Warning: My too-wet dough disaster taught me a hard lesson about hydration percentages

My buddy Steve, who bakes sourdough out of his garage in Denver, told me to stick to 72% hydration for high-altitude baking, but I pushed it to 80% and ended up with a sticky mess that collapsed into a flat pancake after 3 hours of proofing, has anyone else ignored a pro's advice and regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_clark371mo ago

72% at altitude is already pushing it honestly, I'm at 5500 feet and my sweet spot for sourdough is like 68% to 70% tops. My first attempt at 78% turned into soup with a skin on top because the gluten never got strong enough to hold the gas. I bet your 80% dough just couldn't keep up with the Denver air pressure, it expands so fast up there that the structure gives out before you get any oven spring. The real trick is that lower hydration gives you way more margin for error at altitude because it slows down the whole fermentation timeline. Next time try 70% and give it a longer cold retard in the fridge, that really helps tighten everything up.

lewis.finley1mo ago

Actually I used to think higher hydration was always better no matter what, but @joel_clark37 you're making a lot of sense here. I tried 80% at 6000 feet once and it just spread out like pancake batter before I could even get it in the oven, total disaster. Lowering to 70% and giving it a longer cold ferment really does change everything, I started doing that last month and my crumb is way more consistent now.

victor7791mo agoTop Commenter

I mean, I gotta push back a little here because I've actually had more luck at higher hydration even at altitude, maybe it's just my setup or whatever but 80% works fine for me at 6500 feet if I drop the yeast a ton and use ice cold water to keep the dough from overheating during mixing. Idk, the whole idea that lower hydration automatically fixes things feels like people are just scared to deal with sticky dough and learning proper lamination instead of blaming the altitude. I've been running 78% for like six months now and my oven spring is actually better than when I was at 68%, the crumb opens up way more with that extra water even if it's a pain to handle at first.