So I have recently been experimenting with some higher hydrated doughs.  Normally the breads I make are somewhere around 60%-70% hydration. This mean there is 60% of water to flour.  For example in a 500 gram loaf I would have 310 grams of flour and 185 grams of water.  The texture of a 60% hydrated dough is nice, it is slightly sticky but easily comes off your hands and the bowl.  It is easy to form into a dough and knead.  It is slightly softer than the play-dough you played with as a kid.  The crumb on this type of dough tends to be tight and uniform.  Perfect with a pad of butter and good for sandwiches.  The bread you see above is closer to 90% hydration. It was a sticky wet mess and ended up being this beautiful focaccia.

I used this recipe http://veganyumyum.com/2008/05/poolish-focaccia/  I added garlic from a garlic press, sliced tomatoes and sea salt to the top.  It ended up being great and you would do yourself a favor by trying your hand at it. (I didn’t use the full cup of olive oil for the top, only about 1/3 of  cup)

In highly hydrated dough you get more of that artisan look, with large bubbles and un-uniform crumbs.  They are pretty bread and the textures tend to be soft and chewy.  The downside is they are pain to handle.  They don’t really form into dough and instead you have to try some other techniques to make them into bread.  One technique that is used in this recipe is folding.  Folding and waiting allows the gluten to develop on its own as the flour continues to absorb the water and it hydrates.  The gentle folding allows it to continue to stretch like you do when you knead.  Some people don’t like this method because you end up using a lot of bench flour and flour that doesn’t get entirely incorporated is noticed.  Additionally, as you add more flour you reduce the hydration and there is no exact way of knowing what hydration you end up at with this method.  I just found this method which I think is called a french fold and looks fantastic.

I am going to try this next.  See if it works.  Since my last post I also have made beautiful sourdough loafs.  The secret to a great crust on sourdough, a spray bottle at the beginning and middle of the baking process.  The more I make bread the more I realize this simple fact: flour+water+time+yeast=yum.

I added some salt to the dough itself.  I mixed about a tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of dried rosemary together to rhydrate the rosemary.  If I was using fresh rosemary (fresh herbs are almost always preferred) I don’t think we would have used as much.  And then of course sliced tomatoes really thin and cooked it for 10 minutes and then added the cheese and cooked it for 5 minutes before.

Here is a pic of my first attempt, see how thin it is.

All of the traditional recipes I have seen have required using a sponge, though it was called something else (starts with a p if anyone remembers it I would be happy to relearn it.)  A sponge is when you mix some yeast, water, and flour before hand and let it sit out.  All sourdough starts with a sponge and true sourdough doesn’t use any extra yeast afterward.  Adding this flour and water together allows it to autolyse and form nice gluten strands and adding the yeast allows the yeast to ferment and grow giving bread that nice robust flavor.  Since this focaccia didn’t use a sponge I feel like I am missing some of the complexity of the flavors, but then again it only took an hour to make.  I am going to try using a sponge next time and let you know how it turns out.

Other comments:  This dough is one of the wettest that I have ever worked with.  It should be sticky which allows it to be light and airy and not too dense.  Downside of it is that it gets messy and is a little harder to work with, but the end result is worth it.