Hello guys and girls,
I am a bit new on this forum, but I wanted to save ya'll some future trouble, by letting you know I just wrote a unique online calculator that calculates hydration, converts between almost anything - for example 4.63 ounces of 125% starter equals how many cups of starter, and has some other functionalities. It is hosted at:
I'm no math whiz, but I'm trying to figure out my overall hydration, and could use some help with the math.
Let's assume I have 1000g of dough
700g (70% of dough) is at 55% hydration
300g (30% of dough) is at 100% hydration (my starter)
What would my total dough hydration be?
When baking with any type of starter/levain/biga, it seems pretty important to know the final dough hydration of a recipe, as that is a much better way to gauge the feel of the dough than just the base hydration. (especially when a large amount of starter is used)
Of course, if the hydration of the starter matches the hydration of the dough recipe, there's no need to calculate. But usually this is not the case...
From time to time I read posts with questions like this:
"I want to use 435 grams of starter at 70% hydration in a bread dough formula that calls for 500 grams of flour at 60% hydration. How do I figure out how much flour and water I need to add in order to meet that requirement?"
Here's a primer that should alleviate the headache you might normally experience trying to figure it out.
