Say you have two favorite and trusted bread recipes, one using white bread flour and the other all-wheat flour. Each recipe has an “ideal” hydration (ratio of flour and water in the dough): less water for the one bread flour and more for the thirstier whole wheat one. Now, say you want to make a new recipe using a combination of two flours in equal proportions, for a dough that behaves more or less identically to the other two.
An easy, if slightly impractical, way to do this would be to simply make two half-batches of single-flour dough separately and then cook them together until they become a smooth, single dough. Such a combined “hybrid” dough will also have the ideal hydration for the new flour combination and will make excellent bread, just like the two doughs from which it is made. Of course, it will be fundamentally different from the originals because it now contains a mixture of two flours rather than one, but the amount of water it contains will still be “correct” for that new combination.
Once you have reliable single-flour formulas, you can calculate the ideal hydration of a new formula by combining them on paper rather than in a mixing bowl.
You can also mix them together in different ratios – say 80% bread flour and 20% whole wheat in one batch, and 20% bread flour and 80% whole wheat in the other. Once again, the two resulting doughs will be different, but each will be hydrated exactly as the dough they started with was, too.
No baker does this sort of thing in practice, but as a thought experiment, it illustrates how to accurately (and easily) determine the ideal hydration for a new dough from familiar ones. This last detail is key: You need to know the ideal hydration for each individual flour for it to work.
Once you have reliable single-flour formulas, you can calculate the ideal hydration of a new formula by combining them on paper instead of in a mixing bowl.
Let's look at an example; but first, what is dough hydration?
What is dough hydration?
Dough hydration is simply the ratio of water to flour in a dough, represented by a percentage. If a formula includes a preference—like any sourdough—then the amount of flour and water in it must first be added to the flour and water in the final dough. (If a recipe includes a “total formula” table, the calculation is already done for you.) Once you know the total amount of flour and water in a formula, hydration is determined by dividing the total weight of water by the total weight of flour, then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.
What is the ideal hydration for bread dough?
“Ideal” bread dough hydration means a ratio of flour to water that is known to work for a particular style of dough using that flour. Each flour has an ideal hydration range, meaning a range within which you get a workable dough and a good loaf of bread. Below this range, the dough will be too stiff to make bread, and above that, soup.
Maybe you'll figure these numbers out yourself through experimentation, or maybe you'll start with formulas from someone else (say, the ones here at The Perfect Loaf). Exactly where a baker lands within the ideal hydration range for them dough and bread depends on what they're going for (extra stretch, an easier dough to handle, a softer crumb, etc.)—a person's ideal hydration for a particular flour might be different from that of another.
An example: Combining two doughs with known hydration to make a third, ideally hydrated dough
Before you start combining the dough, you can do it first on paper with baker's percentages. Let's look at two simple bread recipes and then combine them into a new, ideally hydrated recipe.
Note that in the example below, we're looking at the total formula for each which includes the beginning of sourdoughflour and water in the weights of the ingredients listed.
Dough One (100% white flour with high protein)
Ideal hydration: 73.0%
Dough two (100% whole wheat flour)
Ideal hydration: 90.0%
| ingredient | Weight |
|---|---|
| Whole wheat flour | 500 gr |
| water | 450 g |
Creating a new dough from dough one and dough two
Photo by Andrew Janjigian.
Photo by Andrew Janjigian.
Photo by Andrew Janjigian.
Now, when you combine the ingredients of these two doughs together, you get this:
| ingredient | Weight |
|---|---|
| Bread flour | 500 gr |
| Whole wheat flour | 500 gr |
| water | 815 g (365 g + 450 g) |
To calculate the hydration of a new hybrid combined dough, add the weight of the flour together and then divide the weight of water by that number:
815g water ÷ 1000g flour = 81.5% hydration
In other words, if the ideal hydration of your 100% bread flour dough is 73% and the ideal hydration of your 100% whole wheat dough is 90%, then the ideal hydration of a 50-50% bread and whole wheat mix. flours will be 81.5%, the average hydration of the two initial doughs.
Keeping it simple: Finding ideal hydration without formulas
There's an even simpler way to determine the ideal hydration of a new dough that doesn't require any formulas at all: Simply multiply the percentage of each flour in the new dough by its ideal hydration, then add the percentages together:
50% bread flour: 0.5 x 73% = 36.5%
50% whole wheat flour: 0.5 x 90% = 45%
36.5% + 45% = 81.5%
You can do this with any flour ratio, not just a 50-50 mix. Instead say you want to make a dough that is 80% bread flour and 20% whole wheat flour:
80% bread flour: 0.8 x 73% = 58.4%
20% full wheat flour: 0.2 x 90% = 18%
58.4% + 18% = 76.4%
Or one that consists of 80% wheat flour and 20% bread flour:
80% complete wheat flour: 0.8 x 90% = 72%
20% bread flour: 0.2 x 73% = 14.6%
72% + 14.6% = 86.6%
Does this work for more than two types of flour?
Yes, this works even for doughs containing three (or more) flours. Using the whole wheat bread and flour from above, say you also have a 100% whole grain formula with an ideal hydration of 84%. Next, you want to create a formula that consists of 70% bread flour, 15% whole wheat, and 15% thawed:
70% bread flour: 0.7 x 73% = 51.1%
15% whole wheat flour: 0.15 x 90% = 13.5%
15% melted flour: 0.15 x 84% = 12.6%
51.1% + 13.5% + 12.6% = 77.2%
I hope this clarifies how useful this concept is for formula creation. It's a big reason I personally focus so much on perfecting single-flour formulas—they may be simple, but they make a reliable jumping-off point for an endless number of more complex variations. Once you have a tried and true collection of basic formulas, there's no limit to the number of new ones you can easily make using this approach.
What is expected next?
Now that you know how to calculate the ideal hydration for a new dough based on two previously known ones, a good place to try it is with a tried and true dough. sourdough recipe with flour for all purposes and one whole wheat recipe.
