Sourdough Baking Calculator
A sourdough baking calculator builds a complete sourdough bread formula from 4 inputs: your target dough weight, hydration, salt percentage, and starter amount. The calculator converts those settings into exact flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter weights in grams, folds the starter's own flour and water into the totals, and works as an all-in-one sourdough calculator for loaves, pizza dough, and pan bread. Paired with our full suite of baking calculators, this provides free sourdough bread hydration math, scaled to any batch size, in one screen.
Accuracy & Repeatability
A bread hydration calculator with baker's percentage support keeps every dough consistent — the same formula bakes one loaf or six with identical sourdough hydration levels.
Zero Double-Counting
Eliminates the arithmetic mistakes that ruin dough: starter water double-counting, whole grain absorption offsets, and manual batch scaling errors.
Complete Recipe Math
A digital kitchen scale plus this calculator covers the entire math of sourdough bread making, from Dutch oven boules to high-heat pizza crusts.
🌾 Primary Uses in Sourdough Bread Making
The main uses are building a first sourdough recipe from a target dough weight, adjusting hydration for a new flour blend, scaling a proven formula to a different banneton or loaf count, and planning the schedule around bulk fermentation and proofing windows. Bakers following Chad Robertson's Tartine method or the guides on The Perfect Loaf and Breadtopia use the same math this calculator automates.
The 4 Main Parts of the Calculator
Sourdough SystemUnderstanding Baker's Percentage
Baker's percentage states every ingredient weight as a percentage of the total flour weight, with flour fixed at 100%. A dough with 1000 g of flour (35.3 oz) and 750 g of water sits at 75% hydration; salt at 20 g sits at 2%; a 200 g levain sits at 20%. Three rules govern the system:
1. Flour Is Always 100%
A flour blend of 900 g white flour plus 100 g whole wheat still totals 100% — printed as 90% white, 10% whole grain. Every other ingredient divides against that 1000 g sum.
2. Weights Drive the Math
A cup of flour swings ±20% by weight; 1000 g is 1000 g every time. Sourdough baking runs strictly on a digital scale rather than measuring cups.
3. The Starter Counts
A 100% hydration starter contributes half its weight in flour and half in water, so the calculator adds those back before it prints the true sourdough hydration.
The percentage view is what makes two recipes comparable at a glance: 78% hydration with 2% salt and 20% levain describes a dough completely, at any batch size. King Arthur Baking publishes the same style of formula tables, and every serious baking guide speaks this notation; calculate custom flour proportions with our baker's percentage calculator.
Bread & Pizza Dough Hydration Guide
Dough hydration is water weight divided by flour weight, and the number predicts how the dough behaves. This bread & pizza dough hydration guide splits the range into 5 bands:
| Hydration Band | Dough Feel & Handling | Typical Bakes |
|---|---|---|
| 50–58% | Stiff, dense, barely tacky | Bagels, pretzels, laminated pasta dough |
| 58–65% | Firm, smooth, easy to knead | Sandwich bread, everyday pan loaves, Neapolitan pizza |
| 65–75% | Slightly tacky, holds shape well | Batards, boules, beginner sourdough, artisan loaves |
| 75–82% | Wet, stretchy, requires coil folds | Open-crumb artisan sourdough, Tartine loaves, focaccia |
| 82%+ | Slack, soft, batter-adjacent | Rustic ciabatta, pan de cristal, high-hydration country bread |
Whole grain flour absorbs 3–5 percentage points more water than white flour, so a 20% whole wheat dough wants its hydration raised accordingly to prevent stiffness.
Strong gluten development — through autolyse, stretch and folds during bulk fermentation, or long cold proofing — is what makes high hydration manageable; the water is only as workable as the gluten holding it.
