October 10, 2020 - 5:45am
add oat flour
I'm looking to add oat flour to a sourdough recipe.. If I would normally do 80% bread flour, 20% whole wheat, 75% hydration, would swapping in oat flour to say 60% bread flour, 20% whole wheat, 20% oat flour require a change in the hydration? I've seen oat porridge recipes recommend lower hydration because the porridge has water in it, but I'm adding oat flour not porridge.
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From your numbers, it looks like you're subbing in oat flour for the white bread flour.
Oat flour is generally whole grain, that is, with all the bran. White bread flour has little to no bran.
Bran "needs" more water than white/refined flour, so your new formula will most likely require more water than the old. But it also depends on the moisture level of the oat flour.
So start with the same water amount as before, and slowly add water, keeping track of how much, until the dough "feels" right.
Oat flour is sticky, so this new dough may be just a bit harder to judge and compare.
You could weigh out 100 g of water in a separate cup, add in to the dough as needed, then weigh the leftover water in the cup, subract from 100, and there is the answer. (Keep track of tare, etc.)
Personally, I don't like oat flour in bread as it makes it too dense and moist. Suggest you start out at 10%.
Another idea to consider is use old fashioned rolled oats or quick oats (not instant oats). They generally disolve and become indistinguishable anyway, and are cheaper than oat flour. (Quick oats are just chopped up, and rolled thinner, old fashioned oats. Most big name groceries carry both.)
I've also made oat flour by running rolled oats through a whirly-gig $12 coffee/spice grinder.
Good luck and bon appétit.