The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Hydration?

dablues's picture
dablues

Hydration?

I'll be using 550 grams of all-purpose flour & 50 grams of whole wheat, and the recipe calls for 300 grams of water but was stated the bread seemed a little dense.  If I choose to use just all-purpose flour would the 300 grams of water be ok.  If I did choose to use both all-purpose and whole wheat flour how much extra water would be needed?  Hope someone can help me out on this.  Thanks in advance...

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi KMIAA,

don't know what type of bread the recipe is for but am pretty sure the hydration is too low, whatever.

If you want to use 600g white flour, mnimum water to aim for is 336g, but you should get 360g and more in.   If you want to use the wholemeal portion then aim for 342g minimum, and hope to achieve closer to 380g.   Good luck   Andy

dablues's picture
dablues

Will change the hydration like you said.  Appreciate the help.

baybakin's picture
baybakin

600g of flour with 300g water is 50% hydration.  if you're planning bagels, that can work.  Nearly any other kind of bread and that would be far too low.  Personally, I wouldn't do a regular bread much lower than 65% hydration, and if it was a lean dough, no less than 70%

65% would be 390g water
70% would be 420g water

dablues's picture
dablues

Everyone here is so helpful.  Thanks for the replies I have received.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

namely kaiser rolls.    I'm not sure if your flour absorbs like mine.  You can easily test the flour to see what kind of dough it becomes at 50% hydration.  Stir 20g of flour with 10g of water and see what you get?   If too stiff, you might want to increase the hydration.  

If I were to use 550g ap wheat flour and 50g ww flour:

(all purpose flour x 50% gives water amount)  550g x .50 = 275g water

(ww flour x 65% gives water amount for ww)  50g x .65 = 32.5g

(add the two water amounts together for total water)  275g + 33g = 308g of water  would be the minimum amount 

dablues's picture
dablues

I appreciate the help that has been given to me regarding the hydration.  Everyone here is the best!