One thing for sure is flour absorbs water. Doing this allows the protein in the flour to hydrate, which helps the gluten to relax and unwind. It can then form a network that is able to trap gas produced by the dough fermentation process. Getting the level of water to flour ratio correct often causes novice bakers to panic – as well as a messy kitchen!
So, how to get dough hydration right? I’m going to explain how to calculate the hydration level of a recipe, why it changes with different types of flour and how changing the amount of water used in a recipe alters the quality of the bread.
How to calculate the hydration level of a recipe
The amount of any ingredient used in a bread recipe is determined by a pre-set percentage of the total amount of flour. It’s these bakers’ percentages that are the building blocks of all bread recipes and justify why bread recipes should always be measured in grams!
Here’s how it works:
If a recipe uses 1000g of flour and 600 grams of water, we divide 600 by 1000: 600 / 1000 = 0.6 We multiply this by 100 to find our percentage of water used in the recipe: 0.6 x 100 = 60% This means this recipe is 60% hydration, typical of traditional French bread.
But, this isn’t how you work out percentages?
Yes, I agree that 60% of the flour isn’t going to mean 60% of the total recipe, which makes the above hydration calculation mathematically wrong. Calculating the water (and the other ingredients) from the weight of the flour is the way bakers and recipe creators work to produce bread recipes! And work it does.
Calculating the amount of water required:
If we want to make a loaf that’s 65% hydration using 600 grams of flour, we pop this into the calculator:
600 x 65% = 390
Or for those of us without a % button (or prefer “old-fashioned” maths):
600/100 = 6 6 x 65 = 390
Now we know we need 390 grams of water in our 65% hydration recipe.
Should the flour and water in a sourdough starter be included in the hydration of the recipe?
Yes, they should. Most sourdough starters follow a 1:1 ratio of water and flour. This means we add half of the starter weight to the flour and the other half to the water weight.
Should I include other liquids in the hydration of the recipe?
If you are using liquids other than water, they could be included in the hydration of the recipe. However, it get’s overly complicated, so many bakers don’t calculate the water content of every ingredient. They just take into consideration the water content in the ingredients as we’ll see in the next section.
The water content of common dough ingredients:
- Milk = 87% water
- Egg = 74% water
- Butter = 15% water
- Olive oil = 0.2% water (although as it is a liquid at room temperature it should be included as 100% liquid)
How to adjust the amount of water in a bread recipe when adding ingredients containing water
A recipe’s water content can be adjusted when adding water-containing ingredients. You’ll need to know the amount of the ingredient to be added and the water content of that ingredient. Divide the weight of the ingredient by 100 and multiply this number by its water content.
For this example, we’ll add 200 grams of butter which is 15% water. The recipe currently uses 500 grams of water:
First, we'll divide the weight of the butter by 100 and multiply this number by its water content. 200/100 = 2 2 x 15 = 30 This gives an answer of 30 grams. We then remove 30 grams of water from the recipe. 500 - 30 = 470 The water required now is 470 grams
How to convert a recipe from water to milk
If you wish to switch 100% of your water to milk, there’s a simple calculation you can do. As milk is 87% water, you’ll need to use more milk than water to avoid a dry dough. To discover the amount of milk you should use, take the water amount in the recipe, divide by 87 and multiply by 100.
An example where converting a recipe with 500 grams of water to be replaced by milk:
Water = 500 grams 500 / 87 = 5.75 5.75 * 100 = 575 The recipe requires 575 grams of milk
Alternatively to discover the necessary baker’s percentage of milk, divide the percentage of water by 0.87.
| Percentage | Quantity required where 770 grams of flour is used | |
| Flour | 100% | 770 grams |
| Water | 65% | 500 grams |
| Milk | 75% | 575 grams |
What percentage of water should I use in bread?
Standard hydration rates for bread dough are 65% for white bread and 70% hydration for wholemeal recipes. Long fermented bread uses a higher water ratio. Artisan bakers can use 100% hydration and even higher. In contrast, bread with a close-knit crumb can be as low as 55% water.
Why water absorption matters
What is the problem with not using enough water?
