Rafe's blog

All that was left, was to pull together the last “To-Do’s” and combine them with all the others to complete the project. So, without further ado.

• Use a tablet, pad, phone or printed paper layouts for method, workflow times & temperatures. Hydrations, a gaggle of other info with non-essentials filtered
• Formatting, fonts, cells, display and anything else that comes to mind 

Setting a single print area and using the active filters already developed, produced the targeted distortion-free pdf style printing. Which achieves having recipe cards that can be used on-screen or other devices. Printing to paper is also an option if it’s to be added to an existing portfolio. Both can be annotated, so there is a choice.
(Personally, I copy the recipe card to my phone as a pdf and make notes on it whilst baking). 

Formatting changed as the project developed, a succession of colours came and went, and cells got a highlighted makeover for completed tasks one way or another.

So, the ultimate question is…. Does it work?

Overall, a Detailed, Fully Formulated, Formatted, Self-Calculating Weight-To-Percentage Spreadsheet removing the need for a calculator in most cases. Entering weights as found, automatically giving a full array of bakers' percentages as the result. With the ability to compare, tweak and adjust a single recipe over multiple rows without losing the original. Including a raft of additional tools, and special features in a one-stop nifty layout. Developed into a complete website on its use, providing samples and finished bakes using all the sheet's capabilities and storing the location of the downloadable master Excel spreadsheet.

I’d say yes, Bakers Percent was Re-Imagined!

The picture displays a full recipe card for the BBGA Three Flour Rustic Sourdough with Cracked Wheat Soaker and a Yeasted Preferment, where multiple flours are used in multiple preferments’.
Complete as per the original 15kg TDW, showing Percentages for Hydrations, Prefermented flours and included ingredients.
Supplemented with a Revised Total Weight & Yield arrangement, Recipe notes, Timings & baking notes, document links, star rating, bakeware used and extra-over hydration information.

• Selecting rather than typing. preload drop-downs for recipes, bakers and bakeware. A-Z sorting of additional entries beyond preloads.

Creating dropdowns for selections since the “pick a row, any row” was sorted, was the simplest step, considering the recipe and baker names existed. Although it restricted the choice when it came to using alternative bakeware. A combination of preloaded and add & update was a better arrangement.

Shifting the drop-down selection lists to a new tab, combining recipe names, bakers, dry/soaker/wet and bakeware unified the use of volumes for alternative bakeware and adding dry ingredients or wet/dry soaker ingredients to an already portioned recipe. This might have started as a bit overkill, but filling the volume of a lidded pullman with different ingredients was worth the effort.

This didn’t stop the add & update function for bakers or recipes, added in either location, they update and auto-sort alphabetically as planned.  

Bakers Percent Re-Imagined Part 8 - The final part to follow  

Now onto a not-too-difficult stage.

• Viewing multiple recipes on one sheet, to add new, update old & compare numerous simultaneously.

Generating a recipe card with all the ingredients listed along with notes, times, rating links and the bunch of percentages generated quite a few rows to work with. Using these as the location for a multitude of recipes was the obvious way to go. 
Excel's grouping limitations didn’t agree and mangled the whole list initially, but another set of formulas, got it sorted.  Which led to a “pick a row, any row” layout. With a couple of simple search functions & active filters, managing, reworking and comparing one recipe with several different outcomes fell into place.

Picture 1 is a condensed view of included ingredients.
Picture 2 is the actual row & columns (part) arrangement

Bakers Percent Re-Imagined Part 7 to follow

A variable section for each recipe, nothing too intricate needed as mainly guidelines.

• Adding details, real times, rating, extra notes, methods, links,

No real need for the full recipe method, just the highlights are enough to be getting started and nudges as the day progresses. Extra baking notes for the actual bake sitting with timings, for those final stages.

Real-time duration is better than decimal in my humble opinion. Having each “phase” timed helps with the bake. It’s not “dough” time. It’s a clue as to how much time will or has elapsed. Completed as the bake progresses or as a guesstimate for how it will be, even added after the event for the next time.

A complete rating system for a crumb, crust, taste, texture and colour, was abandoned for a simple 1–5-star rating. Links to original recipes and methods got included in case there is a favourite place to glean everything from was also added.

