Just overheard someone say their dough hydration was killing their rise...

I was at a baking meetup last Saturday in Columbus and this guy was talking about how he kept getting flat loaves. He said he was doing everything right but his dough just wouldn't spring. Then someone asked his hydration ratio and he said 45%... I almost choked on my coffee. I used to do the exact same thing, kept my dough too stiff because I was scared of sticky messes. It took me like 6 tries with a wetter dough around 75% before I got oven spring that actually made me proud. Has anyone else dealt with being scared of high hydration and then finally giving in?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameron76316d ago

oh man, the 45% hydration struggle is real. i was in that exact same boat for months, scared to go above 60% because i thought my kitchen would look like a flour bomb went off. then i finally caved and tried a 72% hydration dough with bread flour and it was like a completely different world. the dough was a little tacky but i used wet hands and a bench scraper and it came together way better than i expected. the crumb opened up and i got that nice ear on the crust. it's wild how much a little extra water changes everything, even if it feels wrong at first.

noah91716d ago

And that's the thing, once you push past 70% you can't really go back. Even 65% feels like you're cheating yourself out of a better crumb now. It takes some practice but the results are totally worth the sticky fingers.