Hydration versus Ratio - a question!
Hello - I'm relatively new to sourdough and this forum has been super helpful! A big thank you to everyone here.
I've got two starters going for 2 & 4 weeks respectively. The 4 week one (Marvin) started with WW and then has been being fed 50/50 WW/AP.. took a long time to get started, but I think is finally fully functional and mature. The 2 week one (Ella) is a Rye starter that was ready at Day 7. After trying Marvin on a focaccia and a boule around week 2 and failing miserably, I made a great boule with Ella. I'm trying focaccia again with Marvin today, I think it's looking solid.
Here's my question! Now Marvin is pretty active, I've had to feed 1:2:2 and even 1:3:3 to keep him from rising and falling again too quickly. If I'm feeding at 1:2:2 or 1:3:3, are those still considered 100% hydration starters? I think yes, but I'm unsure if the starter counts as 50/50 water/flour or not.
TIA!
Randi
you are correct as long as your 1 is 100% hydration
Yes, as long as your initial starter was 100% hydration, feeding higher ratios like 1:2:2 and 1:3:3 will still result in a 100% hydration.
Become familiar with bakers math - which is - ingredients are always a percentage of the total flour amount. It will help with this and a lot of other things when looking at recipes (most use bakers math to determine quantities).
The other thing you can do is forget about it! It's not really as important as it seems. There's a lot of room to play around with in bread making. You'll see when you get a little deeper into it. Enjoy!