Yeast bread dough calculator
Everyday bread on commercial yeast: flour, water, salt. The dose follows the hours and the temperature you give it.
Fridge hours are counted at 6 °C.
An everyday wheat loaf on baker’s yeast: 68% water, 2% salt. The yeast dose follows the time you have, from three hours to the oven to an overnight in the fridge.
How it works
Yeast matched to your time
Instead of a fixed teaspoon, the dose comes from the schedule. A same-day loaf gets more, an overnight one a fraction of that; fermentation speed doubles every 6 °C or so, and fridge hours count at 6 °C. The default plan is 4 hours at 22 °C: about 2.5 hours of bulk and 1.5 in the tin.
Two published ends of the scale
Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread carries a quarter teaspoon of instant yeast on 400 g of flour, 0.2%, for 12–18 hours at room temperature. King Arthur’s Classic Sandwich Bread carries 2 teaspoons, about 6 g on 360 g, 1.7%, and is done in roughly two and a half hours. Eight times the yeast for a fifth of the time; the curve here is fitted through both.
Bread is not pizza
On the same schedule a bread dough carries about five times the yeast of a pizza dough. Pizza is dosed for a long flavour ferment, bread for a rise: Lahey’s overnight loaf sits at 0.2% where the pizza references for the same hours sit near 0.04%.
Optional starter
Got some sourdough starter? Add it in the Starter section and its leavening power comes off the yeast dose. Deeper flavour, still a predictable rise.
Proportions
68% water sits inside the cited yeasted loaves: King Arthur’s sandwich bread runs 63–74% liquid, Lahey’s no-knead 79%. 2% salt is the baker’s standard. The default 800 g of dough is 471 g of flour, 320 g of water and 9 g of salt; the baked loaf comes out roughly 10–12% lighter.
Sources & methodology
Every percentage in this calculator traces to the published sources below — nothing is invented. Where respected sources disagree, the default sits inside the documented range.
- Jim Lahey — no-knead bread (read via Leite’s Culinaria) — The long end of the dose curve: a quarter teaspoon of yeast per 400 g of flour, 12–18 hours at room temperature.
- King Arthur — Classic Sandwich Bread — The short end: 2 teaspoons of instant yeast (about 6 g) per 360 g of flour for a same-day tin loaf of about two and a half hours.
FAQ
Fresh, active dry or instant?
Pick the kind you have and the dose is shown for it. The conversion behind the switch: fresh ≈ 3 × instant, active dry ≈ 1.2 × instant.
Can I bake the same day?
Yes. 3–4 h at room temperature is a realistic plan; the dose simply rises to match. A longer fermentation (8–24 h) tastes noticeably better.
How does the fridge change the dose?
Fridge hours count at 6 °C, where fermentation runs at about a sixth of its speed at 22 °C. An evening mix, a night in the fridge and a morning proof needs far less yeast than the four-hour plan; Lahey’s 0.2% for 12–18 hours at room temperature points the same way.
Why does my loaf deflate when scored?
Usually overproofing: too much yeast for the proofing time, or proofing too warm.
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