Preferments Explained: Poolish, Biga & Sourdough Starter
A preferment is a portion of dough fermented before the final mix. Preferments build flavor and strength with a fraction of the flour, and the 3 classic types differ in hydration and culture:
Poolish
100% (1:1 water:flour)- • Culture: Pinch of commercial yeast
- • Ripening: 12–16 hours at cool room temp
- • Ripeness Signs: Frothy bubbles, domed top beginning to recede
Biga
50–60% (stiff dough)- • Culture: Small amount of yeast
- • Ripening: 12–18 hours at cool temp
- • Ripeness Signs: Puffy, fibrous gluten matrix with sweet aroma
Sourdough Starter (Levain)
Typically 100% (varies)- • Culture: Wild yeast & lactic acid bacteria
- • Ripening: 4–8 hours build at 78 °F (26 °C)
- • Ripeness Signs: Doubled/tripled in volume, domed, aerated
A preferment usually holds 10–20% of the total flour. In baker's percentage, a formula with 20% preferment still totals 100% flour: the preferment's flour counts inside the 100%, and the calculator tracks it in the pre-ferment flour weight line so nothing is double-counted.
Hidden Water in Enriched Dough Ingredients
Enriched dough carries water the recipe never lists as water, and the calculator counts it. Every ingredient below contributes its share:
| Enriched Ingredient | Approximate Water Content | Water Contribution in 100 g (3.5 oz) |
|---|---|---|
| Whole egg | ~75% | 75 g |
| Egg white | ~88% | 88 g |
| Egg yolk | ~50% | 50 g |
| Whole milk | ~87% | 87 g |
| Butter | ~16% | 16 g |
| Honey | ~17% | 17 g |
| Maple syrup | ~34% | 34 g |
| Oil | 0% | 0 g |
The Brioche Effect: Hidden Hydration in Practice
Brioche is the standard example: 30% butter and 25% egg look like a modest 55% hydration on paper, but the hidden water pushes effective hydration near 65–70%. A sourdough baking calculator with enriched-dough support adds those contributions before printing the true hydration, which is why two brioches with identical listed water can feel completely different.
Treat milk as water plus solids: 87 g of every 100 g of milk is water, and the remaining 13 g is milk solids that brown faster and soften the crumb.
Popular Dough Types & Target Hydration
There are 3 popular dough types with well-established target hydration numbers: Neapolitan pizza dough at 62%, rustic ciabatta at 80%, and New York style bagels at 55%. Each target exists for a reason, and each dough punishes drift from it:
🍕 Neapolitan Pizza Dough (62% Hydration)
62% TargetNeapolitan pizza dough runs 62% hydration with 00 flour, 2–3% salt, and either a pinch of yeast or a small preferment. The stiff-ish dough opens by hand without a rolling pin, and 62% keeps the center thin while the cornicione puffs in a 60–90 second bake at 850–900 °F (450–480 °C) on a baking stone or steel.
🥖 Rustic Ciabatta (80% Hydration)
80% TargetRustic ciabatta runs 80% hydration, usually with a poolish at 20% of the flour. The dough is slack and sticky — it moves with a dough scraper, never by hand-kneading, and develops through 3–4 sets of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation.
🥯 New York Style Bagel (55% Hydration)
55% TargetNew York style bagels run 55% hydration — stiff enough to need a heavy-duty mixer or serious hand strength. The tight dough is what gives a bagel its dense, chewy bite; a wet bagel dough boils into a cloud.
