Weigh It

Ok, this is a wake up call. The recipe called for 3.5 cups of flour, or 418g. I measured the 3.5 cups for the first three attempts. This resulted in a dry dough, even when combined with the maximum amount of water. And the crumb was rather dense. Denser than I wanted, anyway. The recipe calls for:

• Starter: 0.5c water + Dough: 1.25c = 1.75c = 396g
• Starter: 1c flour + Dough: 3.5c = 4.5c = 538g

This comes to a hydration of 396/538 = 0.73 = 73%. Theoretically, a nice wet dough that should produce a very hole-y crumb. But there was a problem converting from cups to grams. The water was fine, but the flour was a problem. For the first three attempts I used volume measures. For the fourth attempt I decided to use weight, and I measured out the 4.5 cups to see what it weighed. YIKES, it weighed 607g! So a hydration of 396/607 = 0.65 = 65%, waaaaay different. Much drier and admittedly easier to knead dough. Very curious to see how tonight's loaves turn out. At Duncan's request, I will make one loaf of pain d'epi, he enjoyed the look of it and called it a thorn loaf. Followup post when I have pictures of the resultant loaves.