How high can I go with white sandwich bread hydration??
I've been making white sandwich bread Japanese style at 76% hydration for some time now. I've changed the original recipe to reflect larger pan size, and, I've incorporated an XLG egg as part of the water weight.
I was wondering if it would be any softer with higher hydration so I tried it at 80% but can't honestly say it felt softer if I rule out my imagination.
Then, I pushed it to 85% hydration and it really does feel a bit softer now. The dough is stickier to work with though so I'm wondering if it's realistic to push to 90 or even 100% hydration so I thought I'd ask more experienced people that may have already done so.
I was worried about getting to much of an open crumb like my Ciabatta buns have at 80% hydration but even with the white bread at 85% it's not even close.
My loaves are 12" long, 4.75" wide (half way up), 5'' high (in the middle) and final weight runs a touch over a kilo per loaf, giving me 25 slices @ .475" thick plus the crusts .
I really like using my "inserts" (in my last posts) when baking so I don't get the rollover at top of pan. This gives me even sides on it to make cutting slices on my meat slicer so much easier.