How Many Grams in a Cup? — Baking Conversion Chart
Weighing beats scooping, but recipes still arrive in cups. This cups to grams conversion chart covers the common sourdough ingredients:
| Ingredient | 1 cup | 1 tablespoon | 1 teaspoon |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 120 g | 8 g | — |
| Bread flour | 121 g | 8 g | — |
| Whole wheat flour | 120 g | 8 g | — |
| Water | 237 g | 15 g | 5 g |
| Milk | 240 g | 15 g | 5 g |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 12.5 g | 4 g |
| Fine sea salt | 273 g | 17 g | 6 g |
| Butter | 227 g | 14 g | — |
Baking Guides — Bread, Pizza & Sourdough
The baking guides below pair with the calculator. Each chart holds the foundational numbers the calculator runs on:
Baker's Percentage Chart
| Ingredient | Standard range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | Always the baseline reference |
| Water | 65–80% | Determined by target dough style |
| Salt | 1.8–2.2% | 2.0% is the universal culinary default |
| Levain / Starter | 10–20% | Expressed as percentage of total flour |
| Instant yeast (commercial) | 0.3–1.0% | Adjusted by target fermentation speed |
Sourdough Hydration Chart
| Hydration | Starter texture | Dough result |
|---|---|---|
| 60–65% | Stiff starter | Dense, tight, sliceable sandwich crumb |
| 68–72% | Standard 100% | Reliable beginner range; holds boule shape |
| 75–78% | Soft 100% | Open artisan crumb, Tartine-style alveoli |
| 80%+ | Liquid 100% | Very open, wild holes; needs folding technique |
Poolish vs Biga vs Levain
| Attribute | Poolish | Biga | Levain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Culture | Commercial yeast | Commercial yeast | Wild starter culture |
| Hydration | 100% | 50–60% | Varies (100% is common) |
| Ripening Time | 12–16 h | 12–18 h | 4–8 h build |
| Flavor Profile | Mild, sweet, creamy | Nutty, deep, sweet | Tangy, complex, fruity |
| Best For | Baguettes, wet doughs | Pizza, firm breads | Sourdough country loaves |
Choose a dough recipe
Start from a preset instead of a blank screen. The calculator ships with 6 built-in recipes: classic sourdough country loaf (75%), Neapolitan pizza dough (62%), rustic ciabatta with poolish (80%), New York bagel (55%), focaccia (80%), and everyday sandwich bread (68%). Pick a recipe, set your target dough weight, and the ingredient table fills in. Edit any percentage to make it yours — the weights recalculate instantly.
🎯 Your First Sourdough Loaf: The 900g Master Formula
A first sourdough loaf wants the country loaf preset at 900 g (2 lb), baked in a cast-iron Dutch oven: 20 minutes covered at 500 °F (260 °C), then 20–25 minutes uncovered at 450 °F (230 °C), and rested for 12 hours before slicing.
Score with a sharp baker's lame at a shallow 30-degree angle just before loading to create an ear, and reach for a digital thermometer (aim for 205–210 °F) if you want certainty over crust color.
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Explore Related Bread & Baking Calculators
Companion tools finish the artisan workflow:
Baker's Percentage Calculator
Calculate professional flour-based percentages and true ingredient ratios.
Bread Baking Calculator
Scale loaf quantities, piece scaling weights, and proofing schedules.
Batch Scaling Calculator
Scale recipes by multipliers or servings with fractional egg handling.
Baking Conversion Calculator
Convert whole recipe lists between volume cups and precision grams.
Baking Time & Temp Calculator
Adjust bake times and Dutch oven temperatures for larger or smaller loaves.
Oil to Butter Calculator
Calculate exact fat substitutions for brioche and enriched sandwich doughs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I bake sourdough bread?
Bake sourdough bread for 20 minutes covered at 450–500 °F (230–260 °C) in a preheated cast iron Dutch oven with the lid on, then 20–25 minutes uncovered at 450 °F (230 °C) — roughly 40–45 minutes total for a standard 900 g (2 lb) loaf. The loaf is fully baked when the internal crumb temperature registers 205–210 °F (96–99 °C) on a digital probe thermometer.
How much should sourdough rise before baking?
Let the dough rise 50% to 75% in bulk fermentation — not a full doubling — then shape and proof the loaf until it passes the poke test: a gentle fingertip dent springs back slowly and leaves a faint residual indentation. Over-proofed dough spreads flat and tears; under-proofed dough bursts erratically along un-scored seams.
My starter doubles but my bread comes out dense. Why?
