Who knew that baking requires advanced math? Learning the percentages used by professional bakers may seem a bit intimidating, but it will help you bring your bread to perfection and help you learn how to successfully improvise in the kitchen. Here’s a simple guide.
Experienced bakers like to use percentages to track ingredient ratios. This allows them to easily determine what kind of bread they will get. Different ingredient rations create different breads, from crusty loaves to French baguettes, and some recipes are just completely wrong. The bakers know this simply by looking at the ingredients.
Every recipe starts with 100% of flour. Other ingredients are expressed in percentages too, by comparing their weight to the weight of the flour. Don’t be confused that the end result is larger than 100%; this is because the percentage of all the ingredients is added together.
This is an easy way to adjust the number of baked goods you’re making. You can compare the recipes and make completely new ones if you want to experiment. It’s definitely not necessary to learn this skill if you’re just a casual amateur baker, but it can be fun and allow you to become a pro if you do!
