Challenges of hydration in sourdough bread making is Part 2 in a three-part series about the unique challenges of working with whole wheat flour. Both the bran and the germ left in whole grain flour as it is milled are ‘thirsty’ for any moisture that can be added. This means your hydration level will have to be adjusted to between five and fifteen percent higher than for other bread flour.

Hydration means how much water you should use per 100 grams of flour. Some call this Baker’s Math or Baker’s Percentages. For example, if your recipe called for 60% hydration for 1000 grams (8 scant cups) of bread flour then you would add 600 grams (2½ cups) of water. But that same recipe with 1000 grams (8 heaping cups) whole wheat flour would likely call for 78% hydration, or 780 grams (or 3¼ cups) of water. Likewise, 80% hydration would be 800 grams of water per 1000 grams of flour, (see chart at #1 Seven Sourdough Baking Tips and Techniques).

Then there is this problem with whole-wheat dough, as it also goes through some transformations during the autolyse and first stretch and folds, the dough will not as shaggy as with other flour, but dry and lumpy. It is then I am always tempted to add more water and sometimes do, but only a quarter cup (60mls) or less.

But watch out because as the gluten develops, it releases moisture back into itself, which makes it a very wet and sticky dough. However by the third turn of stretching and folding it usually comes back together, albeit as a very wet and sometimes hard to handle dough.

For that reason, many bakers retard the whole wheat dough with ice water before, and for the long ferment, they place it in a fridge to chill. This leaves it easier to handle later when shaping, but it also allows the dough to reabsorb water added for the higher hydration called fore. The nice thing about cold dough, it that you will be able to handle the stickiness of its higher hydration more easily.

To understand whole wheat hydration better, I am reading Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart, whichhas become my handbook to whole grains. Happily, he explains the science behind hydration:

“One thing that distinguishes wheat from the other agricultural grasses, such as rye, barley, corn, and oats, is the amount and quality of its protein, and especially it’s potential to generate the tenacious and elastic protein known as gluten.”[1]

Interestingly, grain proteins come in many sizes and shapes that “bend and fold upon themselves,” when mixed with water, he explains, or they may “loop around and around, and some pleat into wavy sheets with other proteins.” Some even ball-up “or form random-coil configurations. These shapes and various types of bonding are affected by heat, hydration, agitation, and exposure to salt and other ingredients,” he explains, continuing:

“Wheat kernels contain four major types of protein: gliadin, glutenin, albumin, and globulin. Although we often think of gluten as the protein in wheat flour, it does not actually exist in wheat; it develops later, when flour is hydrated and gliadin and glutenin bond together to make the longer, stronger protein we call gluten. Albumin and globulin are water-soluble, that is, they dissolve in water.”[2]

But as Reinhart clarifies, these proteins “are not water-soluble. Rather than dissolving in water, they form a colloidal suspension, in which the protein molecules are somewhat dispersed but also somewhat organized due to the influence of many factors, including electrostatic charges.”

The word gluten in Latin means ‘glue,’ he spelled out, “making it an apt name for this protein, as it has a sticky nature, forming and reforming bonds with other protein molecules, connecting and sticking… eventually creating a more complex alignment.

“In other words, as you work a dough and repeatedly bring its protein molecules into contact with one another, the molecules become more and more organized and tightly knit.” Then he said “that the protein structure of bread dough is very complex and also an extremely important determinant of the quality of the final loaf. Time, temperature, movement, hydration, and interactions with other ingredients, such as enzymes, all contribute to the performance of those all-important proteins during the bread-making process.”[3]

At first, working with high hydration doughs may seem difficult. But this is more in your mind than in the dough—it however does take some getting used to.  The weekendbakery.com lists these ideas when working wet and very soft dough:

