Classic country bread formula, 72 % hydration this time🌾
As most bakers, I usually try to add more and more water to the dough, learn how to handle it in the right way, but my family prefers such a crumb, not too ''wet'. I also love it, because when the dough is well proofed, the crumb will still be airy and open 😉
One of the main points about dough hydration is that you should never rely on a percentage of water mentioned in any recipe.When a baker uses 80% hydration for a recipe, it may not work in the same way for your dough. Cause we all use different flours, even if it's produced by the same company, flours differ a lot. Here in Texas it's always warm and more humid, so the flour is also more humid. For your particular flour 80% of water can be not enough, the dough will be too stiff. Or 80% can be too much and it will be really difficult to develop a good gluten structure of the dough and handle it easily.
That's why I usually mention in my recipes that you should decide by yourself how much water to add, judging by your flour. The only thing you can rely on is the consistency of the dough that you can see on a photo or a video, if you have no chance to see some example of a dough consistency - just rely on your experience and experiment))
It's usually better to start with a lower hydration, learn how to handle such a dough, learn how it should look like when it's well proofed, how it should sound, how it "rustle" under your fingers, how you should feel the bubbles of air inside the gluten structure. Well proofed dough is such a pleasure to work with, and only with such a dough the final bread will be soft and airy.
In general, whatever hydration you use, don't be afraid to proof your dough more, to understand your dough's strength and see, which crumb and which level of proofing you will like more 😉
Great bakings to all of you!✨