105% hydration for fresh ground?
I just spoke with a talented baker who uses 105% hydration on his very freshly ground grains. By that I take it he means he uses 10.5 ounces of water for every 10 ounces of flour. I followed this ratio in my own home and came up with a loaf that was so wet, it looked like pancake batter. This is much wetter than the "tacky not sticky" standard I've seen elsewhere on this site.
Can anyone explain why a baker might use such a high hydration percentage? Could his flour have been that much drier than mine?
One possible explanation is that I didn't use the "fine" setting on my nutrimill, but rather the middle setting which definitely has some larger particles in it. Maybe this lower surface area is what screwed up the calculation. Perhaps a good soaking would have solved the problem.
Any ideas?
Joshua in Seattle