Understanding Hydration - Section 4: Working with Higher Hydration

The moment many bakers encounter their first high-hydration dough, panic sets in. The dough seems alive, sticking to everything it touches, refusing to hold any shape. The instinct is to add flour, to wrestle it into submission, to make it behave like the familiar doughs they know. But this approach misses the point entirely – high-hydration doughs aren't misbehaving, they're just playing by different rules.

Working with wetter doughs requires a fundamental shift in mindset. Instead of trying to control and dominate the dough, you learn to guide and coax it. Where low-hydration doughs respond to firm handling and decisive shaping, high-hydration doughs need patience, gentle movements, and an acceptance that they'll never feel "neat" in the traditional sense.

The secret lies in understanding that stickiness isn't your enemy – it's a sign that you're working with dough capable of creating extraordinary textures. Those web-like gluten strands that make the dough so difficult to handle are the same structures that will trap steam and create those magnificent holes in the finished bread.

Timing becomes crucial with higher hydration. These doughs often benefit from longer, slower mixing and frequent rests. Where you might knead a standard dough continuously, high-hydration doughs respond better to brief periods of mixing followed by rest, allowing the flour to fully hydrate and the gluten to develop naturally.

Your hands and tools become different when working with wet doughs. Wet hands prevent sticking better than floured hands. Bench scrapers become extensions of your fingers, helping move and shape dough without the frustration of having it stick to everything. Even your mixing bowl might need reconsidering – wider, shallow bowls often work better than deep, narrow ones.

Most importantly, you learn to trust the process. That seemingly chaotic, sticky mass will transform during fermentation and baking into something beautiful. The key is not fighting the dough's nature but working with it, understanding that the temporary inconvenience of sticky hands leads to the permanent pleasure of exceptional bread.