Dough hydration calculator

Hydration is water divided by flour, as a percentage — the single number that determines how a dough handles. A thousand grams of flour with 700 of water is 70 percent.

Baker’s percentages always use flour as the 100, which is why hydration can exceed 100 percent and nothing is wrong. The bands are worth memorising: 55 to 60 is a stiff bagel or pasta dough, 60 to 65 is a standard tin loaf, 65 to 75 is most artisan bread, 75 to 85 is ciabatta and focaccia territory where the dough becomes genuinely hard to handle, and above 85 you are working with something closer to a batter. Two things change what a given number feels like: flour protein, since strong bread flour absorbs considerably more than plain, and wholemeal, where the bran soaks up water so the same percentage feels much drier.