Lean bread formulas: baguette, ciabatta and sourdough by baker's percentage

Hydration ladder: how more water opens the crumb across baguette, sourdough and ciabatta

1. Why lean breads are the best place to learn formulas

A lean bread is made from only four ingredients: flour, water, salt and a leaven (commercial yeast or sourdough). [src-bp-baguette] No fat, no sugar, no eggs, no dairy. That austerity is exactly why lean doughs are the clearest teaching ground for formula thinking - with so few variables, every change you make to a percentage shows up directly in the crumb.

Everything in this dossier is written in baker's percentage: each ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight, which is always 100%. Because every other ingredient references flour alone, the percentages add up to more than 100%. [src-tpl-bakers-pct, src-ka-bakers-pct]

Anatomy of a lean formula in baker's percentage

The single most important number is hydration:

Hydration (%) = (water weight / flour weight) x 100 [src-tpl-bakers-pct]

For example, 765.5 g water against 1007.3 g total flour is 76% hydration. [src-tpl-bakers-pct] As the hydration ladder above shows, the same four ingredients give a tight, even baguette crumb at 65-70% and a wild, open ciabatta at 75-85% (see the table "Hydration ladder for lean breads" in data.json).

The other two levers are small but non-negotiable:

• Salt sits at 1.8-2.3% of flour in almost every lean formula (2% is the working default). [src-tpl-bakers-pct, src-bp-baguette] It controls fermentation rate, tightens gluten and carries flavour - see "Salt percentage and what it does" in data.json.
• Yeast is typically 0.8-1.0% instant (or roughly three times that as fresh) in a direct dough; far less when a preferment carries part of the load. [src-bp-baguette]

2. Choosing the flour

Baguette and ciabatta want a strong white wheat flour - enough protein to hold gas at high hydration, but extensible enough to shape. A representative strong bread flour spec shows protein 12.0-12.5% (target 12.2%), water absorption 55-61% and a Hagberg falling number of 250-400. [ss-windrush] A clean Type 550 sits a little lower: wet gluten 28-32%, ash 0.51-0.58% and a falling number of at least 220 s. [ss-flour550]

From the catalogue, good choices are Domson White Strong Wheat Flour, Windrush Strong White Bread Flour, Komplexmłyn / Domson Wheat Flour Type 550, Belle Or T65 French Flour (classic for baguettes) and, where you want maximum strength for very wet doughs, Centurion Canadian Very Strong Flour. For the durum dusting and Mediterranean styles use Durum Wheat Semolina (protein min 11% d.m., ash max 0.8% d.m.). [ss-semolina] All wheat and rye flours and durum semolina contain gluten and must be declared. [ss-windrush, ss-flour550, ss-semolina]

3. Choosing and converting the yeast

Yeast conversion: fresh x1, active dry x0.4, instant x0.33

Three formats, one organism. They differ mainly in water content: fresh compressed yeast is about 70% water (around 30% dry matter), while instant dried yeast is 93-98% dry matter - which is why you use far less of it by weight. [src-foodgeek-yeast, ss-benevia, ss-fermipan]

To convert, multiply the fresh weight by 0.4 for active dry, or by 0.33 for instant (fresh : active-dry : instant is roughly 1 : 0.4 : 0.33). [src-ka-yeast, src-foodgeek-yeast] (Note: the 0.4 active-dry factor is per King Arthur; some other professional references and manufacturer guidelines use 0.5 — check your supplier's recommendation for the specific active-dry product in use.) So the 0.75% fresh yeast in the direct baguette becomes about 0.25% instant. The full table is "Yeast format conversion" in data.json.

Fermipan Red instant dried yeast - the lean-dough format

For lean doughs specifically, the catalogue's Fermipan Red is purpose-built: its spec describes it as an instant dried yeast for lean-dough bread with limited sugar (0-10%) requiring high fermentation power, with ~1% emulsifier (E491), dry matter 93-98% and up to two years' shelf life unopened. [ss-fermipan] If you prefer fresh, Benevia (dry matter >29%, stored at 1-10C, 35-day life) is the reference. [ss-benevia] Baker's yeast carries no declarable allergens, though sulphites can be present in the molasses used to grow it. [ss-benevia, ss-fermipan]

4. Preferments: the same flour, more flavour

Poolish, biga and levain builds feeding the final dough

A preferment is a portion of the formula's flour and water fermented ahead of the final mix. It adds flavour, strength and keeping quality, and lets you cut the dough yeast. The key metric is pre-fermented flour % = flour in the preferment / total formula flour x 100. [src-ka-poolish, src-tpl-bakers-pct]

• Poolish - equal weights of flour and water (100% hydration) plus a tiny amount of yeast (about 0.2% of the poolish flour), fermented until domed and bubbly. [src-ka-poolish, src-bp-baguette]
• Biga - a stiff Italian preferment at about 60% hydration with only a trace of yeast. [src-ka-ciabatta]
• Levain - a sourdough culture; a commonly used working range is 10-25% of total flour, higher for a faster build, though the proportion can range widely by formula and schedule (from under 5% for cold overnight levain schedules to over 30% for same-day baking). [src-chainbaker-levain, src-tpl-bakers-pct]

(Preferment ratios are covered in depth in A8 preferment formulas and A2 preferments.)

