ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Baker percentage

Imagine you want to make a cake. To make a cake, you need to mix different ingredients together like flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and milk. But you cannot just add any amount of each ingredient, you need to add them in the right proportion. This is where the baker's percentage comes in.

Baker's percentage is a way of measuring the amount of each ingredient in the recipe based on the weight of the flour. Most recipes use flour as the base ingredient and the weight of the flour is always considered as 100%. Then, each ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, which means how much of each ingredient is needed per 100 grams of flour.

For instance, if the recipe asks for 500 grams of flour, and the baker's percentage calls for 50% water, then you need to add 250 grams of water. Similarly, if the recipe calls for 10% sugar, then you need to add 50 grams of sugar. And if it calls for 5% butter, add 25 grams of butter.

By using the baker's percentage, you can easily adjust the recipe to make smaller or larger cakes. It also helps bakers and chefs to ensure consistency in their recipes, because ingredients are measured by weight and not by volume, which can vary from scoop to scoop.

So next time you bake a cake, don't forget to use the baker's percentage to mix your ingredients in the right proportions.