100% Hydration Bread

Name: 100% Hydration Bread
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 17 h 40 min
Yield: 1 loaf
Ingredients: 400g high protein bread flour, like Central Milling's High Mountain (DO NOT USE ALL PURPOSE! Find flour with high protein or don't do this); 100g whole wheat flour (I used flour from a tiny farm and mill, Melgard Farms. Try it! Support a small business!); 500g cold water (split into 350g, 50g, 50g, 50g); 100g liquid starter, active and well balanced; 10g salt

What I did and tips to help YOU

By Laila O'Boyle · August 21, 2026

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Why I Like This Recipe

This one is for the overachievers or the "we'll see!" people. It's just starter, flour, salt, and a lot of water, and it will test your instincts. Is it worth it? I don't know! But it's fun.

Ingredients

Dough

400g high protein bread flour, like Central Milling's High Mountain (DO NOT USE ALL PURPOSE! Find flour with high protein or don't do this)
100g whole wheat flour (I used flour from a tiny farm and mill, Melgard Farms. Try it! Support a small business!)
500g cold water (split into 350g, 50g, 50g, 50g)
100g liquid starter, active and well balanced
10g salt

Instructions

First, mix the flour and 350g COLD water. Let it rest for 30 minutes. I mixed by hand this time but I highly recommend you use a mixer.
Once you let it rest, give the dough 5 minutes of mixing on low speed or hand mixing. Then add the starter. Mix it until it really comes together, then let it rest for 20 minutes. At this point, you really want a smooth dough. Supple, easy to pull, windowpane. This is the foundation of the craziness you're about to attempt.
Add the salt and 50g water. Either mixing method takes you to the same point: mix until the salt and water are well incorporated and the dough is smooth. At this point, you're at 80% hydration. Let the dough rest 20 minutes.
Add 50g water. This will already get scary. Pop in a podcast. If you're hand mixing, dump it on the counter, take a squat, fix your hunching back and get to work. I didn't say this would be easy! Make sure you mix it until the water is absorbed and then walk away. Your hands probably already hurt. If you're using a mixer, yay! Rest for 20 minutes.
Add the rest of the water, and congratulations, you have a dough puddle! Mix that water in, and once it's fully incorporated, go in your living room and mull over your life choices for 20 minutes. After that rest, go in and give your dough really good slap and folds for 5–8 minutes. If you are using a mixer, mix it until it really comes together but watch that TEMPERATURE! If the dough gets above 82°F, you're going to have a hard time.
Now do a coil fold every 15–20 minutes for the next 3 hours. I am serious. I gave my dough 10 folds. This is where you need to harness your intuition. If you used a mixer, it'll need less folds. If you hand mixed very well, same thing. But mine needed that many folds.
When your dough is air filled, EVEN MORE JIGGLY and you feel a bit scared, dump it out on a ridiculously well floured counter. Attempt to shape it, and then cover that shaped loaf in a generous sprinkling of rice flour. Yes, rice flour. It's gluten free and will not become one with the dough. You just spent more time than anyone ever should on this dough, don't mess it up now by letting that dough stick to your banneton! Put your dough in the fridge overnight.
The next day, preheat the crap out of your Dutch oven. 500°F!!! Be brave and quickly dump that dough into your baking vessel, score it fast with a new blade, and bake for 20 minutes. Take the cover off and continue to cook at 450°F for another 15–20. If it looks like crap, remember you've been brave and you are STRONG and you're about to have some wonky shaped, very delicious bread. No matter what it looks like.

Laila's notes

Make sure the dough has had a fold in the last hour before you shape it. That helps A LOT.
Use well balanced and healthy starter or this won't work.
Don't use warm water, cold is what you need here so the gluten can absorb it.
Fermentation might be faster than you're used to since it's very wet dough which speeds up the fermenting.
It's ok if the shaping really sucks.
Make sure your Dutch oven is really really hot so the loaf has the best chance to pop up fast when it hits the oven.
When you shape, dust your hands with flour so your fingers don't stick.
During shaping, use a bench knife to make sure the dough isn't totally stuck to your countertop.

Behind the Bake

This one is for the over achievers OR the “we’ll see!” people. In this case, I am both. Please don’t attempt this and have the highest of hopes. This is a crazy thing to do. You will need to do so many coil folds. It will take forever to mix. It will be super annoying to both shape and score. Is it worth it? I don’t know! But it’s fun! So please, if you decide to attempt this, be kind to yourself and don’t take it too seriously.

I have tried to get a really nice 100% hydration bread many times and while this one is my best one so far, I could still use some help. I’m writing down exactly what I did for you, but know this isn’t a firm recipe. It’s just starter, flour, salt, and A LOT of water. You have to use your instincts and intuition if you decide you want to go down this slippery and blubbery path.

This is the dough when I added the salt and first 50g of water.

The dough will completely relax between folds, don’t expect it to have lines where you have folded it.

Coil folds will seem like the dough will stretch 5 feet, but that’s normal.

Laila's Tools

Brod & TaylorMy proofer, bannetons, The Sourdough Home and the rest of the studio essentials.Challenger Breadware PanCloche style dutch oven, my favorite one. Buy it once, use it for life.WireMonkey LamesBeautiful scoring lames. My favorites for clean, deliberate cuts.10% off at link

See everything I use →

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