The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Changing hydration for wholegrain flours...?

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

Changing hydration for wholegrain flours...?

I was building a loaf of sourdough today, and I ran out ofwhite. All I had left was a bag of Robin Hood Multigrain bread  flour, which isn't my favorite. Since I was stuck, I topped up the remaining required flour with the multigrain. The resulting dough feels like a low 70% hydration compared to 75% hydration I was going for. Being the christmas holidays, going out to purchase a new bag was out of the question. I feel like 5% more water would be too much of a drastic change.  

Are there any fast and loose rules for guestimating how much less flour (or more water) you need to add for wholegrain flours to achieve an appropriate hydration?

 

For reference:

240g 100% hydration preferment, built up in 3 steps.

Dough

337g Flour (130g Canadian White unbleached AP, 207g multigrain)
222g Water
7g salt.

Resulting in about 75% hydration, but feels like a ~70% dough. I was expecting a much more slack dough. 

(Yes, I know I have 30% of my dough mass as preferment. I have a cold canadian kitchen over the winter, and I don't get ovenspring without it. I drop it down to about 100g of preferment over the summers.)

 

 

Thanks for your input :) 

Tim 

Ford's picture
Ford

Whole wheat flour does require more liquid than plain white flour.  The bran just takes up more water in swelling.  It is also a good idea to let the whole wheat soak for an hour or more to complete the softening of the bran.  My 50% whole wheat sourdough is about 78% hydration and the white sourdough is about 75% hydration.

Ford

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

but white bread is 72-75% hydration  .  25% 30% whole grain 78-80% and 50% whole grain is 82 -85% hydration.    The higher amounts of whole grains 75%  would be 88% or so with 90% whole grain  at 92-95%  and 100% would be 100-104% hydration.  but the kind of grain counts too.  Low gluter flours like Spelt would be less hydrated.  Ford is also right in autolysing the whole grains for at least an hour t soften the bran.

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

Perfect. Is there an ideal temperature for autolyse?  After all, enzymes all have an optimal temperature point.

Say i'm making a 50% WW bread, should I autolyse the WW with the entire amount of water called for in the recipe, and then work in the white flour after autolyse is complete?  Should you autolyse with or without salt? Is there an upper range to how long you should autolyse? 

It looks like I should be adding a few points of water for a 50% mix.

Coincidentally, the loaf turned out fantastic. Great crumb, soft and chewy, very nutty crust. I think I'll use up the rest of the flour in future batches. I have another levain going right now, I will try autolysing overnight. 

 

EDIT

 Did a bit of a yougoogly, found this gem. http://tartine-bread.blogspot.ca/2014/01/guest-baker-chad-robertson.html