I've been scowering the web comparing recipies that use all purpose flour on the one hand and whole wheat on the other other. I also found a post that seem to explain that when you convert from all purpose you use the same amout of flour but add 5 teaspoons of water for each cup of flour you use.

All these figures and recipies seem to indicate that you should increase the hydration from all purpose to whole wheat at about 8% for baked breads. Does this make sense? If I mill my own wheat does that change the ratio any?

Thanks for any insight

The Flying Baker ;) (Jeffrey)

Can someone guide me to some instruction about hydration? Never heard of it before.

Thanks!

Voni

Is there a reason to make starter at one hydration or another, meaning that aside from it changing how much flour and water is used in a formulation, does the crumb or taste vary if the starter is at 50% hydration as compared to 100%? What is the effect of using stiff starter instead of liquid, or vice versa?

Jerry

Hi all,

Does anyone know of an estimate for how much to increase dough hydration when you add whole grains? For example, if I want to change a formula from 25% WW to 40%?

Thanks

ML

I understand that hydration percentage is important and it varies with type of bread. But how do you calculate it considering other ingredients. For example, For example I have a recipe that requires flour, oats, wheat germ, gluten, maple syrup, oil, cinnamon, buttermilk plus salt and yeast. I want to cut the recipe in half or to one-third. I know you can't just mathematically cut everything. So how do you calculate hydration levels considering other ingredients.

Hi all,

Two questions for all you experts :-)

#1 Regarding baker's percentages....For my Desem-type loaf (not made per Laurel...my own bastardization, mostly from Alan Scott) if my flour weight ( in this case 100% whole wheat) is 375 g and my leaven weight is 225g (100% whole wheat, 100% hydro) and my water weight is 283g and my salt weight is 10g....is my overall hydro  81% (if I calculate in the weights of water and flour in my leaven) or is it 75% (if I do not calculate the weights of water and flour in my leaven)?

The math difference is more dramatic when figuring the % of leaven against the flour weight...without adding in the leaven ingredients, the formula above would represent 60% leaven and figuring with the leaven ingredients would represent only 46% leaven.

I am so confused.

#2 If I choose to retard my desem loaves 8-12 hours, should I reduce the leaven in the recipe and if so, by how much? Also, if I retard, should I allow the loaves to proof briefly at room temp after bulk fermentation and before retard? If so, for how long? I am worried I will over proof the loaves under retard with Scott's crazy percentage of leaven (2-3 times that of other recipes).

BTW, my loaves come out wonderfully at this leaven percentage when BF 4hrs at cool temps and proofed 1.5 hrs at warm room temps. I am looking to get a more sophisticated and slightly more sour flavor from the overnight retard.

Lastly, I do not knead the bread at all, simply autolyse 30 min, add salt and then turn in the bucket every 45 min during BF. I get lovely open crumb that rivals white flour loaves and awesome oven spring if I closely monitor proofing.

Thanks all for your input!

Cheers

~Krista

I know, a bit unrelated to baking but...I'm doing some research about pasta dough, and was wondering what the hydration of pasta dough should be. The recipe I've used in the past is one from Jamie Oliver, which is 1 egg per 100g of flour is pulsed in a food processor until it comes together in a breadcrumb texture. 

Assuming 1 large egg is ~75% hydration, and 1 large egg weighs about 57g, there should be about 42g of water available from the egg. This makes the pasta dough hydration (according to the formula) around 42%. Does this seem correct?

I wonder if I can reduce the egg and scale up the water. For example, 2 eggs, 84g water, 400g of flour. Why? Reduce the amount of cholesterol...also, I don't have that many eggs available right now :)

I recently started a 60% hydration starter due to some problems I have been having with my 100%. It looks like it's coming along great but I had a question regarding recipe adjustments, and I couldn't get a definitive answer using the search. I did find a spreadsheet however, but it's a bit daunting at the moment, and I haven't quite wrapped my head around it yet.

The recipe I have been using calls for 100%, how can I adjust for 60%? Is it as simple as adding more water to the recipe to make up for the loss in water in the starter? Also, should I use less starter than is originally called for?

Thanks,

Ryan

Dear fellow bakers,

I started out with a KA starter.  I am feeding 1 cup of starter 4 oz of water and 4 oz of flour once a day.  The starter is very active.  By dividing the 4 oz of flour into the 4 oz of water, I conclude that my starter is at 100%.  If this is not the case, please enlighten me, and then further enlighten me how to convert my current starter to various hydration levels given in bread recipes.  For one thing, I'm stuck on how much starter to use in the equation. The KA customer service rep said it didn't make any difference, but that doesn't seem logical to me.

I am SO looking forward to your replies,

Thanks!

Diana

I was getting burnt, no-bounce sourdough loaves and thought this problem might be fixable with higher hydration. 

So I mixed an 80% hydration sourdough.  It  was so soupy that despite several stretch and folds, it remained the consistency of pancake batter.  I could not shape it at all.  I literally had to pour it into a loaf pan.

What am I doing wrong?  I used 400 g flour (including the flour in the starter) and 320 g water (including the water in the starter).  That results in a dough that is 80% water by weight.  Am I not using correct baker's math?