How to Scale a Sourdough Bread Recipe (the Easy Way)

Learning how to scale a sourdough bread recipe is essential when prepping a batch of sourdough. It might seem tricky at first, but trust me, it gets so much easier once you understand baker's percentages (also known as baker's math).

If you are new to this, start with this beginner-friendly post on baker's percentages. It will give you a great foundation.

How to scale a sourdough bread recipe

When scaling your recipe, keep the baker's percentages the same. That is your golden rule.

Whether baking one loaf for the weekend or making multiple loaves because you sell sourdough bread, keeping your ratios consistent will give you consistent results every time.

There are two simple ways to scale your sourdough recipe.

Method 1: Multiply each ingredient

This is the easiest method. To make more loaves, multiply the weight of each ingredient in your recipe by the number of loaves you want to make. To scale down, just divide.

Example:

Let's say your original sourdough recipe makes one loaf weighing 960 grams (pre-bake weight), but you want to bake four loaves (totaling 3840 grams of dough).

Ingredient	Weight	Baker's Percentage
Bread flour	500g	100%
Water	350g	70%
Levain/Starter	100g	20%
Salt	10g	2%

To scale up, multiply each ingredient by 4:

Ingredient	Calculated Weight	Baker's Percentage
Bread flour	500g x 4 = 2000g	100%
Water	350g x 4 = 1400g	70%
Levain/Starter	100g x 4 = 400g	20%
Salt	10g x 4 = 40g	2%

Now you've got a formula for four loaves, easy-peasy.

Method 2: Adjust based on total dough weight

This method is a bit more technical, but super handy if you want a specific dough weight. It is a method suggested by Jeffrey Hamelman, author of the book "Bread."

Here is how it works:

1. Start with your base recipe. Figure out the baker's percentage of each ingredient (how much of each ingredient is used in relation to the flour).
2. Add up all the percentages.
3. Decide how much total dough you want to make.
4. Divide the new dough weight by the total percentage. This gives you your conversion factor.
5. Multiply each ingredient's weight by the conversion factor to get the new weights.
6. Tweak the water slightly if needed. Hydration can affect dough texture, so adjust to suit your preferences.
7. Adjust bulk fermentation. Larger batches bulk ferment differently, so keep an eye on your dough.

Example:

You want to make four loaves weighing 840 grams (pre-bake weight) each, which is 3360 grams of dough.

Here is an original recipe:

Ingredient	Weight	Baker's Percentage
Bread flour	500g	100%
Water	350g	70%
Levain/Starter	100g	20%
Salt	10g	2%

Here are the calculations:

• Add up the percentages: 100 + 70 + 20 + 2 = 192%
• Now divide the new dough weight by the total %: 3360 ÷ 192 = 17.5 (conversion factor)
• Multiply each ingredient's weight by 17.5:

Ingredient	Calculated Weight	Baker's Percentage
Bread flour	100 x 17.5 = 1750g	100%
Water	70 x 17.5 = 1225g	70%
Levain/Starter	20 x 17.5 = 350g	20%
Salt	2 x 17.5 = 35g	2%

Your new scaled recipe yields a total of 3360 grams of dough, ready to be shaped into four loaves.

How to add inclusions and modify a bread formula

Now, let's say you want to add some dried fruit or nuts. You can do that, but know that it will increase your total dough weight. If you are using your regular banneton, it might not fit.

Let's use our base recipe again and add 15% inclusions, for example, 7.5% dried cranberries and 7.5% pecans. We will keep the total dough weight at 960 grams.

To do this, the weights of the other ingredients have to go down, but their percentages stay the same.

Your starting recipe (without inclusions):

Ingredient	Weight	Baker's Percentage
Bread flour	500g	100%
Water	350g	70%
Levain/Starter	100g	20%
Salt	10g	2%

Now adding:

• Dried cranberries: 7.5%
• Pecans: 7.5%

To calculate it:

• Add up the baker's percentages: 100% + 70% + 20% + 2% + 7.5% + 7.5% = 207%
• Keep your total dough weight at 960 grams.
• Divide the dough weight by the total percentage: 960 ÷ 207 = 4.64
• Now multiply each weight by 4.64:

Ingredient	Calculated Weight	Baker's Percentage
Bread flour	100 x 4.64 = 464g	100%
Water	70 x 4.64 = 325g	70%
Levain/Starter	20 x 4.64 = 93g	20%
Salt	2 x 4.64 = 9g	2%
Dry cranberries	7.5 x 4.64 = 35g	7.5%
Pecans	7.5 x 4.64 = 35g	7.5%

The total yield is 961 grams. Note that small rounding changes in the conversion factor and the ingredient amounts are normal.

Let's talk sourdough

Have you ever tried scaling up your bake day for a crowd? Share what worked (or didn't) in the comments below.