When bakers talk about a bread recipe, the amount of water (or hydration) compared to the amount of flour is always a talking point. A basic white block of bread has 60% water which is a basic bench mark for a bread dough. Any less than this, and the dough is considered dry, any more water, and the dough gets stickier and harder to work with.
The wettest dough that bakers make is a Ciabatta and Turkish dough that generally take 80% to 90% water, and this is considered VERY wet. But when I heard about a machine that can process doughs up to 97% water, I thought 'Who the hell is crazy enough to make bread that sloppy?'
Challenge accepted. I will make a bread dough that is 95% water, and it will be the best in the world! (insert evil laugh). So that turned out to be easy, mixing 5kg flour and 4.75L of water. Once I got all that water in, I thought 'It is only 5% more to make it 100%... Why not go all out?' So I did. With carefull mixing, and being very gentle when I cut it out, I managed to make a 100% hydrated dough.
Who would be crazy enough to make bread that sloppy? I was.
So, how did it taste?
ReplyDeleteOf course Dave! I forgot the most important bit! While I was focusing mainly on trying to get as much water into the dough as I could, I was surprised by the flavor of the bread in the end product. A very mild lactic taste was produced which is usually one of the byproducts of wetter doughs. The thing I thought was interesting, was the texture of the bread. With a thin crust and chewy centre, it actually had a feel like a crumpet when I ate it.
DeletePerhaps toasted and a bit of honey on it would be a great breakfast!
Hey, I sold some of that today :)
ReplyDelete