Why does my high-hydration dough turn into a sticky puddle?

Puddle-like dough happens when your flour lacks the protein strength (gluten) to absorb high water volumes, or when dough is over-fermented. Standard all-purpose flour cannot absorb more than 68-70% hydration. Use high-protein bread flour (≥12.5% protein) or reduce water by 5%.

How much salt should always be in sourdough bread?

The gold standard is 2.0% of total flour weight (e.g. 10g salt per 500g flour). Salt tightens the gluten network, regulates yeast fermentation, and prevents bland, tasteless bread.

How does starter hydration split mathematically?

For a 100% hydration starter (1:1 ratio), half the weight is water and half is flour (50g water + 50g flour per 100g starter). For a 80% hydration starter, flour = starter / 1.8 and water = starter - flour.

Free Sourdough Hydration & Baker's Percentage Calculator

🍞 Recipe Ingredients (in Grams)

Recipe Style Preset

Main Flour Weight (g) Bread, whole wheat, or rye

Added Water Weight (g) Warm water added to mix

Active Sourdough Starter (g) Typically 15% - 20% of flour

Starter Hydration (%) 100% = equal parts flour & water

Fine Sea Salt (g) Standard: 2.0% of flour

Olive Oil / Fat (Optional g)

📊 Hydration & Baker's Percentage

True Dough Hydration 72.7% Factors starter water

Total Dough Batch Yield 960 g Total unbaked mass

Total Flour (Main + Starter): 550 g (100.0%)

Total Water (Added + Starter): 400 g (72.7%)

Starter Inoculation Rate: 20.0% of flour

Baker's Salt Percentage: 1.82% (Ideal: 1.8 - 2.2%)

✅ Handling: Moderately extensible artisan dough. Performs well with coil folds and overnight banneton proof.

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What is True Sourdough Hydration?

Many amateur sourdough recipes calculate hydration simply as (rac{ ext{Added Water}}{ ext{Main Flour}}). However, a standard 100% hydration sourdough starter is half water and half flour by weight! If you add 100 grams of starter to 500g flour and 350g water, you are actually introducing an extra 50g of water and 50g of flour.

True Hydration (%) = (Added Water + Starter Water) / (Main Flour + Starter Flour) × 100

Understanding Baker's Percentages

In professional baking, all ingredient weights are expressed as a percentage of the Total Flour Weight (defined strictly as 100%). This allows scaling any recipe from a single 800g loaf to a commercial 500 kg batch without altering dough fermentation or crumb texture.

Hydration vs Crumb Structure

65% to 70% Hydration: Stiffer dough, tight uniform crumb, easy to shape into tight boules with dramatic ear blisters.
75% to 80% Hydration: Soft, supple artisan dough producing wild, irregular honeycomb open crumbs (alveoli). Requires strong gluten development via stretch-and-folds.
82%+ Hydration: Extreme open crumb, pudding-like dough texture suited for focaccia or Roman pizza al taglio.