Bulk fermentation finished too early. Watch the physical signs of the dough rather than the clock: at 78 °F (26 °C), bulk fermentation runs 4 to 6 hours with a 20% levain, but significantly longer in a cooler kitchen. Look for a domed top surface, jiggly aerated texture, rounded edges, and visible bubble clusters along the clear container walls.
Why is my sourdough crumb gummy?
The loaf was either slightly underbaked or sliced while still warm. Starch retrogradation continues as the bread cools. Bake to an internal temperature of 207 °F (97 °C), and always rest the loaf on an elevated wire cooling rack for at least 4 to 12 hours before cutting — cutting into a steaming loaf causes moisture to turn the gelatinized starches into a gummy paste.
Why does my sourdough spread out flat in the oven?
Either dough hydration exceeded the gluten absorption capacity of your flour, or the final proof went too long. Drop hydration by 3 percentage points, shape the boule or batard with firmer surface skin tension, and shorten the final room-temperature proof by 30 minutes (or retard in the refrigerator at 38 °F / 3 °C overnight).
Why does my sourdough crust go soft after cooling?
Residual moisture remained trapped inside the crumb and migrated outwards through the crust. Cool the baked loaf on an open wire rack for a minimum of 4 hours in an airy room. Store the cut loaf cut-side down on a wooden cutting board or in a breathable paper bag, rather than sealing it inside an airtight plastic container.
When do I add salt — and can I autolyse with it?
Add salt after the autolyse stage. Autolyse the flour and water alone for 30 to 60 minutes, then mix in the ripe levain and salt. Salt tightens gluten strands and exerts an osmotic braking effect on wild yeast; keeping it out of the initial autolyse allows enzymatic proteolysis and hydration to open up the gluten network first.
How does sourdough starter affect overall dough hydration?
A 100% hydration sourdough starter consists of equal weights of flour and water (50% flour, 50% water). If you add 100 grams of starter, you are adding 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. True overall hydration must calculate: (Recipe Water + Starter Water) ÷ (Recipe Flour + Starter Flour). Failing to account for starter hydration results in doughs wetter than intended.
What is the conversion ratio between instant, active dry, and fresh yeast?
The universal commercial yeast conversion ratio is 1 : 1.25 : 3. Specifically, 1 gram of instant yeast equals 1.25 grams of active dry yeast or 3.0 grams of fresh compressed cake yeast. A standard 7-gram packet of instant yeast equals 8.75 grams of active dry yeast or 21 grams of fresh cake yeast.
How does sourdough starter percentage influence bulk fermentation time?
Starter inoculate controls fermentation rate: a lower percentage (10% to 15%) ferments slowly over 6 to 9 hours, building complex organic acids and flavor; a higher percentage (20% to 25%) ferments quickly in 3 to 5 hours at 78 °F (26 °C), requiring vigilant monitoring to prevent over-proofing and structural collapse.
What is the ideal hydration for a beginner sourdough baker?
Beginners should start with 68% to 70% hydration. At this moisture level, the dough holds its shape during shaping, resists tearing, and scores cleanly. As your gluten-handling and coil-folding techniques improve, you can advance to 75%–82% hydration for open honeycomb crumb structures.
Citations & Culinary References
- Robertson, Tartine Bread: Basic Country Loaf & Levain Hydration — Chad Robertson / Chronicle Books (Methodology for 100% hydration liquid levain and true dough moisture calculations.)
- Hamelman, Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes — Jeffrey Hamelman / John Wiley & Sons (Artisan preferment formulas, poolish/biga comparisons, and bulk fermentation dynamics.)
- Lesaffre Yeast Corporation: Industrial Yeast Conversion Tables — Lesaffre Group (Reference laboratory conversion ratios: Instant Dry Yeast (IDY), Active Dry Yeast (ADY), and Compressed Cake Yeast.)
- USDA FoodData Central: Moisture & Lipid Composition of Dairy and Eggs — USDA Agricultural Research Service (Analytical water content figures for whole eggs, egg whites, yolks, milk, and butter.)