SELECTION OF INGREDIENTS

In addition to measuring, there is another basic rule of accuracy in the bakeshop: Use the exact ingredients specified.

As you will learn,different flours,shortenings,and other ingredients do not function alike. Bakers’ formulas are balanced for specific ingredients.For example,do not substitute bread flour for pastry flour or regular shortening for emulsified shortening.They won’t work the same way.

Occasionally, a substitution may be made, such as active dry yeast for compressed yeast, but not without adjusting the quantities and rebalancing the formula.

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BAKER ’S PERCENTAGES

Bakers use a simple but versatile system of percentages for expressing their formulas.Baker’s percentages express the amount of each ingredient used as a percentage of the amount of flour used.

To put it differently, the percentage of each ingredient is its total weight divided by the weight of the flour, multiplied by 100%, or:

total weight of ingredient

100% = % of ingredient
total weight of flour


Thus, flour is always 100%. If two kinds of flour are used, their total is 100%. Any ingredient that weighs the same as the amount of flour used is also given as 100%.The cake formula ingredients listed on page 11 illustrate how these percentages are used.Check the figures with the above equation to make sure you understand them.

Please remember that these numbers do not refer to the percentage of the total yield.They are simply a way of expressing ingredient proportions. The total yield of these percentage numbers will always be greater than 100%.
The advantages of using baker’s percentages is that the formula is easily adapted  for  any  yield, and  single  ingredients  may  be  varied  and  other ingredients added without changing the whole formulation. For example, you can add raisins to a muffin mix formula while keeping the percentages of all the other ingredients the same.

Clearly,a percentage system based on the weight of flour can be used only when flour is a major ingredient,as in breads,cakes,and cookies.However,this principle can be used in other formulas as well by selecting a major ingredient and establishing it as 100%.

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Formulas and Measurement

Bakers generally talk about formulas rather than recipes. If this sounds to you more like a chemistry lab than a food production facility, it is with good reason. The bakeshop is very much like a chemistry laboratory, both in the scientific accuracy of the procedures and in the complex reactions that take place during mixing and baking.

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