Baker's Math Formula System - Why Isn't the Flour Mass in Corn Bread Formula 100%?

Question

I am currently in the middle of a challenge to bake every formula in the Bread Baker's Apprentice book (BBA). This book describes a principal called the Baker's Math Formula System where all ingredients are compared to the total flour weight in the formula as a ratio. (BBA referes to recipes as formulas.) By definition (or so I thought), the ratio for the total flour weight in a given formula is always supposed to be 100%.

The author includes this analysis for each formula in the book. Just last night, I looked at the Baker's Percentage for the Corn Bread formula in more detail and found that the ratio listed for the flour is actually 51.1%. How could this be if the total flour weight is supposed to be 100%? Would this have anything to do with the fact that this is a chemically leavened bread?

Answer

I decided to try to e-mail my question to the author, Peter Reinhart. As it turns out, there is a typo in the book!

"Together, the flour and cornmeal should equal 100%. It's the flour % that's listed wrong, not the cornmeal, because the total is 14 oz and the flour is listed as 8 oz. If you divide 8 by 14 you get 57.1%, which means the cornmeal is correctly listed at 42.9% So change the flour percent -- that's a typo I can see can easily happen since 1 and 7 are kind of similar looking and easily overlooked."

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