drewgi's recent activity
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Comment on Just finished rewriting my bakers' percentage calculator, does anyone else have something similar? in ~food
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Comment on Just finished rewriting my bakers' percentage calculator, does anyone else have something similar? in ~food
drewgi Link ParentI definitely got very used to using my old one, idiosyncrasies and all. It's neat to be able to make tools like this, at least until I'm good enough to figure out programming something more...I definitely got very used to using my old one, idiosyncrasies and all. It's neat to be able to make tools like this, at least until I'm good enough to figure out programming something more custom.
There's no way currently to feed any information back in with corrections, it's mainly just experimentation and whether I remember/remember to note my results. Like I know from trying that a 113% overall dough weight offset will put me within a gram or two of a 100g final bread roll weight.
I do have distant plans (dreams) of making things smarter, easier to predict things, but there is definitely an "art" to it. In so much that there are just too many variables to track to ever be totally reproduceable in a home environment. Temperature, humidity, changes in how much moisture your flour has absorbed from the atmosphere, differences in flours between batches (even with the same brand). There's always going to some degree of uncertainty when you're working with a natural product, but that's part of what experience helps you identify as you're looking at/handling your dough throughout the process.
Whilst I like understanding how to reproduce certain things as closely as possible, this is more something that helps me be spontaneous if anything. Most of the time when I bake bread, it involves me walking into the kitchen with my laptop, pondering what I want to make, plugging in some numbers that I think will give me that, and then having all the weights I need to keep going.
I do store some of my more repeated recipes, as mentioned in my main post, but most of the time I'm just freestyling and trying to use my understanding of the "rules" to make sure something nice comes out of it :)
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Comment on Just finished rewriting my bakers' percentage calculator, does anyone else have something similar? in ~food
drewgi LinkSome might remember my previous post explaining bakers' percentages, especially the bit about doing things differently if I ever rewrote it. I finally got around to doing just that :) There's a...Some might remember my previous post explaining bakers' percentages, especially the bit about doing things differently if I ever rewrote it. I finally got around to doing just that :)
There's a copy here if anyone wants a play around with it. I've tried to test everything in it that I can, but it's recently finished, so please forgive any errors you notice :) I put a README sheet in the file that hopefully explains everything. I wrote it in libreoffice calc, most of the formulae (if not the formatting) seems to work in google sheets, but I haven't tested it in other software.
As a quick run down of how I use it, and how I used my previous one:
I put the weight of each thing, and how many of those things, I want to make. I have a weight off-set here, which lets me add a certain percentage to the dough weight to take into account stuff like dough that might be left stuck to the bowl, or if I'm trying to make bread rolls that are a specific weight I can try my best to guesstimate water loss during fermentation/baking. I also select what my main flour, hydration, and yeast sources are.
I put the bakers' percentage of each ingredient I want to use in the "main recipe" section next, and now in this version of my spreadsheet most of the ingredients have a drop-down menu to select different ingredients if one of them isn't in my usual "loadout".
Then I can adjust the protein content of my flour if I want, and make sure that the mix of vital wheat gluten and other flours doesn't exceed 100%. At this point I can also add whether I want to use a bassinage/double hydration, as well as setting up a preferment or scalded flour recipe if I want to use those. If I have any of these set up, it removes the weight of the flour/water/yeast used from the weights in the main recipe, so I don't accidentally double up on anything. This way I don't have to do any maths myself to make sure my ratios are correct.
At the bottom of this I have all my totals, including the overall hydration which takes into account the water weight from things like butter, or the fact that if I'm using milk, some of it isn't water.
Then below this I have a table that has a row for each of my loaded ingredients, where it breaks down the nutritional values for each ingredient, with totals for the whole dough, per item, and per 100g for each nutritional value. Whilst it's not going to be as precise as how actual nutritional values are calculated, it gives me a good ballpark estimate of where the recipe is sitting.
Using bakers' percentages has really helped me to understand how recipes work, and what affect ingredients have at different levels. 90% of the time now I just make up my own recipes by inputting the values I think I want and using the weights it gives me.
