Sourdough Hydration

What is hydration? It’s the percent of water in a dough relative to the flour. It is calculated like this: grams of water divided by grams of flour. So if you have 750g water/1000g flour, you have a dough with 75% hydration. Without over complicating things, you also need to take into consideration the hydration of your pre-ferment (leaven or starter).

Hydration is only relevant if you know the type of flour being used in a recipe. Two loaves with the same hydration, but made with different flours, will likely be quite different. White bread flour absorbs water differently than whole wheat flour. Two different brands of flours, both white bread flours, will absorb water differently. The bottom line is that flours are all different. Their protein content varies, the way they’re milled varies and therefore the amount of water they absorb will vary.

Whole wheat or freshly milled flours tend to absorb more water than a bread flour as their protein content is higher.

Hydration can impact fermentation, elasticity and crumb structure, but it’s only useful in relation to the type of flour that’s used. For example, a whole wheat loaf might need an 80% hydration to achieve elastic dough, but that same hydration in a loaf that’s mostly white bread flour may be very slack, sticky and difficult to handle.

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