When making a single loaf using 200 to 250g of flour, based on a recipe that call for larger amounts (mine call for either 430g or 500g; or else 1,000g to divided into two 500g loaves), can you simply scale down all the ingredients proportionally and leave everything in the procedure the same, such as rising time and oven temperature? Or is there something inherent in small loaves that requires changes in the procedure? In other words, maybe there are rules of thumb that say smaller loaves normally require (these are just made-up examples) more water, or lower oven temperature, or something like that. Or at least for most standard breads if not for every conceivable specialty recipe.
Yes I believe you can scale down proportionally. It all comes down to bakers percentages. If you scale down proportionally your flour to other Ingredients ratio will remain the same.
In general, the ratio of ingredients stays exactly the same. Some timings may change - if you are making one loaf of 250 grams,that will bake quicker than a loaf of twice that size. Likewise, if the dough heats up during kneading, it will take longer for it to cool down if it has more mass.
Roof, do you have Excel software and have you worked with it?
I can send you a spreadsheet that will auto-calculate everything for you.
OR... you can calculate manually...
Example original formula (recipe) calls for a Total Dough Weight of 1000 grams, but you only want to bake 300 grams.
By-the-way; it works exactly the same if you want to increase the dough weight. It’s that simple if your formula is written in Baker’s Percentages.
Some things are scale-dependent - barry mentioned temperature and cooling/heating times above. I often make just one 400g (flour weight) loaf, and in winter I avoid techniques which place the dough in contact with the worktop because that sucks the warmth out of it (my kitchen temperature can be as low as 16C). Another one (if you are following methods slavishly) is kneading or folding techniques. Things like coil folds work and feel different with small amounts of dough because the area to volume (and so weight) ratio is different. Gravity alone will give a large mass of dough a good stretch, whereas with a small amount it won't do so much. On the other hand, the stiction between dough and container is related to surface area, as is the strength of the dough, so that will provide something to pull against.
But like Dan said, if you are scaling a recipe a spreadsheet is your friend.