The Dough Handbook
Hydration is water weighed against flour, and it governs how a dough feels, ferments, and bakes.
The calculation is simple: divide the weight of the water by the weight of the flour and multiply by 100. Five hundred grams of water against eight hundred grams of flour is 62.5% hydration. Because it is a ratio, it scales from a single loaf to a bakery batch without change.
Low hydration, around 55–60%, gives stiff doughs that hold sharp shapes and bake to a fine, even crumb — bagels and many sandwich loaves live here. Mid-range hydration, 65–75%, is where most country loaves sit: the dough is supple, shapes without fighting, and bakes to a crumb that is open but still sliceable.
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Above 80% the dough turns slack and sticky, and handling rather than mixing becomes the skill: wet hands, folds instead of kneading, gentle shaping. The reward is a wide-open, glossy crumb and a thin, crisp crust, since the extra water becomes steam in the oven.
Hydration is not a fixed property of a recipe but a negotiation with a flour. Whole-grain flours and freshly milled grains absorb more water, more slowly; aged white flour absorbs less. The practical method is to hold back a tenth of the water, mix, then add the rest until the dough feels right.
Water temperature is the second lever. Because the target after mixing is a dough near 24–26 °C, bakers warm or chill the water to compensate for cold flour or a hot kitchen. It is the cheapest fermentation control available.
Further reading