Baker’s Percent—BP%

Bakers have a unique understanding of the concept of percentages. We rarely consider the ratio between a single ingredient, like Sugar, and the weight of an entire batch of dough.

Nutritionists need to calculate these individual ratios for ingredient panels on packaged foods. Product developers need to think this way too because each ingredient changes production cost.

Bakers consider only the weight of the sugar compared to the weight of flour in the formula. Say a formula calls for one hundred pounds of flour. If it’s a formula for a soft dough like Burger Buns, it has on average five pounds of sugar. Dividing 5 by 100, the Baker’s Percent of Sugar in the formula is 5%. Sugar, divided by Flour.