Bakers Percent Re-imagined

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It has been a while since I had my initial thoughts dealing with Bakers Percent and all that goes with it. Knowing that spreadsheets & baking are made for each other was one thing, however, figuring out the slightly complicated initial & overall Baker’s Percent did seem discouraging at first. Getting it onto a spreadsheet, even more so.

So, I asked myself an initial question? What if Bakers Percent was Re-Imagined so that it didn’t mean dividing the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the flour & then multiplying the resulting decimal form by 100 to convert it to a percentage?

Answer..... Enter only the weight of ingredients & allow a spreadsheet to self-calculate all the percentages involved.

To do that I’ll have to sort out a Detailed, Fully Formulated, Formatted, Self-Calculating Weight-To-Percentage Spreadsheet, taking into account.

  • Ingredients, Formulas, Conversions, Entering & Extracting Data. Above all, what it looked like and how easy it would be to use.

Considering each the list seems endless, given the detail that is required to get the best from the spreadsheet it will need to include;

  • Separate sections for Soakers, Sourdough/Levain, Preferments (Pâte Fermentée, Biga, Poolish, Sponge, etc.). Main recipe with a variety of flours, wet & dry additions.
  • Formulas to calculate each ingredient's weight displayed as a percentage. A way of maintaining percentages throughout when increasing or decreasing Total Dough Weight. 
  • Conversions to save searching for; Yeast, Temperatures, Customary to Metric, Volumes, Bakeware, Recipe Ratios, Ingredient Water Content, Distribution ratios.
  • Adding details, real times, rating, extra notes, methods, links, 
  • Viewing multiple recipes on one sheet, to add new, update old & compare numerous simultaneously. 
  • Selecting rather than typing. preload drop-downs for recipes, bakers and bakeware. A-Z sorting of additional entries beyond preloads.
  • Use a tablet, pad, phone or printed paper layouts for method, workflow times & temperatures. Hydrations a gaggle of other info with non-essentials filtered
  • Formatting, fonts, cells, display and anything else that comes to mind  

This may take some time!!

Toast

I apologize I looked at your blog posts but am still confused about how it is different from bakers percent, and what motivates its use and it’s benefits. 

I am looking forward to downloading and examining your spread sheet. I have made several in the past for my own and favourite recipes, and for adapting oven recipes for bread machine us. But nothing quite as complicated as yours seems to be. I admire your attention to detail. Assuming it’s not locked, will it be designed for users to add their own recipes?

Hello Ian,

The sheet has multiple self-sorting formulae built in. Users can use the preloaded lists or add their own recipe & baker names directly to the recipe builder section. Alternatively, the preloaded list can also be altered to add/remove names as necessary. Either way, the sheet will re-sort/update the drop-downs in alphabetical order.
It’s not downloadable at the moment, when released it will be locked to protect formulas & active filters, with end-user input to modify/update most other areas, (Hide/show columns/rows, preloaded lists, ingredient headings, conversions factors/measures etc.).

Rafe