April 28, 2009 - 5:02am
oil & wheat bran, considered in hydration percentage?
Greetings
When calculating dough's hydration percentage, do you take only the weight of water only, in relation to the weight of flour? or do you add up all liquids, including oil, in the equation? I ask because I noticed that some websites do not add oil's weight to water, and some add it. So which is correct?
On the other side, if a recipe calls for adding wheat bran in the dough, should we add its weight to the flour when we calculate the hydration percentage?
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My understanding is that you don't use the oil (fats) but use the percentage of an item such as eggs that are water. (Eggs are approx 75 % water.) I would use the wheat bran, since you would include it in terms of a whole wheat flour.
The one fat that I might include part of is butter. It is at least 80% butter fat (USA) the rest water and milk solids. Butter I might use 10 % as water. Others may have a different view.
Dave
I happened to be reading Hamelman's "Bread" tonight, the section on fats, and according to the text, oils such as olive, soy, and canola are liquifiers and their weight is included with that of the water when computing dough hydration.
Since cornmeal is usually included in the flour computation, am guessing that wheat bran should be as well.
Just yesterday in culinary school, one of the chef-educatoirs remarked that deep fat frying is considered a dry heat cooking method. Oil clearly behaves differently in bread than it does in the deep fryer.