It might seem like a lot, but this has probably been 4-5 years in the making at this point. My previous bread calculator started off as something like this, which is actually how I store recipes I like now. I slowly added to little by little until it ended up looking like this. There were some errors in the calculations though, and something broke between LibreOffice updates. It was super unruly to maintain, and the layout was weird with everything being tacked on after the fact. Adding a new ingredient was also such a hassle that I just didn't. I'm hoping that this new update will solve a lot of that :)
Thought some people here would find this interesting, so I hope it has been! If you have something similar, I'd love to see a pic or a shared version. I've seen a few different examples over the years, and looking at how people set up their calcs to fit their own needs is always really neat.
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Just finished rewriting my bakers' percentage calculator, does anyone else have something similar?
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentRolling will just come down to practice, and you've already identified the pan temp :) they taste the same no matter the shape, but good pan temp and resting them between a folded towel will keep...Rolling will just come down to practice, and you've already identified the pan temp :) they taste the same no matter the shape, but good pan temp and resting them between a folded towel will keep them pliable. Keep at it!
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentMakes sense, I imagine boiling water would definitely help in terms of resting/rolling out time if you're not using yeast. But if it's a little droopy, you might run into the structural issue I...Makes sense, I imagine boiling water would definitely help in terms of resting/rolling out time if you're not using yeast. But if it's a little droopy, you might run into the structural issue I mentioned.
In terms of crisping it up better, I have a "regular" pizza suggestion, and maybe something else. The regular suggestion is that usually with pizza making it's suggested to go lighter on sauces/toppings in the centre than you would along the outside. As it cooks and the toppings redistribute, they tend to concentrate naturally into the middle more.
Otherwise, a baking sheet is good but unless you've had issues with launching/transferring it in the past I'd suggest not using parchment paper. Alternatively you could remove the parchment paper after the first minute or two once the dough has firmed up, just so there's no barrier between the dough and the steel of the baking tray.
You could also try pre-heating the baking tray on the stove top whilst you're rolling out/topping your dough, so that it gets a head start. I wouldn't get it rippingly hot, but preheated on the lowest temp will remove the time it takes to heat up in the oven. This also helps you cut corners a little with oven preheating, where you tend to find that you get top-down browning only with an oven that isnt quite up to temp. Depends how long your oven takes to preheat :) If it preheats fairly quickly you could try bumping the temp up to 210c so that the top cooks more quickly, especially if you're finding that the bottom now browns too quickly with the preheated baking tray.
It's hard to give anything concrete because there are so many factors that can affect it, but hopefully this gives you a jumping off point!
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentI keep meaning to get around to trying scallion pancakes. They're super similar technique wise to lachha paratha, even though (as far as I know) they're not related :) The dough minus the lard is...I keep meaning to get around to trying scallion pancakes. They're super similar technique wise to lachha paratha, even though (as far as I know) they're not related :) The dough minus the lard is also basically dumpling wrapper dough too
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentSounds good! I wrote a low sodium fully whole wheat tortilla recipe for someone before due to dietary requirements. Do you find you have to increase the water much? For 100% whole wheat I ended up...Sounds good! I wrote a low sodium fully whole wheat tortilla recipe for someone before due to dietary requirements. Do you find you have to increase the water much? For 100% whole wheat I ended up going for about 65% hydration.
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentI have a tortilla press, but I find they don't work well at all for flour tortillas. Wheat based doughs just have too much elasticity, so even if you can get them thin enough in the press, once...I have a tortilla press, but I find they don't work well at all for flour tortillas. Wheat based doughs just have too much elasticity, so even if you can get them thin enough in the press, once you release the pressure they shrink back a lot. Very useful for corn tortillas, though :)
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi (edited )Link ParentAt least in terms of boiling water, I would guess it depends whether you make tarte flambee with yeast or not. If you don't use yeast, I don't see why it wouldn't work, but you might run into...At least in terms of boiling water, I would guess it depends whether you make tarte flambee with yeast or not. If you don't use yeast, I don't see why it wouldn't work, but you might run into issues with structure. Boiling water tends to make tortillas tear a little more easily.
