Bread Dough Hydration Lies - What Your Mixer Reveals
Bread Dough Hydration Lies - What Your Mixer Reveals
Every baking tutorial claims to have the magic hydration percentage - 65% for sandwich bread, 75% for artisan loaves. But here's the dirty secret: those numbers are often complete nonsense. The real truth hides in how the dough behaves in your stand mixer.
3 Ways Your Mixer Exposes Hydration Lies:
1. The Cling Test
Properly hydrated dough should clean the bowl's sides after 6-8 minutes in a 7L stand mixer. If flour still sticks to the sides like a desperate ex, that "65% hydration" recipe is probably closer to 58% in reality.
2. The Hook Truth
A dough hook that collects everything into a smooth ball reveals proper hydration. If the hook just spins through a shaggy mess, that Instagram baker definitely lied about their water measurements.
3. The Sound Check
Wet dough makes a slapping sound in the bowl. Dry dough sounds like someone rubbing flip flops on concrete. A properly equipped commercial stand mixer will amplify these audio clues that numbers can't show.
Here's the uncomfortable truth - flour absorbs moisture differently depending on weather, brand, and even how long it's been sitting in the cupboard. That's why professional kitchens always adjust by feel rather than blindly following percentages. The 10L stand mixer doesn't care about math, it only responds to physical reality.
Next time a recipe claims 70% hydration but the dough looks like desert sand, trust the machine's reaction more than the numbers. The mixer always knows the truth, even when bloggers won't admit it.
