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🍞 NEW: What is dough hydration and how do I get it right?

Published 3 days agoΒ β€’Β 2 min read

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What is dough hydration, and how do I get it right?

Hydration might be the single most impactful variable you can adjust in your bakingβ€”it affects everything from how your dough handles to your final crumb structure.

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In this week's guide, I break down what hydration actually means, how to calculate it, and most importantly, how to choose the right hydration for the bread you want to bake.

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Whether you're struggling with sticky doughs or wondering why your crumb is tighter than you'd like, this one's for you.

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Read on!

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In this week's newsletter:

  • Guide & Recipes: Bread dough hydration guide; My Best Sourdough; Pane Siciliano.
  • Baking Tip: Why is the bottom of my loaf burning during baking?
  • Links: Brooklyn's most eccentric pizza maker (with a coal oven); How flour choices shape our sourdough.

πŸ’‘ Guide to dough hydration

A look at doughs with varying hydration levels, which one is "just right," and how to adjust the hydration slowly during mixing.

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After reading the guide, put what you've learned about dough hydration (and how to mix low- and high-hydration doughs effectively) into practice with a highly hydrated loaf that has a thin crust and a custard-like interior.

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This is one of my favorite loaves to make, hence the name.

🍞 My Best Sourdough Recipe

If it's your first time making this recipe, be cautious when adding all of the Water 2 (bassinage water) as it will be highly dependent on the flour you're using.

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Be sure to look at the video and photos along the way to see what the dough should look and feel like as you increase the hydration during mixing.

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At the other end of the spectrum, this moderately-hydrated loaf celebrates less water in the dough.

🍞 Pane Siciliano

This bread has a tight crumb, but that's not a defect; it's by design. This is one of my favorite moderately-hydrated doughs!

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Come Join The Baker's Corner

Want to chat with me and a bunch of other friendly and enthusiastic bakers? Join us to help support the site and get all my sourdough tools, the entire recipe archive with editable recipes, and access to our private chat channel. Plus, get first dibs on booking workshops and international trips (think: Sicily, Copenhagen, and more)!

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πŸ’¬ Member Discussion of the Week

I am wondering, though, how I can prevent the bottom of my loaf from getting too dark (almost burnt).

The best solution I have found for baking with a Dutch oven is to remove the loaf from the DO in the last 10 minutes or so of the bake. Once you uncover it and it's baked for about 5 minutes, it should be transferable.

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Additionally, you can try adding insulation below. Place a baking sheet or pizza stone on the rack below your Dutch oven to act as a heat shield. This helps diffuse the direct heat hitting the bottom.

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I actually have a comprehensive guide that walks through all of these techniques in detail, too!

πŸ›Ÿ 2 Ways I Can Help You Today

πŸ“™ What I'm Reading and Watching

  • ​Brooklyn's Most Eccentric Pizza Maker Has a New Restaurant (YouTube). Love the coal oven and can imagine just how hot it gets down there in the summer.
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  • ​Flour Choice Shapes Sourdough Microbial Communities (ASM). Definitely a more technical article, but North Carolina State researchers discovered that while the same yeast (Kazachstania) dominates all sourdough starters regardless of flour type, the bacterial composition varies. It looks like whole wheat flour favors Companilactobacillus and bread flour favors Levilactobacillus.

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Happy baking!

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Thank you for subscribing 🩢. Sent from Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf, 8100 Wyoming Blvd NE Ste M4, #343, Albuquerque, NM 87113.
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Maurizio Leo

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