You could also try using something like a source of inactivated yeast (like nutritional yeast). It's a good source of glutathione, which is broken down into cysteines by enzymes present in the flour. It's a reducing agent which breaks disulphide bonds between adjacent gluten strands, which diminishes some of the doughs elasticity but maintains its extensibility. I'd start somewhere in the range of 0.1-0.3%, which is the recommended range for bakery specific inactivated yeast, but you'd need to experiment with maybe going slightly higher. As far as I can tell, the processing of both products is slightly different and less of the cell walls in nutritional yeast may be broken, leading to less free glutathione.
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentI've made corn tortillas a couple of times, but you need to make sure you're getting masa harina as opposed to what's regularly sold as "corn flour" or "corn starch". Masa harina goes through a...I've made corn tortillas a couple of times, but you need to make sure you're getting masa harina as opposed to what's regularly sold as "corn flour" or "corn starch". Masa harina goes through a special process called nixtamalisation, which is where the corn is treated with an alkaline solution. I haven't made them enough to really give much advice :)
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi Link ParentYeah, you can make great tortillas using an oil or other fats, but lard just has that little "something something" to it that works so well in a tortilla. It's been a lot easier for me to use...Yeah, you can make great tortillas using an oil or other fats, but lard just has that little "something something" to it that works so well in a tortilla.
It's been a lot easier for me to use boiling water since we got a "one cup" boiler, which has a water tank like a coffee machine, and you just press a button to dispense 200-300mL of boiling water. You could also try using a microwave, but I live in a very soft water area and I'm always scared of spontaneous boiling.
I find with flour it's useful to try and use scant amounts a couple of times versus dousing it with flour, and rubbing the flour along the top to dislodge any excess and make sure it's even really helps. For longer cooking sessions I do tend to wipe out the pan after every few tortillas to make sure I don't get a build up of flour.
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Comment on Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations in ~food
drewgi LinkI’ll preface this by saying that I don’t come from a culture that traditionally makes tortillas, and this isn’t meant to be or try to be an authentic recipe. This is just my own personal recipe,...- Exemplary
I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t come from a culture that traditionally makes tortillas, and this isn’t meant to be or try to be an authentic recipe. This is just my own personal recipe, along with explanations of how and why I do things that way. This is with the hope that it’ll be a nice introduction for people to start making their own tortillas, and at least interesting for people who know all of this already. It’s such a night and day difference versus store bought :)
What kind of tortillas do I like to make?
I personally like to make tortillas that are really thin, soft, and tender. As you can see from the picture, they’re semi-see-through. Sometimes I’ll switch it up to thicker tortillas/tortillas with baking powder, but this is my go to.Choice of fats
The fat I used for the tortilla in the picture was clarified bacon grease, but any fat will work as a 1:1 substitute. The usual go-to fats for tortillas are regular pork lard or vegetable shortening, but any solid fat should work well without any real differences (barring flavour). More flavourful fats can be nice to experiment with, but like all cooking, it’s good to be conscious of how those flavours will pair with your filling. As an example, beef tallow makes really nice tortillas, but they taste a lot richer than regular pork lard.What about oils?
You can use oils, such as rapeseed, but the texture won’t be quite the same. Oils coat the flour more evenly, which gives a more homogenous and softer texture for the tortilla. Using a solid fat gives a flakier, more toothsome texture because you have little pockets of fats. If you decide to go with the boiling water method, explained below, this will make less of a difference. I generally only use oils if I’m also doing the boiling method, otherwise I find the tortillas can become ever so slightly rubbery. This is especially true if you prefer a thicker tortilla.Boiling water - pros and cons
The main reason I use boiling water is to denature some of the gluten forming proteins, so that the dough loses some of its elasticity. This vastly reduces the resting time needed, and makes it easier to roll the tortillas out. It also produces a softer, more tender tortilla - partly from the weaker gluten, but also because of the hydrocolloid properties of gelatinised starches. Pre-gelatinising the starches also helps the tortillas to stay fresher longer, if you plan to precook a few and reheat them in a pan later on. I also use it because, to a lesser extent, using hotter water also helps to hydrate the flour more quickly. This is also true of using warm water versus tap cold water.It isn’t always ideal to use this technique, though. A more tender tortilla isn’t as structurally strong, so it’s harder to make something like a tightly wrapped burrito without it tearing. You’re also giving up some of the benefits of using a solid fat over an oil, because the fat will melt with the heat of the water.
