Sourdough calculator: from recipe to bake
Scale your recipe, set the water temperature, build and ripen your levain, plan proofing and baking – no sign-up, right in your browser.
What the six sections do
- Recipe: enter the ingredients and the calculator works out baker’s percentages, hydration, dough yield and the expected bread weight, and scales everything to whatever amount you need.
- Temperature: the water temperature for your target dough temperature.
- Levain: amounts for building it.
- Ripening: how long it takes to ripen at a given feed and temperature.
- Proofing: how long the dough takes at a given levain share and temperature.
- Baking: a sequence of baking steps, worked out for your dough weight.
Section
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Additional info | Amount (g) | Baker's % |
|---|
Scale recipe
Adjust dough weight, bread weight, or a single ingredient - everything else scales along with it, and baker's percentages stay the same.
Overview
Total water weight divided by total flour weight, × 100.
Flour plus water, divided by the flour, × 100 – the German baking convention (Teigausbeute). Always exactly 100 above the hydration.
Total dough weight minus a 15% baking loss – an assumption, not a fixed value. Depending on oven, shape and baking time, 12 to 18% is ordinary.
Sum of the amounts of all ingredients.
Sum of amount × flour share across all ingredients. Flour counts as 100%, starter counts proportionally per its chosen flour:water ratio; Liquid and Solid don't count toward the flour share.
Sum of amount × water share across all ingredients. Water and Liquid count as 100%, starter counts proportionally per its chosen flour:water ratio; Solid doesn't count toward the water share.
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: The Bread and Its Levain
Water temperature
What temperature should the water be so the dough lands on your target right after mixing? Enter what you measure.
Water temperature
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The dough should be as warm as your target right after mixing. Flour, starter and room bring their own warmth – the water makes up the difference. Kneading heat is not included; the result fits hand mixing. With a machine the dough ends up warmer – use correspondingly cooler water.
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: Making the Dough
Build your levain
How much flour and water goes with your starter? Enter what you have or what you need.
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The starter counts as one part; flour and water join it in the chosen ratio. Enter the starter's hydration if it does not hold equal parts flour and water: 100 % is an equal-parts starter (the usual case), a stiffer one is lower, for example 50 to 80 %. If you need a certain amount of levain, work backwards: the amount divided by the sum of the parts gives the starter.
Flour and water do not have to be equal: in a ratio like 1 : 2 : 3 the starter counts as one part, the flour as two and the water as three. The levain's hydration follows from both shares.
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: The Bread and Its Levain
Levain ripening
How long your levain takes to ripen, by temperature and amount of starter.
About these times:
A levain is the fresh portion you build from part of your starter for a bake – and the same calculation holds when you simply refresh the starter itself: the road to ripeness is the same. How long it takes comes down to two things: the temperature, and how much starter is in the jar. You can try both here. The times are rules of thumb from baking practice – your jar may differ. In the end, rely on the levain itself.
Find the mixing ratio
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Ripening times
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Other feeds, at {temp} °C
| Feed | Ripe after |
|---|
Other temperatures, at {ratio}
| Temperature | Ripe after |
|---|
What is calculated – and what is assumed
Temperature is the safe part. Roughly ten degrees more doubles the pace, ten degrees less halves it; below about 10 °C the cold slows things further, which is why a fridge takes considerably longer than the doubling rule alone would give. It is the same calculation that underlies the dough.
With the feed, what counts is not the ratio itself but how much already-fermented flour ends up in the jar. At 1 : 5 : 5 that is roughly 9 %, at 1 : 1 : 1 roughly 33 % – reckoned with a starter at 100 % hydration. The water share does not change this; it changes the levain's hydration, not the amount of starter in it.
The times for the feed are rules of thumb from baking practice, not measurement series – your starter may be considerably faster or slower. DoughCaptain goes further than this calculator: the app learns from your own observations and, outside what it has learned, gives a direction rather than a number.
In the end, trust the levain rather than the clock: a domed surface, a fine bubble structure, and a sample that floats in water. The calculation tells you when to look – not when it is done.
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: The Bread and Its Levain
Dough fermentation
How long your dough takes from mixing in the levain to the oven, by temperature and levain share.
About these times:
The second lever besides temperature: how much levain is in the dough. This means the whole fermentation from mixing in the levain to the oven, without the fridge. The times are rules of thumb from baking practice – your dough may differ. In the end, trust the dough rather than the clock.
What to expect
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What is calculated – and what is not
Temperature is the same calculation as for the levain and the dough: roughly ten degrees more doubles the pace, ten degrees less halves it; below about 10 °C the cold slows things further.
More levain shortens the fermentation, but less than you might expect: the sources see the time as roughly logarithmic in the levain share. At 24 °C that is about 8.4 hours at 10 %, 7.2 at 20 % and 6.4 at 30 %. DoughCaptain calculates proportionally to the share; this calculator follows the sources.
The figures come from a fermentation model that a home baker fitted to measured data (The Fresh Loaf) and from forum reports. They apply to doughs with whole-grain or high-ash flour; pure white-flour doughs take about 20 % longer. In practice, 20 % levain at 24 °C lands between 5 and 9 hours.
Salt is not included: if it stays the same it drops out; more salt slows things, less speeds them. The 10–30 % range is the model's own. In the end, trust the dough rather than the clock.
Baking
A suggested sequence, worked out for your dough weight.
About this plan:
Deliberately a starting point rather than an instruction: baking times depend heavily on the oven. Use it as a first run and note down what works for you.
The temperatures are for conventional top and bottom heat in a preheated oven. With a fan, take about 20 °C off. Oven thermostats are often further out than you would think – an oven thermometer is the cheapest accuracy you can buy.
