After messing around for the summer I’ve settled on a favorite dough. It works just as well in the electric oven as in the wood oven and has a great flavour thanks to the use of beer. I was worried that the alcohol and carbonation might interfere with the yeast but it doesn’t seem to slow things down at all. At 70% hydration it’s super sticky and a hassle to kneed but it only takes a couple minutes to get all the flour incorporated, then I let it proof for a little longer. After proofing and dividing I give it a serious stretch and fold before shaping and that makes up for my half-ass kneed.
TL;DR
- 2/3 ap flour, 1/3 whole wheat
- 70% hydration with 2/3 of that being room temp lager
- 2% salt
- 1.5% yeast
How do you measure hydration?
In baking it’s the percentage of the weight of the flour. So if you used 100g of flour, 70% hydration is 70g of water. The same goes for the 2g of salt and 1.5g of yeast.
Using percentages makes it way easier to be consistent, and get repeatable results.