  1. “Do not start out with the stickiest of dough recipes,” they suggest. Get comfortable working with doughs that are just slightly sticky first. Then move on to higher hydrations.
  2. You have “to come to terms with the stickiness of it. You will ask yourself: ‘Should it be this sticky?'” And you may “end up with more dough on your hands than your work surface!” But don’t panic they promised, “it’s all part of the wonderful journey that eventually leads to the land of creamy crumb and crusty loaves!”
  3.  They suggest you to ask yourself, “‘How sticky is sticky?’ ‘How sticky is right for this particular recipe?’ Find out first, from the recipe, or from people who have made it, so you won’t spoil it by adding tons of flour until you think you can handle the dough. It can range from tacky, to sticky to very sticky. From post-it sticky to ‘it’s OK’ to have pieces of dough sticking to your fingers. So, find out what level of stickiness goes with your recipe so you can judge for yourself if your dough has the right consistency.”
  4. Nail down the best techniques:
    • “Make swift decisive, yet gentle confident moves and do not fumble about too much with the dough.
    • “Using the stretching and folding technique will strengthen your dough and with each stretch and fold and the passing of time, it will become easier [to handle] … Don’t freak out if your hands get a bit doughy, especially during the first few stretch and fold stages of very wet dough like 80% hydration baguette there will be sticky dough bits clinging to your hands. Just keep breathing and scrape them off with your plastic scraper.”
    • Oil your hands while folding the dough. “Some people lightly wet their hands. Other work “dry, with maybe a bit of flour. Test different methods and see what works for you.”
    • As you get more experience working with a wet dough, “you will find you need less and less flour.” Just keep trying and believe in the process
  5. To clean up, use cold water to wash your hands, “this will best dissolve the dough …warm/hot water will sort of cook the dough and make it more sticky.”
  6. Don’t work without the tools you need:
    • “Use a dough scraper to assist you when lifting, dividing and transferring the dough.
    • Spray “your scoring knife/lame with cooking spray just before scoring your sticky loaf or baguette…it cuts just that little bit easier through the dough.”
    • And you may find that you like to lightly oil your work surface.[4]

When it comes time to baking highly hydrated bread do not cheat your bread of a preheated hot oven (500°F/260°C). It is vital to get the core temperature of the dough above 200°F/93.3°C which is best-done beginning with a very hot oven, allowing ample baking time, and testing the core with a digital probe thermometer. Otherwise, excess moisture in the dough will “soften the crust while cooling, and with a too low core temperature, the crumb will not get the chance to fully stabilize.”[5]

Another trick I use is a baking stone that is preheated with the oven. I also use descending temperatures beginning with the hottest for the first 20 minutes of baking. Then I turn the loaf out from the baking container onto the hot stone and reduce the heat by 50°F/10°C for the next 20 minutes. After that I allow the bread to cool in the oven on the stone for at least 20 more minutes and sometimes overnight. This produces creamy crumb and crusty loaves that are the promise of high hydration

It is clear that using whole-wheat flour in sourdough bread baking, hydration plays a big role in the final product. With a bit of practice, you will be able to learn how to work with sticky dough and make great bread using more moisture.

Be sure to read Part I in this series, “Working with Whole Wheat White Flour” and learn about how enzymes affect the rise of whole wheat dough in Part III, “Bacteria, Wild Yeast, and Enzymes in Whole Wheat Flour.”

ENDNOTES

1–3 Peter Reinhart, Whole Grain Breads, Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale (Kindle Edition), 2011.
(Reinhart suggests, “For those wishing to get deeper into this level of cereal chemistry, you can refer to Emily Buehler’s book Bread Science.)
4–5 “Tips on handling high hydration dough,” weekendbakery. com

 

Author: Darryl Alder lives with his wife in Riverside Lodge, which is their home, along the Provo River in Utah. He is a retired career Scouter and outdoorsman who spent many hours over a campfire using a Dutch oven and loves sharing recipes for the kitchen and the campfire alike. You can read many of his recipes on this site by searching for Sourdough Saturday or Recipes on the top right-hand side of the blog.