The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Half recipe...

macette's picture
macette

Half recipe...

Can I cut a bread recipe in half or is it more complicated....

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Half is easy. Divide every ingredient by 2. It's when you want different fractions where it gets more complicated. I'll send you a formula for that when I have more time.

macette's picture
macette

Thank you, that's great to know. I was worried it was based more on percentages. Wanted to try a smaller raisin bread recipe. So I will give it a go...

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

But as long as you multiply (to increase the amount you wish to make) or divide (to decrease the amount you wish to make) every ingredient by the same number the percentages stay the same. But whatever you do the percentages of each ingredient should not be altered.

Now this is easy if you wish to make half as much or double. Or any whole number for that matter. x3 to triple, /3 for a third etc. As long as you do this for all the ingredients and x or / each one by the same number the percentages will not change.

It gets slightly more complicated if a recipe makes, for example, a 750g loaf and you want a 912g loaf. It's not a case of simply doubling or halving. But here is a very easy formula to work it out...

Divide the weight you want by the old weight (to 4 decimal points on the calculator) then whatever answer you get multiply each ingredient by that number.

For example...

500g flour

350g water

10g salt

5g dried yeast

Total weight = 865g

 

But let's say you want an 800g loaf. So do the following...

800 / 865 = 0.9249

Now you multiply each ingredient by 0.9249 (and round to the nearest whole number) as follows...

 

500 x 0.9249 = 462.45 : 462g flour

350 x 0.9249 = 323.72 : 324g water

10 x 0.9249 = 9.249 : 9.2g salt

5 x 0.9249 = 4.6245 : 4.6g dried yeast

Try and get more accurate (at least to 1 decimal place) for salt and yeast. In our example the recipe has only been altered by 65g and because the salt and dried yeast are a small percentage they haven't changed much. You won't notice too much of a difference unless you change the weight by a more significant amount.

So your total is 799.8g (near enough) and every thing is in the correct percentage.

macette's picture
macette

Thank you Lechem, I have saved this info for future reference. I see maths figures quite heavily in baking...lol... pity it's probably my worst subject. But I will learn as I go along...

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

If you are making smaller loaves (as opposed to fewer loaves), don't forget that you might have to change the baking time.

macette's picture
macette

Was wanting to change  500g flour to half 250g raisin and cinnamon loaf. The one I tried didn't work but it was a big loaf. Thought I would cut in half for smaller loaf. I know they take a bit longer than a white loaf so maybe test temp. at about 40 min. .?