What the options and the steps mean
Shape
- Free-standing
- The loaf sits unsupported on a tray, stone or steel. It can expand in every direction – sideways too, if the structure is too weak. This is where steam does the most good.
- Loaf tin
- The tin supports the sides, so the loaf can only go up. Shape stability barely matters here. In exchange the heat reaches the dough more slowly: the plan allows about ten per cent more time.
- In a pot
- A cast-iron pot with a lid, preheated empty. The lid keeps the moisture the dough gives off inside the pot – extra steam is unnecessary, which is why the steam field is then fixed.
Steam
- With steam
- Preheat an ovenproof tray at the bottom and pour hot water into it as the loaf goes in; ice cubes on a preheated tray work too. Do not spray the glass – it can crack.
- No steam
- It works, but it costs volume: the surface dries out early and the crust sets before the loaf has finished rising.
- Covered
- Put a lid or an upturned bowl over the loaf for the first phase. It acts like steam without putting water in the oven.
The steps
- Covered or with steam
- The phase in which the loaf rises. Preheat the oven to the temperature shown, load the loaf, put the lid on or the water in the tray, close the door – and then leave it alone. Every opening costs heat and moisture.
- Hot start
- The same without the moisture. It only appears in the plan if you chose “No steam”.
- Uncovered, release the steam
- Take the tray out, or open the door wide once so the moisture escapes, then drop the temperature. The crust starts forming from here.
- Take the lid off
- With a pot it is one movement: take the lid off and drop the temperature.
- Continue uncovered
- With no steam involved there is nothing to release – just drop the temperature.
- Uncovered, finish the crust
- The last stretch at the lowest temperature. This is where the colour and thickness of the crust come from. If the loaf goes too dark, drop the temperature further rather than taking it out early – otherwise the crumb stays damp.
When is it done?
Not by the clock alone. Fully baked loaves usually sit at roughly 92 to 96 °C in the core – a useful indicator, but not proof. Add to that the crust colour, a hollow sound when you tap the base and, if you like, the bake loss: weigh the dough before it goes in and the loaf once it has cooled. After a few bakes you will know which figure goes with a good loaf in your oven.
What happens in the oven
The yeasts keep working up to roughly 50 to 55 °C and push the loaf along with them. Between about 60 and 90 °C dough turns into crumb: the protein changes, the starch swells and gelatinises, the structure stiffens – for wheat especially sharply between 60 and 70 °C. From then on the shape is fixed for good.
That is why the first minutes decide. While the surface is still supple the loaf can expand; once the crust has set, the window is shut. Steam or a lid keep the surface soft for longer and extend exactly that window.
Oven spring comes from three things together: the heat, the gas already in the dough, and the structure's ability to hold that gas as it expands. An over-proofed dough has spent its potential before the oven and barely rises – an under-proofed one tears unpredictably. The notes here are for wheat-led doughs; a high share of rye follows different rules, because rye does not build a comparable gluten structure.
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: Baking
Frequently asked questions
How do I scale a sourdough recipe to a different amount?
Enter the recipe with its gram amounts and set your target under “Scale recipe”: a dough weight, a desired bread weight, or the amount of a single ingredient – handy when you have exactly 300 g of flour left in the cupboard. The calculator then applies a single factor to every ingredient. The baker’s percentages stay untouched, so the recipe keeps its character.
What are baker’s percentages – and why is flour always 100%?
In baker’s percentages every ingredient is expressed relative to the total flour weight, which always counts as 100% – which is why the figures add up to more than 100. A recipe with 1,000 g of flour and 700 g of water is therefore at 70% water, no matter how large the batch is. That is what makes the notation useful: recipes of different sizes become directly comparable, and scaling to a different amount is plain multiplication.
More detail in the Pro edition of the book.
What is dough yield (Teigausbeute) and how does it relate to hydration?
Hydration is the water content in baker’s percentages – total water divided by total flour. Slack, open-crumb doughs typically sit between 70 and 85%, firmer bread doughs below that. German recipes rarely quote hydration; they use Teigausbeute (TA) instead, which describes the same thing but is calculated differently: flour plus water, divided by the flour. The result is always exactly 100 higher than the hydration – 70% hydration is a TA of 170. Worth knowing if you bake from German sources.
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: The Bread and Its Levain
How is the starter counted towards hydration and baker’s percentages?
Starter is neither pure flour nor pure water but both, so it counts proportionally. At a 1:1 ratio, 200 g of starter is 100 g of flour and 100 g of water, and both go into the calculation. You set the ratio per ingredient in the calculator; stiffer starters work the same way with a different split. Counting the starter entirely as water gives a hydration figure that is too high.
More detail in the Pro edition of the book.
How much will my loaf weigh after baking?
Water evaporates during baking, so the finished loaf weighs less than the raw dough. The calculator works with 15% – an assumption, not a law of nature. The actual loss depends on baking time, temperature and shape: flat loaves lose more than tall ones, long open bakes more than short covered ones, and anything from 12 to 18% is ordinary. The figure only becomes reliable once you know it for your own oven – weigh the dough before it goes in and the loaf once it has cooled. If you are aiming for a particular bread weight, enter that as your target; the calculator works the baking loss back out for you.
How long does my loaf need to bake?
There is no universal baking time – too much depends on the oven, the shape and the state the dough goes in with. What can be said is the sequence: start hot and humid so the surface stays supple and the loaf has time for its oven spring, then drop the temperature and finish it uncovered. The “Baking” card above turns that into a plan for your dough weight. Whether the loaf is done is settled at the end by crust colour, sound and core temperature – not by the clock.
Work it out directly: Baking section
More on this in the book, Hobby edition: Baking
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