Dough with a hydration level that is too low also prevents the gluten from being able to unwind and stretch. This creates a weaker dough structure with poor gas retention qualities, lowering the oven spring. A dense, dry crumb is also unpleasant to eat and stales quickly.
Is a higher hydration dough better?
Water is the cheapest ingredient in bread. It makes sense that the more water incorporated lower the production cost of the bread. Water allows the gluten to stretch and develop a strong gluten structure. It also provides moisture to keep the bread soft.
Can there be too much water in a bread recipe?
There’s a balance between a high-hydrated dough with a soft, open crumb and a problem. If the dough is too wet, excess water gets in the way of the developing gluten structure. The excess water almost works like a lubricant, protecting the gluten when kneading and preventing a network from developing. It’s also hard to work with!
The weight of the dough increases, and as its ability to retain gas lowers, the weakened structure often collapses. This collapse can occur when rising (it never rises) or commonly after cutting and baking. Though if the bread doesn’t collapse, large air bubbles alongside an irregular crust are likely. The additional moisture increases the risk of moulding too.
This sourdough loaf had too much water. It was lucky not to collapse, although it didn’t hold its shape very well.
Many bakers get excited by high hydration doughs with more than 80% water. But, giving the flour the right amount of water as opposed to the most amount of water produces better results -and less work for your dough scraper!
How to use hydration to make a softer crumb
As discovered in a forthcoming article, an essential feature of soft bread is a close-knit crumb. To achieve this, we reduce the amount of water in the recipe. Soft bread tends to have dough hydration of less than 60%.
When to adjust the water in a recipe
Why does dough remain sticky if I follow the recipe exactly?
All flour types require different water ratios to hydrate the flour correctly. So when following someone else recipe, there will still be variables in the type of flour used as well as other factors including; humidity, temperature, mixing efficiency and water quality.
Lower protein flour absorbs less water. So when using higher protein bread flour, the water should be increased.
If your dough is sticky, allow plenty of time for a long period for bulk fermentation (in the fridge if possible) and use stretch and folds instead of kneading to strengthen the gluten gradually.
If using high protein flour, how much should the water increase?
For every 1% increase of protein in the flour, the hydration percentage of the recipe should rise by 2.5%. The quality of the protein also makes a difference in the amount of water absorbed by the flour. This is represented by testing the flour with a farinograph.
Dough hydration calculator
Here’s a great tool for working out bakers percentages:
If you’ve enjoyed this article and wish to treat me to a coffee, you can by following the link below – Thanks x
Comment
Leave a Reply
Hi, I’m Gareth Busby, a baking coach, head baker and bread-baking fanatic! My aim is to use science, techniques and 15 years of baking experience to help you become a better baker.
Table of Contents
- How to calculate the hydration level of a recipe
- Calculating the amount of water required:
- Should the flour and water in a sourdough starter be included in the hydration of the recipe?
- Should I include other liquids in the hydration of the recipe?
- How to adjust the amount of water in a bread recipe when adding ingredients containing water
- How to convert a recipe from water to milk
- What percentage of water should I use in bread?
- Why water absorption matters
- When to adjust the water in a recipe
- Dough hydration calculator
Hi, I am planning to make a loaf in 3 days time which has to come out perfect as it’s for a presentation at my local Church. I will be using Shipton Mills bread flour and Hovis fast action yeast. I would like to preferment about 300 grams of flour and use in total 800 grams. For 300 grams flour I will use 1 gram of yeast 190 grams of water at 20 degrees C and leave it overnight at room temperature for 10/12 hours. For 500 grams of flour I will use 7 ozs water at 20C temperature 10 grams of salt 6 grams of fast action yeast. After kneading for a couple of minutes I will then incorporate the prefermented portion and go on from there leaving to rise, knead again, rise for 45 minutes, fold it over and tuck it in etc., Finally leave to rise for 15 minutes before baking in a dutch oven. Altogether 4 rises including the prefermented 300 gram one. The only problem I have is the symbols I have to place on top of the bread as well as a plait around it and a couple of stencils on top. Not sure at what stage I should do this. Also do I egg wash it or lightly oil it. I need the symbols and the plait to stick to the bread and the stencils to be prominent. Does this sound about right? Is there anything else I should do in order to succeed with a perfect bread. I am useless at maths and cannot work it out exactly. I also need to make a similar bread next year using 1 kilo of flour and I will really struggle to work out the water/yeast, salt ratio for this.
