Depends on the flour. Rye vs Wheat. Whole flour vs whiter flour. Strong bread flour like Manitoba vs weaker flour like the usual supermarket flour. But yeah 60-65% works with most whiter wheat breads.
"Too much hydration can mess up your dough, it is better to go from dry to wet than backwards" and "Don't just follow a recipe you find online, always tailor it to your environment" are two great lessons that I feel like made a huge difference in how I make dough (no matter the type!) I do wanna share that high hydration has been one of my most valuable tools specially when baking pizza in a home oven, specially when not using any of the "steamy" techniques Hendrick shared in the channel (and in the book!). Home ovens require a lot of time to bake a pizza and the crust will dry out if you make the dough with low hydration. Like, I don't want to say that high hydration is a must in that situation, but it is a very powerful variable to play with once you learn how. And while I also agree that it comes with a lot of new techniques you need to hone (handling high hydration is very tricky), it is well worth it and will make you a better baker. Just take your time learning the basics and mastering low hydration before jumping to HH, that's also something I messed up :P
Just made an amazing sourdough bread ( third attempt using a different recipe), but I followed your 30min guide and also bought your book, which is a very interesting read. After the failed attempts I was nearly ready to give up but your recipe has changed that, thanks mate your vids are very informative and easy to follow, have to highly recommended your book as well❤❤
What a useful video - very handy! Don't know if it matters at this juncture, but there's a repeat of flipping the lower-hydartion loaf out of the banneton & scoring. I know it's a pain to cut a chunk out in Studio, but though I'd mention it in case you'd like to.
In commercial bakeries, they usually use between 55 and 58% hydration, this gives quite a stiff dough that doesn't stick too much and is easily processable (doesn't stick to machines, etc.). However, when making bread with all-purpose flour, 55% is generally a good starting point if you're making your first bread. the dough is very workable and very easy to work with. Usually another tip I would give people is to make yeast bread the very first time because the process is a bit more predictable (you can rule out starter problems). We did the same in high school (I did bread and pastry) and moved to sourdough later, and everything made a lot more sense. My preferred method these days is using a poolish, bigga, Pȃte fermentée, yeast starter or a combination of sourdough and one of these with great results and amazing flavor. But again, when making your very first bread, basic yeast bread makes the most sense to me.
Funny story. Coming from hobby cake baker over to bread baking, I was over confident in my baking ability and went with high hydration dough as my first attempts. Really shot myself in the foot there, as it now 4 years after I started venturing in this hobby that I can really say I had learned the ropes of bread baking. I imagined it'd only take me 1 year, or 2 years top to reach my current point had I stated from 60% dough as it should have been. But, another funny thing is, I'm now more familiar with higher hydration dough that working with 60% just put me out of my comfort zone as my muscle and skills are now in handling wet dough that I always feel my kneading just make the mess out of the dough rather than developing it.
@@the_bread_code Ahh, not purposefully. I started a demanding (time) job and mismanaged my precious starter "Tony Levin" ( king Krimson) and it perished. So by the winterI will be resettled and have time to relearn and restart a fresh starter.
I agree hydration is one of the keys to a good result, but I´d like a comment about the varyning environmental conditions in different places/time of year. A challenge to a nerdy german :)) For instance the air, and so the flour, has a much higher hydration in the summer, and specially compared between a kitchen in southern Europe in the summer vs. one in northern Scandinavia in the winter. Since your excellent vid´s are so informative and precise, it would be nice to have some comment in them on how much this affects the hydration in the dough. Otherwise there is no real point in going into fractions of decimals, or even within 2-3 decimals of dough hydration. When I´ve tried 60-65% here i Sweden it´s almost impossible to get a workable dough, it´s stone hard. To my experience there is much more of a "hands on" feel to it. A method of measuring the real hydration, not the amount of water you put in would be more accurate! And the sample jar for fermentation is the key to success! Thanks for your good spirit and encouraging vids!
Thanks for upload. Ive been searching for years no why a dough breaks and how to fix it. I dont know if its over or under neading. The doug gets more stringy than eleastic and no gluten has developed at all. do you have a video on this or mayby you can explain it here or in a nother video?
Your soup dough is 80% hydration but looks more like 110% hydration. My sourdough starter is 100% hydration and never looks like a soup. You normal hydration is 60%. My 60% hydration doughs while workable never look that .... "slippery" and are usually a little tough and dry. I normally go for 70% but I am experimenting a little with higher.
That old maxim of adding more water when using flours with more bran (wholemeal) no longer holds for modern flours. Bran is fully hydrated with about 70% water. Not so far off the hydration of doughs using commodity flour. Back in the day with lower protein flours using 55% hydration adding wholemeal flour did require more water.
I would like to add that humidity also plays a roll in the hydration ability. I use 500g bread flour (which is about 12% protein) with 400g water and 100g starter for my focaccia which is an 81.8% hydration and its definitely not soupy like your dough in the pot to the left!
I'd like to use a distance measuring chip to watch for proof. To discover characteristics of perfect proof across temperature. Also, has anyone put dough into a pressure vessel for instant rise?
my problem* is always to mix too much flour and end up with the dough too dry. it is very hard to incorporate more water in. *= i meant to say that WHEN i have a problem. its that.
Off-topic, but relevant. Two days ago, I started a new starter (my first in about15 years). I cannot use Rye, because wife is allergic. So, I'm making an all-wheat flour (13.34% Protein) starter, 100% hydration. It is very stiff. Should I increase hydration percent? If so, to what level? Or, should I just continue to feed on schedule for next five days (50g flour, 50g water) and everything will be fine? Or, is all-wheat just not a good idea? Should I mix in a bread flour or AP flour? I did all-wheat, because I've seen in other videos that it can replace a rye starter.
you can make a sourdough starter out of every flower. Try to use a whole flower because it has more natural contamination with microorganisms. This will help to make the starter faster.
Advise is great and all, but there's a small mistake: Neapolitan Pizza has a really high hydration. 60% is only for beginners' recipes. A self-respecting pizzaiolo will use at least 70% hydration, and professionals might go as high as 90% in some places
@wieli. I don't know what the regulation calls for, but just look for example at what the world champion in the category of neapolitan pizza uses. There are a lot of professionals who use higher hydration. This should speak for itself
@wieli. I looked into it, and you are correct if you want to make pizza according to the associazione verace. Either way most experts use higher hydration
@@braincytox7314 The classic flour for neapolitan pizza is Caputo pizzeria. It has a P/L of around 0.5. I am pretty sure that anything above 70% hydration would be wayyy to runny to make a nicely shaped pizza, that doesn't stick; hence why most professionals I know keep below 60%
@@the_bread_code And just how would you knead it or streatch and fold it? There are 80% hydration bread recipes but not with low protein flour. The recipe would state what flour to use.
I don’t understand why you have so many problems making bread after you have been making it for several years. I guess that the idea of German people being so efficient is not true. If you need help let me know.
😂 I think you missed the point! Bread Code is illustrating issues many of us face or have faced and showing us how to solve / resolve them or avoid them to start with. It's tips, tricks and advice he is offering.
thanks for the comment. this video was meant to demonstrate a common problem, new bakers are facing when making a breath dough. The key Takeaway is to go lower and hydration and save yourself from a lot of trouble.
