Hydration (baking)

Hydration is the ratio of water (or other liquid) to flour in a dough, expressed as a percentage. In baker’s percentages (where flour is always 100%), a dough with 600 g water and 1000 g flour has 60% hydration.

Typical hydration ranges for common breads:

• Stiff dough (bagels, English muffins): 50-60%
• Standard bread (sandwich loaf, baguette): 60-70%
• Artisan high-hydration (ciabatta, focaccia, sourdough): 70-85%
• Very high hydration (some sourdough styles, brioche-adjacent): 85-100%+

Higher hydration produces a more open crumb (larger irregular holes), a chewier texture, a shinier crust. It’s also more difficult to handle — the dough is sticky and slack, requires gentler techniques (stretch-and-folds rather than kneading), and benefits from longer fermentation.

Why baker’s percentages rather than ratios: when scaling a recipe, baker’s percentages stay constant. A 60% hydration dough is 60% whether you’re making 500 g of dough or 50 kg. The math: hydration % = (water mass / flour mass) × 100.

Hydration interacts with flour protein content. Higher-protein bread flour can absorb more water before becoming unworkable than all-purpose flour, which is why pro bakers prefer it for high-hydration breads. Wholewheat absorbs even more.