Understanding Hydration in Bread Making
What Does Hydration Actually Mean ?
In bread making, hydration refers to the total amount of moisture in the bread dough. This is measured by dividing the weight of the water (or other liquids like milk, fruit juice, tea, or even alcohol) by the weight of the flour specified in the recipe.
The ratio of these two numbers, expressed as a percentage(water\flour), mathematically represents what should be considered as hydration. Bakers often categorized dough as high hydration ( e.g., 100% hydration for traditional Spanish bred known as “Pan de Cristal”) or medium hydration, which is denser or “stiffer.”
Hydration affects the dough’s consistency and thickness at every stage of bread making.Understanding hydration can significantly improve the quality and consistency of your bread.
Why Should Hydration Be Considered ?
It is well-known that water is essential in bread ( as well as cookies, crackers, cakes, etc.) baking. However, not everyone understanding how hydration affects the dough and the desired characteristics of the finished bread. When hydration is understood, it can provide valuable insights into how the dough will behave and what to expect from your final loaf.
For instance, if you have a recipe using all-purpose flour with a hydration percentage between 75% and 85%, you can predict that you dough will be sticky and slack. Smilarly, a recipe with hydration between 55% and 65% will result in a stiffer, denser dough. Knowing this allows you to compare recipes and make necessary adjustments in handling the dough. A stiff dough might require less folding or additional processing during fermentation. Being aware of the process prepares you for various scenarios.
How Is Hydration in Bread Calculated?
The calculation is straightforward: Hydration is determined by dividing the weight of water (or liquid) in the recipe by the weight of flour, resulting in the desired ratio.
For example, consider the following recipe:
- Flour: 1,000g
- Water: 750g
- Salt: 20g
- Yeast: 10g
Remember that hydration is the ratio of water to flour. In the recipe above, if you have 750g of water and 1,000g of flour, the hydration of the total flour should be 750/1000 or 75%.
Another example:
If a recipe has equal weights of water and flour (let’s assume both are 750g each), the hydration will be 100%.
Does the Starter in Sourdough Affect Total Hydration?
In simple terms, yes. Since hydration refers to the total amount of water in the final dough, both the water and flour in your sourdough starter should be considered. To illustrate, here the ingredients for a ” country-style” loaf, including the starter:
- All-purpose flour:400g
- Whole wheat flour:50g
- Rye flour:50g
- Water:375g
- Salt:11g
- Sourdough starter mix: 100g( containing 50g flour and 50g yeast)
Adding these amounts together:
- Water:375g(in the final mix) + 50g(in the starter) = 425g
- Flour: 400g(all-purpose) + 50g (whole wheat) + 50g(rye) + 50g(in the starter) = 550g
These numbers indicate that the loaf will have 77% hydration ( 425/550=77).
What Can Be Considered High or Low Hydration?
High hydration typically refers to dough with over 80% water content, and in some cases, it can exceed 100% due to the high water demand of high-protein or whole wheat flours. In such cases, there will be more water in the recipe than flour.
What Does Hydration Actually Do?
The importance of water in cooked foods, including bread, cannot be overstated. Water enables fermentation, hydrates starches and proteins, and positively affects texture, taste, crumb and overall quality.
What Other Ingredients Should Be Included in Hydration?
Generally, there are no strict rules. Liquids like milk, tea, coffee, beer, wine, fruit juice, kombucha, or kvass( a Russian beverage) should all be considered in terms of hydration. The amounts of solids or components (i such as fruit juice pulp, milk solids, fats, alcohol, etc.) can vary and provide enough water to be counted as hydration.
What About Butter, Eggs, Fresh Fruit or Other Water-Containing Ingredients? Are They Counted the Same Way?
Technically, it is true that all these ingredients contain water and can impact hydration. For example, sweet pastry dough is often made with 50% butter, 50% whole eggs, and around 10% water or milk. The hydration percentage might appear very low, even if the flour, yeast. or sugar is considered low hydration, but the results are excellent. The reason behind this could be the high water content eggs(approximately 75%) and the water content in butter, which is around 18%.
What Abour Different Types of Flour? Does Hydration Change When Switching from All-Purpose to Whole Wheat Flour?
The method for calculating hydration does not change based on the type of flour. So, 1,000 grams of flour and750 grams of water will always result in 75% hydration, regardless of whether the flour is rye, whole wheat, buckwheat or gluten-free. However , it’s known that whole grain flours may” require more water” and typically need more hydration. Consequently, a dough made with all-purpose flour at 75% hydration will be significantly softer than one made with the same hydration but using whole wheat flour.
Is Anything Other Than Flour Included as Flour When Calculating Hydration?
Best practise is to include ground grain products as part of the flour percentages. While it is known that ingredients like cocoa powder, milk powder. potato flour, freeze-dried fruit powders, and others absorb moisture from the dough it is not accurate to include them as part of the flour percentage. However as with the water content in eggs, it’s essential to always consider the impact of any ingredient on hydration.
Is Higher Hydration Always Better?
With advancements in technology, there has been a trend towards higher hydration doughs. It’s often assumed that the higher the hydration, the better the results. Is it as simple as “the water, the better”? It depends on the context because every dough has its sweet spot.
High hydration doughs can improve fermentation, moisture retention and overall quality in terms of dough extensibility. However, wetter dough can also come with challenges. They may require longer baking times and often results in thicker crusts. Therefore, too much water can sometimes be detrimental.
Can Hydration Be Adjusted at Every Stage?
Hydration can be adjusted various stages. both in small increments, as professional bakers do during mixing and on a larger scale. depending on the flour composition.
Any Tips for Handling High Hydration Doughs?
Starting with the basics of bread making, such as dough folding, shaping and loading is crucial when dealing with high hydration breads.
What’s the next step? Optimizing your dough-making conditions for your preferred flour, whether it’s very sour, mildly sour or something between, can be categorized. Higher acidity levels can produce sourer bread, while lower concentrations can result in a milder loaf.
This might sound like a straightforward answer, but if you’ve been baking with sourdough for long enough, you already know that nothing is truly simple and sourdough is a constantly evolving balance of all the factors mentioned above.
A Cautionary Note:
When shaping sourdough bread. if your dough is too wet and easily collapses, over-fermentation and acidification can weaken its structure. This can result in gluten breakdown due to increased fermentation and acidity, ultimately affecting through fermentation conditions can be a double-edged sword, as it may accelerate gluten degradation.
A Final Note:
The world of hydration in dough and sourdough can be quite complex. There’s no one-size-fits-all recipe for making sourdough bread. Learning and adapting is the key to striking a balance between the structure and flavor you desire in sourdough bread.