Nope, the picture isn’t different from the one in Part 3 or Part 3a, It’s the same with the method, time, links and ratings neatly slotted in. Active filters are used to “hide” Part 3a percentages and items not in recipe.

Bakers Percent Re-Imagined Part 6 to follow

Conversions to save searching for them each time, initially started off as a set of links. But rather than adding a link to elsewhere (although quite a few have been included) for some basic information. Thoughts dictated that it should be more of a one-stop shop for:

• Yeast, Temperatures, Customary to Metric, Volumes, Bakeware, Recipe Ratios, Ingredient Water Content. Preferment Ratios. 

Yeast was easy enough, customary to metric too. Tables for customary, decimals and customary decimals are included. The latter was converted to fractions i.e., 2.4 is not 2lbs 4oz, but 2 1/4 and 2.25 both are.

Concluded that bakeware volumes include the baked rise not just the bakeware height. Considered everything a “Pullman” and put a lid on it metaphorically speaking. As a 5cm high loaf pan with a 3 cm rise over the lip of the pan, Is an 8cm “Pullman” style loaf. This in return provided a dough-to-pan ratio. From there the alternative bakeware tables were created.

The water content table was already completed in part 2.  The simple preferment table and ratio generator were just pulled in from an earlier project.

Bakers Percent Re-Imagined Part 5 to follow 

Not exactly a bonus, more of a necessity as showing hydration percentages in each section lacked a summarised overview as did percentages in other areas such as

• Pre-Fermented Flour, All ingredients in total flour, All flours in total flour for all the section.

A whole other load of work landed this on another tab, as it was mainly a reference. However, the location diminished the importance of the information. So, the recipe card view went through another reiteration to include all of the above and using the active filter, the sections could be hidden from view if required.

Bakers Percent Re-Imagined Part 4 to follow

Another chunk of possible useless information, perhaps, but still an important one. The next phase was to figure out a way of dealing with percentages in a virtually calculator-free way by entering only the weight of ingredients & allowing the spreadsheet to calculate everything else.

• Formulas to calculate each ingredient's weight displayed as a percentage. A way of maintaining percentages throughout when increasing or decreasing Total Dough Weight. (TDW)

One thing found while doing searches was that each recipe was separate from the other. Either on different tabs on a sheet or filed separately. Nothing wrong with that, each to their own as they say.  I was looking for a way of seeing a change and keeping the original in view as and when it happened.

Goal - One recipe, one card, two weights, original and revised. Formulas to convert weights to percentages. Then a set of formulas to convert original percentages pro rata to weights for the revised dough weight. Then added a raft of extra info to the mix. (drop downs selectors for recipe/baker, % total, flour total, active filters) The latter is all part of the “To-Do” list, so not really extra work. 

Yes, the picture here doesn’t show much either. But it’s a condensed version using active filters, removing all items not included in the recipe, or not necessary for bake day.  Depending on the recipe a fuller version includes not only what’s shown but also all of the following

• Weights & Percentages for Soakers, Sourdough Levains, Preferments (Pâte Fermentée, Biga, Poolish, Sponge, etc.), Variety of Flours and wet & dry additions.

Bakers Percent Re-Imagined Part 3a to follow

Well, that took a while!

As there will be way too much to take in, in one sitting considering what was included in my last blog post Bakers Percent Re-Imagined back in June last year and how long it took me to get to the finish line. I’ve decided to break it down into readable chunks so It should be easier to follow.

From the original “To-Do” list

• Create Separate ingredient sections for Soakers, Sourdough & Levain, and Preferments (Pâte Fermentée, Biga, Poolish, Sponge, etc.). Main recipe with a variety of flours, wet & dry additions.

Listing what was included in the sections wasn’t a major issue, how the lists interacted with sources, searches & nice-to-haves was. Many iterations followed soon after to which included not just the item name, but customary to metric conversion for each item, its measure type and typical water content in its own column.

All of these created more work to include later for online sources, fractions, alternate bakeware, conversion to-from formulas and built-in automatic updates. All part of the growing “To-Do” list.

Yes, the picture doesn’t look much, but it forms the backbone of data entry. Each of the “green cells” is changeable to suit how you’d measure. The “grey cells” are changeable too, (In a different section). Both have the effect of updating the sheet as a constant. Change in one place and it changes in several other places.

Part 3 to follow.... fairly soon