Baker's Percentages?

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CWS4322

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Long story short, I stepped on a nail Monday night while feeding the woodstove. So, yesterday I spent the day on the couch reading cookbooks. I have a copy of Professional Cooking. Since it is baking season, I thought I'd check out Chapter 24. In this chapter, baker's percentages are explained. Wondering if anyone has converted "home" recipes to baker's percentages.

I have all the ingredients to make my grandma's brown sugar shortbread cookies. I thought I'd weigh all the ingredients and make her recipe according to baker's percentages and another batch the conventional way and see which I like better. I'd love to have a discussion on baker's percentages and how to use those for home baking.

(Baking is a much more interesting pursuit than painting--I hate painting and it takes me forever to get one room painted--one down, four to go).
 
Nail, ouch! Recent Tetanus I assume?

I've only used percentages when I worked in a commercial bakery as all our recipes (formulas) were set up at such. I have to admit I love working this way. So, I don't have a straight comparison.
 
I make my bread and pizza dough with formulas. Generally speaking, if I use a "baking" ingredient I weigh it, even if I am not baking.

About the only exception is when I am dusting things for frying, then I just dump a scoop of flour in a big zip lock bag.
 
I make my bread and pizza dough with formulas. Generally speaking, if I use a "baking" ingredient I weigh it, even if I am not baking.

About the only exception is when I am dusting things for frying, then I just dump a scoop of flour in a big zip lock bag.

That is certainly a good idea, but how do you get the weights in the first place. I would love to be able to use weights for bread machine in particular, so that I don't have to make any adjustments as if does the first mix. However, virtually all of my machine cookbooks use volume measurements, so converting them can be a bit of estimation, putting me right back where I started.

Flour in particular - weight changes according to how well packed it is, and even how humid it is. Trying to convert 1 cup into a finite weight that works every time seems little different than trying measure a spoonful of fog.
 
...Flour in particular - weight changes according to how well packed it is, and even how humid it is...

Look at the nutrition label on the flour bag. It will tell you the serving size in cups and grams. That provides the info you need to convert. e.g. 1/4 cup = 30 grams.
 
If you have a recipe from a reliable source, wouldn't you assume that percentages had been applied to create the measurements in the ingredient list?
 
Nail, ouch! Recent Tetanus I assume?

I've only used percentages when I worked in a commercial bakery as all our recipes (formulas) were set up at such. I have to admit I love working this way. So, I don't have a straight comparison.
2008 re: tetanus shot. Checking for infection and taking my temp. Blah. I have a dr apt tomorrow--I'm still in the 72-hour zone then. I am also getting a 'script for a shingles vaccine.

I "think" formulas make a lot more sense, just trying to figure out how to adjust the recipes I have to a formula...obviously, I have found a new way to procrastinate not to paint the remaining parts of the house...:LOL:
 
...I "think" formulas make a lot more sense, just trying to figure out how to adjust the recipes I have to a formula...:LOL:

If your starting point is a proven recipe, I don't understand why you need this method at all.
 
I learned about them in culinary school. I think the best application for them is when you need to scale large recipes up or down; it's easier to multiply and divide percentages than try to measure odd fractions of tablespoons or cups like 3/8 or 13/16. But I don't think it's very useful for home baking.
 
Because so many of the recipes I have make a gazillion dozen cookies and I bake for two people, scaling is one of the reasons I'm interested in formulas. The other is to balance the liquid / fat / dry ingredients. How many times has s/one posted that this or that baked good recipe didn't turn out? Too chewy, too soft, etc.?


From what I understand, flour is always 100%. The formula is based on the assumption that 100 lb of flour is needed. To scale it, weight of ingredient over weight of flour x 100 % = % of the ingredient. The advantage is that the formula can be adapted for any yield and single ingredients can be varied without changing the whole formulation. What I find interesting is that 70% of a whole egg is water, so that has to be factored in when figuring out the amount of liquid required in a recipe. And, since the size of the eggs I use is not standard (my "large" eggs are larger than those sold in the store--which my grandma's probably were too which is why sometimes the recipe has 2-3 eggs required), I want to be able to make the adjustment based on percentages.


The fat content in whole milk vs. skim milk has to be factored in when making adjustments for the amount of fat in a recipe. I guess since many of the recipes I bake also were those my grandma baked, I have to assume she used whole milk when making them and I generally have 2% or skim milk in the house, which might explain why they just aren't the same as grandma's, even though I follow her recipes. Although I have TNT recipes, I am looking at trying to figure out how to adjust my grandma's recipes using today's ingredients. I can't see any reason why not to do it for home baking. A lot of the recipes I see here combine imperial and metric measurements (liquid is metric, dry ingredients imperial). I think it would be easier to have everything in percentages.


I haven't quite figured it all out, yet. I have only been "pre-baking." I haven't dragged the stand mixer out or gotten the bread or pastry flour out of the car, yet.
 
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So it might make sense for you, with your exceptional circumstances, but most home cooks using standard ingredients and known recipes wouldn't gain much, imo.

From what I remember, problems with texture are usually associated with the baker's preferences, or a baker substituting ingredients without realizing how much and what kind of a difference it will make, and not necessarily a problem with the recipe.

This is a great article on how different ingredients affect baking results: http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2013/12/the-food-lab-the-best-chocolate-chip-cookies.html
 
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I lent the textbook on Professional Cooking to the young lads. The elder of the two (12) has made French bread, long pie crust, and sponge cake using the percentages in the book. I hope this is something he will remember for all of his life (and his partner will be very happy he learned to cook. I am so proud of him and love him to the moon and back). And, their mom thanked me for letting them be a part of my life...she got that wrong--I am so thankful THEY are a part of MY life.
 
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I read about baker's percentages and it certainly makes sense in a commercial establishment. Much, much easier to hang 14 recipes (or "formulas") in percentages than to hang 140 different recipes up to make different amounts of the same fourteen things.

For me, personally, I have no need for that. It's exactly the same thing, however it is written, so I don't need percentages. If I had to convert it, I could do the math, but no need.

If you want to so that, though, why not?
 
We used baker's percentage to figure out the krumkake recipe using the Girls' eggs. First we weighed the eggs and flour, and worked from there. The krumkake turned out. We also used baker's percentage to make whole wheat pastry flour pie crust and pita bread using rye flour we ground from rye a friend grew. So far, the percentages are working--the boys are also having to hone their math skills.
 
We used baker's percentage to figure out the krumkake recipe using the Girls' eggs. First we weighed the eggs and flour, and worked from there. The krumkake turned out. We also used baker's percentage to make whole wheat pastry flour pie crust and pita bread using rye flour we ground from rye a friend grew. So far, the percentages are working--the boys are also having to hone their math skills.
A lot of very old English recipes dating back to the early days of reasonably priced domestic scales are worded not so much in pounds and ounces but along the lines of " take the weight of 4 eggs in flour, sugar and butter".
 
A lot of very old English recipes dating back to the early days of reasonably priced domestic scales are worded not so much in pounds and ounces but along the lines of " take the weight of 4 eggs in flour, sugar and butter".
That is certainly an excellent way to compensate for non-standard sizes of eggs.

As I understand it a pound cake is called that because it uses a pound of eggs, a pound of sugar, and a pound of flour.
 
That is certainly an excellent way to compensate for non-standard sizes of eggs.

As I understand it a pound cake is called that because it uses a pound of eggs, a pound of sugar, and a pound of flour.

...and a pound of butter.
 
A pound of butter doesn't necessarily weigh a pound...just saying. The Scandinavian recipes for pastries, breads, cakes, and cookies I have are easier to figure out if one weighs the ingredients and goes with percentages.
 
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