Recipe
This will make six 20cm/8” tortillas, with 50g for each dough ball. If you use bakers percentages (explained here), you can of course scale it up and change the weights. For a 30cm/12” tortilla, I like to use 115g for each dough ball.Once you find a weight you like for a certain size of tortilla, you can scale the weight up/down for different sizes using a scale factor. This scale factor would be the areas of a circle for the new size divided by the old size.
Ingredients Percentage Weight (g) Plain Flour 100.00% 174 Water (boiling) 50.00% 87 Salt 2.50% 4 Lard 20.00% 35 In terms of technique, I’ll split it into mixing, rolling, and cooking. The only real difference boiling water will make to any of these steps is resting time, especially in between mixing and rolling.
Mixing
I mix together the flour and salt, and either work in the fat until sandy or mix in the oil. You can work the fat in by hand using the rubbing method, or cut it in using a fork or a pastry cutter. For larger batches, you can do this with a food processor. Then I mix in the water with a fork or a dough whisk, and leave it to hydrate. If you’re using boiling water, then five minutes is enough, but ten minutes works out better for cooler water. I’ll then knead it until it becomes smooth.
You can divide it up and shape into dough balls right away with boiling water, and roll them out after ten minutes of rest. If you’re not using boiling water, you’ll want to wait five minutes before dividing and shaping, and let the dough balls rest at least 30 minutes before rolling them out. All the resting time should be covered so that the dough doesn’t start to dry out.
Rolling
Note: At this point I usually start my pan preheating on low heat, I use a cast iron so it takes a little time to preheat.
Make sure your work surface is floured before starting. I then press a dough ball into the flour with the tips of my fingers until it’s a 7cm/3” disc, flipping it so it’s evenly floured. I personally like to use a French tapered rolling pin to roll out, as I find it the easiest to control the shape of the dough. You might want to again flour your work surface before rolling, to prevent sticking as the dough grows in size. You can use the flats of your fingers to spread the flour evenly over the surface. After each roll, I flip the dough to prevent sticking, and rotate the dough 90 degrees. I control the corners/roundness of the dough by applying pressure differently on either side of the rolling pin.
If you’re using a straight rolling pin, you might find it easier to do shorter rolls, and rotate it a little bit each time versus 90 degrees. It can also be easier to get a more consistent thickness by always working from the middle down. I only start cooking once all of my tortillas are rolled out, and I start with the one I rolled out first.
Cooking
At this point my cast iron is already pre-heated and evenly hot, so I move the heat up to medium/medium-high and let the temperature rise for a minute or so. I cook for 10-15 seconds between flipping the tortilla, about 45 seconds total for each one. You want to flip the first time once you see a lot of small/medium bubbles. The first tortilla will help you to gauge your heat: if it’s too hot, by the time you flip it, it’ll already have burnt spots. If it’s too cold, your tortilla will start to cook through before it browns enough, which can lead to dry tortillas that have no pliability and crack easily.
The most important step for cooking a tortilla is next: use a clean kitchen towel folded in half to store the tortillas in (or get a tortillero if they’re easy to find where you are!). This lets the tortillas steam as they cool, keeping them warm, soft, and pliable by the time you get the rest of your meal to the table.
How do I make them in bulk?
I've found the best way to make tortillas in bulk is to freeze the tortilla dough as dough balls. You can cook some off in bulk and leave them in a ziplock bag in the fridge for a few days, although I'd leave them slightly less browned than you want, so they don't dry out whilst reheating.In the past I've tried to freeze pre-cooked tortillas, and found that whilst better than store bought, the texture still suffers. You can also pre-roll them, and layer them between parchment paper before freezing. In my experience, these succumb to freezer burn more quickly, and are harder to store.
I take dough balls and lay three to four on a strip of clingfilm that's a little over three times as wide as the dough balls. I can then fold the clingfilm over the dough balls, and cut evenly between the dough balls (kind of like making ravioli if you've ever seen/done that). This lets me wrap them with the least amount of plastic, and I store the wrapped dough balls in ziplock bags (like so). This helps to stop the dough sticking together, as well as preventing freezer burn for a lot longer.
