For context, I've been baking sourdough for a few years and decided I'd give very high hydration (Maurizio Leo's 85% hydration loaf) a go… In my very humid and hot southern kitchen (lol). I felt like I was losing my mind .. I couldn't get any of the past ten or so loaves to keep their shape.
I decided to just create my own recipe at 72% hydration with balanced whole wheat and bread flours:
500 g bread flour
100 g whole wheat
360 g water
100 g 100% hydration levain
The dough was immediately so much easier to take shape. 40 min autolyse WITH the levain. I barely had to do any folds. I spaced out two gentle stretch and folds over one hour 30 min apart. Let it rest for about 4 more hours. Pre shape, 30 min rest. Shaped and into bannetons into the fridge for ~18 hours.
And lo and behold… I finally got back to where I was with rise and spring (last picture is one of the 85% hydration loaves next to the recipe above…lol). Id love to get more air eventually and am tinkering with that (would love any input!) but…
I guess the moral of the story is… High hydration doughs just aren't for everyone (especially us southern folks in the summer) and you're not bad at sourdough baking if you cant master it 😅 I will say.. the high hydration doughs made and EXCELLENT focaccia for what's it's worth.
Ok, back to perusing this sub and oohing and ahhing over all of your amazing loaves!!!
by shelbycake2
8 Comments
RAHHHHH beautiful 🐇
Nice crumb! And I did that high hydration Perfect Loaf recipe recently, but I only ended up adding water until like ~77% hydration. Were you always adding the full amount so the hydration was at 85%?
That’s the dream right there. When you say autolyse with levain, isn’t that the normal way? I guess excluding salt? Or am I missing something?
Goooooorgeous!!!!
Look at that ear!
What is really the hydration % when flours have different absorption rates and max saturations? I’ve been thinking about that lately and this reminds me of that. Great looking loaf keep up the good work!! 🍞
Right hydration is better than high hydration.
I get why there is an obsession with high hydration but I always smh when I see people trying 90% hydration with like AP flour. High is relative to flour and how much water it can take. So for me 70% would be high for an AP loaf, whereas a whole wheat/bread flour combo 80% is relatively low.
That’s because whole grains absorb a lot more water than white flours.