weak, generic AP flour (9% protein), then 1 tbsp per cup would probably bump you to a very respectable 13.2% protein level, close to that of KA Bread Flour. For those that have actually tried this technique, I wonder if it actually performs in a similar way (e.g., similar to KA Bread flour) or do other flour factors (such as ash content, type of wheat, etc) play more into the overall performance of the flour and resulting bread?

Submitted by ClimbHi on May 4, 2009 - 6:36am

Starter as a percentage of final dough

So far, I've been relying on reading and recipies (more or less) to slog my way through the sourdough learning curve. But, here's a question I don't remember seeing addressed.

When building a bread recipe, is there a rule of thumb for how much of the flour is from the starter vs. added later? For example, if my hydration calculations show I want 18 oz. of flour, should I make a starter with 6 oz. of flour and add 12 oz. (1/3 - 2/3) in the final dough? Is this affected by the hydration of the starter? (For example, if you use a wetter starter, use a higher percentage of starter to dough?) What effects should I expect by varying that ratio towards more starter or less starter?

ClimbHi
Pittsburgh, PA

8 comments

Submitted by UnConundrum on December 23, 2007 - 8:18am

Boiled potatoes and baker's percentage

I'm working on a recipe I used years ago for a potato bread. This time around, I want to record the recipe and make it easy to adjust the number of loaves. My problem is that I'm not sure what to do with the considerable amount of potatoes that go into the recipe. They have to contribute to the liquid in the recipe, and the flour... Does anyone have an idea how to split the weight of the potatoes?