Hi Rita,
Appologies I’m a bit late for you.
You’re preferment is correct, although I would add it to the bowl for kneading as it’ll enhance the dough.
Salt is a bit low. Ideally 1.8-2% of the total flour used (800 grams), so 16 grams.
Yeast is perfect.
I’d leave it for longer than 15 minutes to rise. Possibly 1-2 hours, but it should still be ok if not. If you’re making a plait, it should be before this final rise.
Stensils go on just before it goes in the oven.
There are very few breads that have oil on them before they go in the oven. I’d steer clear. Egg wash if you want, but a plain look is fine.
Best and clearest explanation of baker’s math and hydration that I have come across.
Thank you 🙂
Excellent read. Thank you! Question: If you mix two doughs with differing hydration percentages, is the overall hydration the higher of the two? Say a purple corn flour is 67% and white sourdough is 78%. If you mix the two…then the total hydration is…?
If you are combining two recipes in the same dough with equal quantities of flour then:
67 + 78 = 145
145 / 2 = 72.5
If you’re using different quantities of flour, then add the total of flour used, and the total water and use the following:
( water / flour ) x 100 = hydration
Hope that helps, if I have missunderstood your question, let me know!
I’m trying to convert a white all-purpose commercially ground flour sourdough recipe to a home ground 100% whole wheat sourdough recipe. It calls for 1000g of flour and an additional 80 g 10 grain cereal, 50 g each of rolled oats, whole flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and quinoa. The recipe calls for these to soak in 310 g of water before they are added to the dough. I know I should include the water and the dry seeds/cereal as additional ingredients for the soak into the calculations. Do you have a guideline for what the hydration should be? My loaves keep cracking even though I’ve scored them.
as freshly milled flour is usually more moist than pre-ground, I’d start at around 68% hydration. So:
(1000 (flour weight) /100) x 68 = 680
Then remove the water added to the seed-and-grain soaker:
680 – 310 = 370
So you will add 370 grams of water to the recipe.
Regarding cracking, feel free to email me a picture, and I’ll throw some suggestions together.
Gareth,i may try making the Rosetta Rolls…I will let you know how they turn out!
Today i made Italian Rolls using Type oo flour with a 70 percent hydration that had a beautiful crumb plus great texture…..
Fantastic, I love Italian flour! I was recently introduced to Rosetta rolls, they were so delicious, I can’t recommend them enough.
Hi,Gareth! I just made a nice Italian Bread with a 60 percent hydration and the crumb was nice small holes.
That’s awesome Anthony!
In regular bread baking i just use flour water salt and yeast plus a tsp of honey to activate the yeast.
This is very interesting but over the years that i have been baking if a recipe called for 60% hydration using water,butter and egg…Example recipe..20 ounces flour xs 60 percent equal 12 ounce hydration..i would use 6 ounces of water plus 4 ounces of butter and one egg for my 60 percent hydration…
I follow you, and there are no set “rules” in bread baking. Hydration can be interpreted in different ways but the end result turns out the same. I often don’t include the flour and water in a preferment in the hydration of the recipe. It’s not quite “correct”, but it makes no difference in the bread that comes out of the oven! the recipe will still scale up and sown the same.
-I wouldn’t consider including butter in the hydration of the recipe as it is a solid fat, but if it works for you, crack on..
I’m not finding an answer to this. What if there are other ingredients that absorb water, like:
Buckwheat Whole
Flaxseed Whole
Amaranth Whole Grain
Corn Grits
Soy Protein
Potato Starch
Is it just the flour or do you add their weight into the water hydration calculation?
Although these ingredients absorb water, they shouldn’t be classed as flour in baker’s maths, it would be too complicated otherwise! You’ll just need to increase the hydration of the recipe to compensate.
