April 1, 2015 - 12:01pm
Thoroughly confused about baker %, does it include levain?
So,
I always thought bakers percentages are ratios of ingredients measured again total flour in a dough. So, for example:
- 200 grams 100% hydration levain
- plus 600 grams of flour
- equals 700 grams of total flour (600 + 100 from levain)
- Which would mean 14 grams of salt would be 2% in bakers percentage
But now I'm reading Tartine and on page 48 it says:
- Water 750 grams = 75%
- Leaven 200 grams = 20%
- Total flour 1000 grams = 100%
- white flour 900 grams = 90%
- whole wheat flour 100 grams = 10%
- salt 20 grams = 2%
Just to be sure that the total flour doesn't include the flour from the leaven: later in the recipe he says, take the leaven, mix it with water, then add 900 grams of white and 100 grams of whole wheat flour.
In my calculations 2% of the above would be 2% of 900 (white) + 100 (ww) + 100 (from levain) = 2% of 1100 = 22.
So, what am I missing, or... simpler: do you account for levain flour in the baker's percentage?
thanks a bunch,
alef
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For example Tartine completely separates the levain and the final dough as two entities which based on baker's % is confusing. The more common way is what you have described. Then it can broken down to it's parts in the same manner. It's really just perspective but I prefer to see the full breakdown and then the parts separately.
So the answer is yes universally the formula is based on the whole. But you'll certainly find variations like Tartine's. All in the eye of the beholder as long as they understand what they are doing.
Josh
I was spinning my wheels on this in my blog post just yesterday!
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42168/keeping-it-simple
I am personally drawn to the idea of including the water and flour of the leaven in the final formula, rather than treating the leaven as a separate ingredient. But I also agree with Josh that it is relatively easy to sort out if the baker has internal consistency in the formula-creation!
Ah, your blog entry is timely ;-).
Wonderful breads by the way! I wish I was that advanced in scoring and such!!
Simple loaves, but challenging questions about calculations. Dabrownman will surely weigh in soon; he is a great resource.
If the levain is a large %age of the dough, I count it, because it's making a large contribution to the final amounts. If it's a smaller %age, it doesn't really matter. The hydration of your above formula is 77% if you include the levain.
hester
hugely successful books (tartine) are going to do everything in their power to make something pretty complex into something that is consistently doable at home. And for them and most other baking books, if that means cutting out the confusion of converting your levain into percentages of the final dough then so be it.
But I think as far as actual ratios goes you are missing something if you treat extra flour and water as single ingredient.
the supposed standard established by the BBGA and is part of the problem when he isn't making great bread anyway:-)
Like Josh says - hopefully others will take the hint to clear things up even though Chad didn't
Happy Baking in percents the right way if there is such a thing anymore!
It certainly can be confusing to beginners when you see recipes written differently. I too am part of the group that likes to includes the flour and water of the starter in the backers percentage calculations. I don't think the true hydration of a dough can be calculated without it.
Whats even worse is when an author of a recipe only gives you the amount of starter to add and neglects to tell you the hydration of the starter they use. If you're lucky they include pictures of the starter so you can at least guess at the hydration.
Well, one thing is at least clear: I'm not the only one who is or was confused :-). Thanks all for answering!
Oh, even though he's confusing about precentages, I have to thank Chad for bringing me back to hand mixing. Sooo much better...