The Baker’s Percentage

Get your hands on the formula developed by bread bakers to allow them to create any bread with the expert knowledge of The Baker’s Percentage.

From a pure white sourdough to a hundred per cent whole wheat loaf. With it, bakers can scale up or down, from one loaf to many and can choose to speed up or slow down fermentation according to their daily commitments. It is completely liberating, yet most home bakers have never heard of it.

Unlike making a cake, sourdough bread recipes do not require a strict list of ingredients with precise measurements … it is a process that can be ‘felt’. It is malleable. Enter the baker’s percentage: a simple set of parameters that allow you to bake bread using one of multiple pathways. With chapters on Flour, Starters & Leaven, Mixing & Kneading, Bulk Fermentation, Dividing, Shaping & Proofing, Baking, and more, this is a thoroughly comprehensive guide to baking bread, whatever way takes your fancy.

The Baker’s Percentage is unlike any other cookbook. There are no recipes. Instead, it encourages the reader to bake bread with confidence, according to their own needs and schedule. The book intertwines this bread-baking know-how with stories from the author, Mara Rapini, and her cooking school Village Dreaming & Farm ORTO.

Hardcover book

192 pages

21.3cm x 26.8cm x 2.7cm

Published 31st March 2026 by Smith St Books