Dough Hydration Explained: Baker’s Percentages for Better Bread

What hydration means

Hydration is the weight of water in a dough divided by the weight of flour, written as a percentage. King Arthur Baking counts water-containing liquids such as milk toward the total, and counts the flour and water inside a preferment or sourdough starter too. A dough with 500 g of flour and 350 g of water is 70% hydration.

Weighing is the whole point. A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from about 120 to 150 g depending on how it is scooped, so volume recipes cannot tell you the real hydration.

What the numbers feel like

Higher is not automatically better. Braids, bagels and pretzels are meant to be stiff, and wet enriched doughs can bake up slumpy.

The starter trap

Recipes often list water and flour separately from the starter, which hides some of the water. Take 500 g flour, 350 g water and 100 g of 100%-hydration starter. The starter adds 50 g of flour and 50 g of water, so the true hydration is 400 ÷ 550 = 72.7%, not 70%.

Flour changes everything

Whole wheat, rye and high-protein bread flours absorb more water than all-purpose flour. King Arthur notes that a whole wheat dough at 75% feels stiffer than an all-purpose dough at the same number. When you swap flours, expect to adjust by a few percent — and change the formula permanently only after the dough tells you it is right.

Baker’s percentages in five minutes

In baker’s percentages, flour is always 100%, and every other ingredient is a percentage of the flour weight. A simple lean dough might be:

To make 1,800 g of dough (two loaves of 900 g), divide by the total: 1,800 ÷ 1.73 = 1,040 g flour. Then water is 728 g, salt 21 g and yeast 10 g. Want three loaves instead? Change only the target weight — the percentages stay the same.

Pizza dough by the numbers

Pizza doughs are usually written in baker’s percentages too. A typical Neapolitan-style dough sits around 60–65% hydration with about 2.5–3% salt and a small amount of yeast for a long ferment; New York styles add a little oil. Our pizza calculator builds the full formula from the number of dough balls you want.

Adjusting safely

• Change water in small steps of 2–3% between bakes.
• Hold back 5–10% of the water and add it during mixing if the dough can take it.
• Use folds during bulk fermentation to build strength in wetter doughs instead of adding flour.

Converting a cup recipe to grams

To use hydration, you need weights. Weigh your own cup of flour the way you normally scoop it, or use a standard conversion from a trusted baking chart, and convert water by volume (1 ml of water weighs 1 g). Once a recipe is in grams, write it as baker’s percentages and you can scale it to any size.

Handling wet dough

• Wet your hands rather than flouring them; extra flour changes the hydration.
• Use a bench scraper to move and pre-shape the dough.
• Build strength with folds. Stretch-and-folds or coil folds during bulk fermentation organize the gluten without adding flour.
• Autolyse: mixing just flour and water and resting it for 20–60 minutes before adding salt and leavening makes wetter doughs easier to work.

Temperature matters too

Fermentation speed depends heavily on dough temperature. Many bakers aim for a final dough temperature in the mid-70s °F and adjust the water temperature to get there. A warm kitchen can make a high-hydration dough feel looser and over-ferment quickly; a cool one gives you more time.

Troubleshooting by symptom

Scaling up for a crowd

Baker’s percentages make scaling exact. Decide the number of loaves or pizzas and the weight of each, add 1–3% for dough left on the bowl and bench, and let the calculator divide by the total formula percentage. Every ingredient stays in proportion, including salt and yeast.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• King Arthur Baking: Bread hydration

This guide is for planning and general information. Check product labels, local codes and a qualified professional for your specific project. How we research and check our content.