5. Baguette formulas

A baguette is the lean bread in its purest form. BAKERpedia gives the working bands: hydration 65-75%, salt 2%, instant yeast 0.8-1.0%, mixed 8-12 minutes to a dough temperature around 25C, and baked with steam for the first few minutes. [src-bp-baguette]

Finished baguettes with deeply coloured, scored crusts

5.1 Direct (straight-dough) baguette

The cleanest baseline - everything mixed in one go (formula card formula-direct-baguette):

• Flour 100%, Water 70%, Salt 2%, Fresh yeast 0.75% (= ~0.25% instant). Total 172.75%. [src-ka-slowrise]
• At 10 kg flour that is 7 kg water, 200 g salt and 75 g fresh yeast = 17.275 kg dough, about 43 baguettes at 400 g. [src-ka-slowrise]
• Process: dough temperature 22-24C, bulk 1 hour with three folds, divide at 400 g, proof 1.5-2 hours, bake at 238-240C with steam. [src-ka-slowrise]

5.2 Baguette with poolish

A poolish gives a thinner, crisper crust and a sweeter, more open crumb (formula card formula-poolish-baguette). As a total formula: Flour 100%, Water 67%, Salt 2%, Yeast ~1.1%, with 33% of the flour pre-fermented in a 100%-hydration poolish. [src-ka-poolish] Build the poolish (3.3 kg flour + 3.3 kg water + 7 g yeast) 12-16 hours ahead, then mix in the remaining 6.7 kg flour, 3.4 kg water, 200 g salt and 103 g yeast. [src-ka-poolish]

Crust colour tip: if your flour has a high falling number (low enzyme activity), a little diastatic malt (~0.2-0.5%) [src-bp-baguette] or 1-3% liquid malt extract [ss-somex] deepens colour and feeds the yeast. The catalogue carries IREKS Somex liquid malt extract, dosed at 1-3% for wheat goods (contains barley gluten). [ss-somex] (These are two different products: dry diastatic malt powder at 0.2-0.5% supplies enzyme activity; Somex is a liquid malt extract used at 1-3% for flavour and colour.)

6. Ciabatta: high-hydration showpiece

Ciabatta crumb: large, irregular high-hydration alveoli

Ciabatta ("slipper") is an Italian lean bread carried at 75-85% hydration, which produces the signature large, irregular holes. [src-bp-ciabatta] The catalogue formula card formula-biga-ciabatta follows King Arthur at 76% overall hydration:

• Total formula: Flour 100%, Water 76%, Salt 2%, Yeast ~1.2%, with 30% pre-fermented flour via a 60%-hydration biga ripened ~16 hours. [src-ka-ciabatta]
• At 10 kg flour: 17.92 kg dough, about 31 pieces at 570 g. [src-ka-ciabatta]

How to fold, cut and pan high-hydration ciabatta dough

The craft is in the handling, not the mixing. Build strength with folds, then handle as little as possible: turn the bulk dough onto a semolina-dusted bench, cut into rectangles without degassing, proof seam-up and flip onto the peel. [src-bp-ciabatta] For a Mediterranean version, BAKERpedia adds ~4% olive oil and 3% salt with a poolish. [src-bp-ciabatta]

Food-safety / regulatory flag: BAKERpedia's poolish ciabatta formula uses 3% baker's salt as its primary specification (not a minor variant). At 3% salt and ~80% hydration, the estimated salt content of the finished bread is approximately 1.9 g/100 g — significantly above the UK FSA 2017 voluntary target of 1.2 g/100 g for baguettes and French-style breads. Review nutritional labelling and consider reformulation for UK market supply. Salt at 2% (as in the King Arthur formula card) is the more compliant baseline.

7. Sourdough: pain au levain and country loaf

Sliced pain au levain showing an open, chewy sourdough crumb

7.1 Wheat pain au levain (no commercial yeast)

Formula card formula-pain-au-levain (after ChainBaker) raises the loaf entirely on an active levain, with a little rye to speed fermentation: white 91% + rye 9% (flour = 100%), Water 65%, Salt 2%, active levain 32% of the dough flour (about 17% pre-fermented flour, total hydration ~65%). [src-chainbaker-levain] Process: autolyse 30-60 min, add levain and salt, dough temperature 25-26C, bulk ~3 hours with folds, final proof ~3 hours (or a cold retard), bake 230C covered 25 min then uncovered 15 min. [src-chainbaker-levain] Establish or refresh the culture with a stocked starter such as Lesaffre Saf-Levain LV1.

