On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:39:51 -0700 (PDT), Eric Abrahamsen
> wrote:

>Well my first experiment was a disaster (too many new/unknown factors)
>but the second was very promising. Kenneth, it looks like you were
>right about the dryness of my original dough. Thanks again to all for
>the great advice.
>
>I've got one follow-up question: how does the starter itself figure in
>to the hydration measurements? I'm using 400g of flour, so that's 300g
>or so of water -- does the starter count as part of the weight of the
>water, or do I make an estimate of how to split it between flour and
>water weights? Do the quantity and liquidity of the starter make much
>difference to how the dough behaves?
>
>Thanks once more, this has been tremendously helpful! And I'm now
>keeping a bread journal.
>
>Yours,
>Eric

Hi Eric,

I keep my starter at 100% hydration.

That means that it is made up of equal weights of water, and
flour.

That system of measurement is called "Bakers' Percentage"
and it makes calculations very convenient.

It is just the ratio (by weight) of the water (or other
liquids) to flour. Note that it is NOT the ratio of water to
the total weight of the dough.

So, a 60% hydration dough is one that has 60 grams of water
for every 100 grams of flour.

It seems that folks who are starting out tend to make their
doughs too dry. I guess that is because it makes them easier
to handle.

But, with a bit of practice, it is easy to make wheat doughs
in the range of 70-75% with very little trouble.

Also remember that when first mixed, a dough will seem very
sticky. But, just letting it sit for 20 minutes or so will
cause the flour to absorb the water more fully. With that,
it will become much easier to handle.

With all that as intro...

Yes, both the water and the flour in your starter contribute
to the final dough, and should be included in the
calculations.

For example, using the 100% hydration starter I suggested,
200 grams of starter is just 100g of water, and 100g of
flour.

If I add 200g of such starter to 500g of flour and 320g of
water I would have a dough with a total of 420g of water,
and 600g of flour.

For that dough, the ratio of water to flour is 70% (420/600)

The only other thing needed would be some salt. Typically,
that is added at the rate of about 2% (again, by weight
because we are using the Bakers' Percentage system.) So, the
dough we are working with would get the addition of 12g of
salt (12/600 = 2%).

I hope that this is of some help, and wish you the best,
--
Kenneth

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