Loaf 9: more water, 60% to 70%

This is Loaf 9 of 16, and the one thing that changed from Loaf 8 is water: 240 g becomes 280 g, which takes hydration from 60% to 70%.

That is the whole loaf. Same flour, same salt, same yeast, same pan, same oven, same knead, same shaping. Forty grams of water, and it is the first water change since Loaf 5.

Four things never move anywhere in this course, and they do not move here either: 400 g flour, 8 g salt (2%), one 9 x 5 inch (23 x 13 cm) loaf pan, 375°F / 190°C.

The formula

Frozen: 400 g flour · 8 g salt (2%) · 9 × 5 in pan · 375°F / 190°C · Hydration: 70% (280 g water on 400 g flour)

The method

1. Mix as before with 280 g water. The dough comes together much faster and is visibly softer.
2. Knead 6 to 8 minutes at kitchen temperature. Wet your hands, not the counter, when it sticks.
3. Bulk at 75°F / 24°C to the gate, about 1½ hours.
4. Shape as Loaf 8 with wet hands, into the pan.
5. Second rise about 45 minutes at 75°F / 24°C. Bake 40 to 45 minutes at 375°F / 190°C.
6. Cool 2 hours at room temperature.

Why this works

More water means a more mobile dough. That is the entire mechanism, and everything you are about to notice comes out of it.

Gas bubbles inside a dough have to push their walls apart to grow. At 60% those walls are stiff and crowded, so the bubbles strain against them and stay small and even. At 70% the walls slide. The same yeast making the same amount of gas now gets to inflate a dough that gives way, so the bubbles grow larger and less uniformly, and the crumb opens up.

Two side effects come free. The crust thins and crisps, because there is more water at the surface to drive off as steam and a thinner set shell left behind when it goes. And the loaf keeps a day longer, because staling is partly the loaf drying out, and this one starts with 40 g more moisture to lose before it tastes dry.

The cost is that the dough is harder to hold. That is a handling skill, not a recipe problem, and it is the only thing this loaf is asking you to learn.

How you know it's ready

Bulk is done when the dough has risen by half to three quarters, is domed, jiggles when you shake the bowl, and shows bubbles where it meets the glass, at 75°F / 24°C. About 1½ hours is what that usually takes in a 75°F / 24°C kitchen, and the time is context for the look, never the instruction.

The jiggle is new. At 60% with no fat, Loaf 6 barely moved in the bowl and you had to trust the fingertip dent. At 70% the dough wobbles like a set custard when you nudge the bowl, and that wobble is a real reading. A dough that still sits inert has not gone far enough.

After shaping, the log should stay taut for thirty seconds after you let go, the same gate as Loaf 8. It is harder to hit now, which is the point of the next section.

Bake until the centre reads 205 to 210°F / 96 to 99°C.

What goes wrong

The failure mode this loaf introduces: the shaped log slumps and bakes wide and flat. You get a loaf that filled the pan sideways, a top that never domed, and a crumb that is open in a loose, saggy way rather than a springy one.

One cause: dry hands and a dry counter. A 70% dough grabs at anything dry and tears when it grabs, so instead of rolling the surface into a smooth skin under tension, you keep ripping that skin open as you shape. A torn skin cannot hold the dough up, so the log relaxes in the pan and the rise goes outward.

The fix is water on your hands and water on your scraper. Not flour, ever. Flour on the outside of the dough is flour the dough absorbs, which is the same mistake Loaf 7 already named from the other direction. Wet your palms, work quickly, and the dough will slide instead of sticking.

When it worked

A more open, irregular crumb with shiny cell walls. A thinner, crisper crust. A slightly sweeter and more complex flavour, because the wetter dough ferments faster and the yeast has done more talking.

This is the loaf most people are actually trying to make when they say they want to learn bread. It is four ingredients, a bowl, a pan and one oven setting, and it arrived nine loaves in without a Dutch oven, a banneton or a proofing box.

Hold the shape of what just happened, because it matters for everything from here on. You did not get a better loaf by working harder or buying anything. You got it by moving one number by 40 g and then adapting your hands to it. That is what every remaining loaf looks like too.

Bake it twice successfully before moving on, because one good loaf is luck and two is a skill.