BakerybenchProduction
Flatbread Formula in Baker's Percent: A Wet Dough That Stands 16 Hours
This flatbread is made from a wet, lightly leavened dough that stands for a long time and is baked very hot and very fast. The home recipe lists a starter inside the dough. For production you need one overall formula, so this page adds everything together and shows the maths.
The formula
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Per 500 g flour |
|---|---|---|
| Flour, total | 100 % | 500 g |
| Water, total | 80.8 % | 404 g |
| Salt | 1.9 % | 9.5 g |
| Fresh yeast | 0.2 % | 1 g |
| Sugar | 1.9 % | 9.5 g |
| Total | 184.8 % | 924 g |
The overall formula adds the starter to the main dough. The flour is 500 g of wheat flour (type 550) plus about 20 g from the starter, 520 g in total. Water is 420 g, salt 10 g, sugar 10 g and fresh yeast 1 g, a dough of 961 g. Hydration is water ÷ flour × 100 = 420 ÷ 520 = 80.8 %.
Scaled to bakery batches
| Ingredient | 1 kg flour | 10 kg flour | 25 kg flour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flour, total | 1,000 g | 10,000 g | 25,000 g |
| Water, total | 808 g | 8,080 g | 20,200 g |
| Salt | 19 g | 190 g | 475 g |
| Fresh yeast | 2 g | 20 g | 50 g |
| Sugar | 19 g | 190 g | 475 g |
| Dough | 1,848 g | 18,480 g | 46,200 g |
How the numbers are calculated
- Add the percentages. 100 + 80.8 + 1.9 + 0.2 + 1.9 = 184.8 %. Total dough weight is always flour weight × 1.848.
- From the dough you want to the flour you need. Flour = dough weight ÷ 1.848. For 16 flatbreads of 120 g you need 1,920 g of dough, so 1,920 ÷ 1.848 = 1,039 g of flour.
- From the flour to each ingredient. Ingredient = flour × percent ÷ 100. With 1,039 g of flour: water 840 g, salt 20 g, fresh yeast 2 g, sugar 20 g.
- Pieces from a batch. 10 kg of flour makes 18,480 g of dough. At 120 g per piece that is 154 pieces.
You can do the same with the baker's percentage calculator: enter the percentages above and tick flour and liquid.
Decoration
Decoration is part of the formula. The recipe is only complete with the topping and the finish, so both belong in the recipe and in the costing. They are not part of the dough weight or the baker's percent above, and in many bakeries they are forgotten in the costing.
- Pressing: the dough pieces are pressed flat and given a pattern on top. Diamonds, squares or any other pattern will do, and every bakery has its own.
- Spraying: after pressing, the pieces are sprayed, which also helps the seeds stick.
- Seeds: the classic topping is sesame. Black cumin (nigella) and other seeds are common too, depending on what the customer wants.
- Oil: the flatbread can also be brushed or sprayed with oil.
- Amount: the topping is lighter and less covering than on rolls, and usually a little less is applied. There is no fixed figure. It differs from bakery to bakery, so weigh what you use per tray and put it into the costing.
In the bakery
- Dough temperature and mixing: a dough temperature of 22 °C, as for rolls, set with the mixing water, with ice in place of some water if the water is too warm. Use only crushed, slightly crumbly flake ice, never hard ice, which damages the dough structure and the gluten network. In a Diosna mixer, 2 minutes slow and 8 minutes fast, or 2 and 6, depending on the machine and the flour.
- Stand time: the dough stands for about 16 hours before it is divided, and it stands in the cooler. At room temperature a dough this wet would over-ferment in that time and could not be used.
- Proof: after shaping, the pieces get only a very short proof, at most 10 minutes. Check it on every batch.
- Baking: bake as hot as possible, at about 290 °C, for only 5 to 10 minutes, with very strong steam (the highest setting on the steamer). Steam routine: give steam in the first minute, then pull the draft and let the steam escape. The rest of the baking time runs without steam. This applies to rolls and breads alike.
- Piece weight and baking loss: a dough piece of about 120 g. The baking loss is 15 to 17 %, closer to 17 %, so a 120 g piece comes out at about 100 g.
- Cooling: let the flatbreads cool a little before you handle or pack them. The starch network is not yet stable while the crumb is hot.
Things to watch
- Weigh salt and yeast on a scale with a suitable resolution, especially for small batches. Only 1 g of fresh yeast goes into 500 g of flour in the home recipe, so weigh it carefully. The home recipe calls it optional.
- The sourdough starter contains flour and water too. This page assumes a starter with 100 % hydration (equal parts flour and water) and counts its flour and water in the totals: 40 g of starter adds 20 g of flour and 20 g of water.
- Olive oil, sesame seeds and black cumin go on the pieces before baking and are not part of the dough formula.
- Most common faults in the bakery: too much water added; dough mixed too warm; proof too long, so the pieces over-proof, or too short; oven not turned up, so the flatbreads bake too cold; baked too long; flatbreads burnt.