Looks I'll need graph paper for my baking journal!

Thanks again,
eric

On Oct 18, 11:23*am, Sam >
wrote:
> 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?
>
> What really happens would require very precise measurements of time,
> temperature, initial starter conditions and all that.
>
> During fermentation, the organisms convert carbohydrates into CO2 which
> escapes and water which makes your starter more hydrated as fermentation
> goes on.
> There is also a weight loss involved - the gas escaping.
>
> Luckily, for a hobby baker, all these factors can be neglected. I
> measure fermentation weight losses in the 2. stage of the Detmold
> 3-Stage process (24 hours) in the area of 1.2, 1.5 %.
>
> With that ignored and your question if starter hydration makes a
> difference? It sure does.
>
> Does it matter in your bread making depends how much starter you use, at
> what hydration and how much you care at all as long as the bread comes
> out fine.
>
> If you make a particular dough, you may notice hydration changes of 1 %
> have an effect.
>
> If your starter has 100 % hydration and you use 15 % starter flour in
> your (assumed white flour) dough, 1000 g dough weight, 2 % salt, 60 %
> dough hydration, the total water is 370 g and from that, the starter
> water is 93 g.
>
> ( pulled this from my calculator: *http://samartha.net/cgi-bin/SDcalc04..pl)
>
> If you vary your starter by 10 %, the water from that changes by 9 g
> which is 3 % in total dough and you sure will notice that.
>
> There is no way to avoid considering starter flour and water in your
> bread making and you can pretty much neglect the fermentation losses
>
> If you make your starter amount so small that the water falls below 1 %
> - you're growing a new starter.
>
> Sam