7.2 Higher-hydration country sourdough

To see hydration at work, compare the pain au levain with the country loaf (formula card formula-country-sourdough, after The Perfect Loaf): 80% bread flour + 20% wholewheat, 76% water, 1.9% salt. [src-tpl-bakers-pct] Same family, but the extra ~11% water turns a moderately open crumb into a wide-open, moist one - and demands fold-based strength and a cold retard rather than intensive mixing. (In this "total formula" view the levain's own flour and water are already inside the totals; the 0.8% figure is only the mature-starter seed.) [src-tpl-bakers-pct]

7.3 Catalogue shortcut: O-tentic Durum

Puratos O-tentic Durum active sourdough component

For sourdough character without maintaining a culture, formula card formula-otentic-mediterranean uses Puratos O-tentic Durum, an active dried durum-wheat sourdough that also carries the yeast. The spec sets the dosage at 4% on flour weight with the addition of water and salt (total acidity 45-65 ml/10 g), so the formula is simply Flour 100% + O-tentic 4% + Water ~68% + Salt 2%, with no separate yeast. [ss-otentic] Note its allergen profile: gluten (wheat), possible mustard cross-contamination, made on equipment that processes tartrazine, and not suitable for coeliacs. [ss-otentic]

Regulatory flags for O-tentic Durum (human review required before any consumer-facing use): (1) Tartrazine (E102) — mandatory label warning: the shared-equipment tartrazine note means that if E102 is present at any detectable level in the finished product, EU/UK law (Regulation (EC) 1333/2008, Annex V) legally requires the consumer label to carry the warning "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children." Whether this warning applies to O-tentic Durum must be confirmed with Puratos before any downstream consumer labelling. (2) E300 (ascorbic acid) — MPL: O-tentic contains ascorbic acid at an undisclosed concentration; the EU maximum permitted level in bread (Category 07.1) is 300 mg/kg of flour. Compliance depends on the E300 content within O-tentic and cannot be verified from the available spec sheet. Confirm with Puratos. [ss-otentic]

8. Salt, water and food-safety notes

Use a high-purity salt - the catalogue sea salt is ~99.8% NaCl with trace anti-caking agents (E535/E551) and no allergens. [ss-salt] Salt is hygroscopic and absorbs moisture above 75% relative humidity, so store it dry; and while it is essential in the formula at 2%, salt is harmful in excess (oral LD50 in rat ~3000 mg/kg). [ss-salt] Keep salt and yeast from direct contact until mixing.

Food-safety / allergen flag (human review required): (a) All flours, semolina and malt extract here contain gluten; O-tentic Durum adds mustard cross-contamination and a tartrazine-handling note (see Section 7.3 for the mandatory E102 Annex V label concern and E300 MPL check). [ss-windrush, ss-flour550, ss-semolina, ss-somex, ss-otentic] (b) Yeast carries no declarable allergen but molasses-derived sulphites may be present. [ss-benevia, ss-fermipan] (c) Cross-contamination allergens from flour spec sheets are not captured in the formula-card allergen fields: Windrush flour carries a soya contamination risk; Type 550 flour carries possible traces of soy, lupine and mustard — all are mandatory declarable allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II and UK FIR 2014. These must be assessed and declared in any downstream consumer product labelling. (d) The pain au levain formula contains rye flour, which must be declared as a separate gluten source (wheat and rye). Re-verify every allergen and dosage against the current supplier spec sheets before any customer-facing labelling.

9. Faults and fixes

The most common lean-bread faults - flat baguettes, a tight ciabatta crumb, pale crust, poor oven spring, gummy or over-sour crumb - and their remedies are tabulated in "Lean-bread fault diagnosis and remedies" in data.json. [src-bp-baguette, src-bp-ciabatta, src-ka-slowrise, src-ka-ciabatta] Two recurring themes: most "spread" faults come from too much water for the flour's strength or under-developed gluten, and most "tight crumb" faults in ciabatta come from too little water or too much handling after bulk.

10. Quick buying guide

| Need | Catalogue product | |---|---| | Strong white bread flour (baguette/ciabatta) | Domson White Strong Wheat Flour; Windrush Strong White Bread Flour | | French-style baguette flour | Belle Or T65 French Flour | | Type 550 all-round wheat flour | Komplexmłyn / Domson Wheat Flour Type 550 | | Maximum strength for very wet dough | Centurion Canadian Very Strong Flour | | Durum dusting / Mediterranean breads | Durum Wheat Semolina; Wheat Semolina (Manna) | | Lean-dough instant yeast | Dried Yeast Fermipan Red | | Fresh yeast | Fresh Yeast Benevia; Fresh Yeast Traditional | | Salt | Sea Salt Extra Fine; Polish Fine Iodized Salt | | Crust colour / malt | IREKS Somex Liquid Malt Extract | | Sourdough shortcut | Puratos O-tentic Durum | | Sourdough starter culture | Lesaffre Saf-Levain LV1 |

All six formulas, the four comparison tables, the fault table and the key specs are in data.json; image briefs are in images.json; every numeric claim is traced in _claims.json and sources.json.