Thanks Mick 🙂
Your explanations are extremely clear and precise easy to follow thank you so much.
Hi Gareth, I get your point about a 1% increase in gluten needs a 2.5% increase in hydration but what base level gluten does this work form 10%?
Hi Rob, I think I understand your question but correct me if I’m wrong! There is more to hydration than the quantity of gluten so it’s hard to provide an exact number. There’s the bran/starch quality, the dough development time and others to consider. The 2.5% increase of water per 1% is an industry-standard rule. The idea is that if you replace a 11% protein flour with a 12% one you should increase the water by 2.5%, but this is just a good place to start. It may need further adjusting. Most bread recipes with 12% bread flour will start with 65% hydration.
You’re welcome!
Gareth: thank you very much for the response and thorough explanation!
Hi Joan, thanks for your question. I wouldn’t consider the water content of cheese in the overall hydration percentage of the recipe. The reasons for this are:
– It is hard to find the water content of cheese, as it varies between types and brands, this information isn’t readily available
– Hard and medium cheese is a solid at room temperature so it won’t affect the consistency of the dough too much
– Soft cheese is wetter but I can’t think of a bread that uses soft cheese in the dough and not a topping/filling so whilst it might be considered as hydrating the dough, it’s not used in the dough!
The flour always adds up to 100% with any other ingredients a percentage of 100% so no, cheese and the flour would not be added together. The cheese would be separate. For example, if you were to use 200 grams of cheese to 1000 grams of flour, 650 grams of water, 20 grams of yeast and 18 grams of salt (cheese is salty so I’m not using a standard 2% salt for this recipe). The percentages would work out at:
Flour 100%
Water 65%
Yeast 2%
Salt 1.8%
Cheese 20%
Most bakers will delay the addition of cheese until the end of mixing (or midway through the first rise) as cheese isn’t important for dough development/fermentation.
Yes, you might find the dough is a little wetter and you might want to adjust your percentage of water to compensate but you wouldn’t include the content of the water in cheese or combine it with solid ingredients.
thank you for an excellent article Gareth. One question i had was whether you need to factor in (and how) the weight of other solid ingredients (beyond flour or cornmeal/grains/VWG etc) to calculate the hydration ratio. What i am concerned with in particular is cheeses – both hard cheeses grated or shredded to medium or even large size pieces, or finely grated such as shaker-type parmesan. Do you calculate water percentage of these ingredients and add to the liquids or do you take a certain percentage of the weight of these and add them to the weight of the flour etc . thank you.
Thank you Gareth!
Hi Gareth! It’s me again!
What if I want to use powdered milk? How do I know the ratio of milk to be added in water? Percentage and grams measurement please.
Thank you!
If I know the amount of water I need I would divide the water quantity by 87 and multiply by 13 to calculate the extra 13% of milk powder.
If I know the amount of milk I need I would split the milk into 87% water and 13% milk powder.
For 150 milk I would add 130.5 grams of water and 19.5 grams of milk.
There will always be a difference between brands, therefore you still might need to make further adjustments.
Thanks Gareth! I can see that the post has been updated. It does makes sense now.
You’re the best!
Hi Mariam, I’ve updated the post. Take a look now if it makes sense to you?
Gareth
Hi Gareth!
Thank you for this piece. However, I also do not understand the calculation for percentage of water in egg, milk, butter and oil. Kindly explain using a table. Thank you!
Hi Gareth!
I don’t understand the calculation on percentage of water in extra ingredients: butter, oil, milk and egg… It’s not clear to me please. Kindly explain it better using a chart.
Thank you!
Thank you for the information on water in oil and butter, etc. It’s not clear, though, whether to add those products to the hydration calculation at their calculated water amount or at their total amount. In other words, if I add 113 grams of butter, do I add 113 grams to my water amount in the calculation or do I add 113 x .15 (17 grams) to my water for calculating hydration?
Good question! You do the calculation to get 17 grams as that is the amount of water contained in the ingredient. I’ll make it clearer when I update it soon – Happy baking!