Dough Hydration Calculator

It depends on the bread type. For beginners, 65-68% is manageable and produces excellent sandwich bread. Artisan loaves shine at 68-75%. Ciabatta and focaccia require 75-85%. Higher hydration gives larger holes and lighter crumb but is harder to shape and handle.

Baker's percentage is a system where each ingredient is expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight. Flour is always 100%. So a recipe with 500g flour, 350g water, and 10g salt has 70% hydration and 2% salt. This makes recipes scalable and universally comparable regardless of batch size.

Yes. Whole wheat flour absorbs approximately 5-10% more water than white all-purpose flour because bran particles soak up liquid. If your white flour recipe uses 68% hydration, increase to 73-78% when substituting 100% whole wheat flour.

Neapolitan pizza: 58-62% for a soft, supple dough that stretches thin. New York style: 62-66% for a foldable, slightly chewy slice. Sicilian/Detroit pan: 70-75% for a light, airy, focaccia-like thick crust. Higher hydration creates lighter texture but is stickier to handle.

Higher hydration generally produces better oven spring because more water converts to steam during baking, expanding the crumb. However, above approximately 80%, the dough may lack the structural strength to rise vertically and instead spreads laterally, especially without proper pre-shaping and surface tension.

Autolyse is resting mixed flour and water (without salt or yeast) for 20-60 minutes before the full mix. It allows flour to fully absorb water and begins gluten development passively. Autolyse makes high-hydration doughs significantly easier to handle by improving water absorption before adding strengthening ingredients.

A 100% hydration starter is 50% flour and 50% water by weight. Add the starter's flour to your total flour and its water to your total water before calculating. For example: 450g flour + 100g starter (50g flour + 50g water) + 330g water = (450+50) flour, (330+50) water = 380/500 = 76% hydration.

Most sourdough bread recipes use 70-78% hydration. The extended fermentation time in sourdough baking makes the dough more extensible, allowing bakers to use higher hydration than yeasted breads. Beginner sourdough bakers should start at 70% and work up to 75%+ as their shaping skills improve.

Yes. Above 85-90% hydration, most doughs become extremely difficult to shape, lose structural integrity, and bake flat rather than rising tall. Very high hydration works only for pan-baked breads (focaccia, ciabatta) where the pan provides support during baking.

Eggs are approximately 75% water and 13% fat. Milk is about 87% water. When using these liquid ingredients, count their water content toward total hydration. For example, 50g of whole egg contributes about 37.5g of water to your hydration calculation.

Hydration is the baker's percentage (water ÷ flour × 100), which describes the recipe ratio. Moisture content is the percentage of water in the finished baked product (typically 35-40% for bread). They are related but not the same — baking evaporates a significant portion of the water.

High-hydration doughs (above 72%) are naturally sticky. This is expected. Use wet hands, a bench scraper, and minimal flour when handling. The stretch-and-fold technique (instead of traditional kneading) builds gluten structure without adding excess flour that would change the hydration.