Thank you, The Fresh Loaf denizens, for teaching me about baker's percentages!
Okay, I'll admit it. As a disorganized type who rarely follows recipes and cooks by whim, I love the structure of bakers' percentages. Bread is flour, water, salt and yeast. The bakers' percentage equates the amount of flour with 100%. All other ingredient amounts are proportions of that 100%. A standard loaf might be 500g of flour (100%), 325g water (65% "hydration), 12.5g salt (2.5%) and 7.5g yeast (1.5%). Some flours are more thirsty than others, some things that look solid (like sugar) act more like a liquid. But in general, playing with these percentages and ingredients ends up with tasty bread.
So, today, I stood over a bowl with the end of a bag of NYBakers' Farine Rustique (blended wheat, barley and rye) and added some oatmeal and cornmeal. I soaked the meals in a bit of warm water to give them a head start. The flour plus +. the meals = my flour weight or 100%. The warm water, apple cider, and some molasses made up the liquid. Since both the flour and the meals are pretty thirsty, I ended up at around 75%-80% hydration.
My choice of ingredients means I'm expecting a slightly dense and chewy, lean but sweet loaf that will be good toasted with honey and butter next to our morning coffee. The cornmeal will make it a bit of an "anadama" to cheer my New England soul.