Hopefully this all makes sense, is coherent, and I haven’t missed anything out. Please feel free to ask questions, offer improvements, share your own recipes/tortillas you’ve made, and otherwise add interesting info :)
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Flour tortillas: My recipe and explanations
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
drewgi (edited )LinkI made steamed mushroom dumplings for the first time recently. Made dumpling wrappers with a 1:2 water to flour ratio, with 2% of the flour weight in salt. Did about 7g of dough per wrapper for a...I made steamed mushroom dumplings for the first time recently. Made dumpling wrappers with a 1:2 water to flour ratio, with 2% of the flour weight in salt. Did about 7g of dough per wrapper for a 7 cm disc, but wish I'd gone for 10g and closer to 9 cm.
For the filling I finely chopped 500g of mushrooms and finely diced a single shallot, about 60g. I also finely sliced about 30g of bean sprouts. I slowly cooked the mushrooms down in a dry pan until all the water was cooked off, and then I pushed the mushrooms to the side of the pan and poured in about 20ml of sesame oil, and let it preheat for a little bit before frying off 2 cloves of garlic/~15g and a small knob of ginger/30g. After it became fragrant, I added 20ml of soy sauce and stirred everything into the mushrooms, then added a splash of mirin and some Worcestershire sauce to taste. After giving everything a few minutes to cook together, I stirred in a slurry of 2 teaspoons of both water and cornstarch to thicken.
Each dumpling had about 15g of filling, and I decided on the shape pretty randomly to be honest. I steamed them for about 8 minutes, with the wrappers going kind of translucent.
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Comment on Bakers of Tildes, what do you like to bake, and for what type of occasion? in ~food
drewgi Link ParentI find at the levels of vinegar or lemon juice used, there isn't any noticeable taste, but I definitely get where you're coming from. I definitely agree with you there, I usually keep plain flour...I find at the levels of vinegar or lemon juice used, there isn't any noticeable taste, but I definitely get where you're coming from.
I definitely agree with you there, I usually keep plain flour and bread flour on hand, or sometime's i'll do a blend of regular bread flour and very strong bread flour or VWG. I generally prefer a pretty weak flour for most kinds of pastries, but you can't beat a high gluten flour for nice rustic breads. Flour in Wales tends to be a little weaker across the board than American flour (although it can be hard to compare due to the ways that protein % are measured different in different countries, especially due to the moisture basis of the flour).
And yeah, I find a little bit of sugar helps me get a more even browning, but it brings something nice to the flavour too. You could definitely do without it, but it's a nice safety blanket and I think it adds enough to add it.
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Comment on Bakers of Tildes, what do you like to bake, and for what type of occasion? in ~food
drewgi Link ParentI think the vinegar and lemon juice are doing similar things in both of our recipes, helping to stop oxidation while the dough is being prepared. Especially for dough that you don't plan to use...I think the vinegar and lemon juice are doing similar things in both of our recipes, helping to stop oxidation while the dough is being prepared. Especially for dough that you don't plan to use right away, you can sometimes notice it going a kind of gray colour?
Barley malt syrup is just for browning, you can use a similar simple sugar or syrup, and even in savoury dishes it can be nice to have a touch of sweetness.
Cornstarch at the % I use is similar to replacing 25% of the regular flour with pastry flour. I just don't keep pastry flour on hand, so cornstarch just adjusts the protein % down a little. Kind of like an anti-vital wheat gluten.
I appreciate the compliments! This kind of rough puff is definitely a lot better with fillings that aren't quite as wet. The bean sauce was a typical British, thickened tomato sauce. And the cheese helped it stop being too wet. The béchamel was quite thick, and lots of fillings to help bulk out the water.
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Comment on Bakers of Tildes, what do you like to bake, and for what type of occasion? in ~food
drewgi Link ParentThat's definitely an interesting recipe! It's closer to proper puff pastry than what I do for blitz/rough puff. This is my ingredient list. All the dry ingredients get mixed together, the wet...That's definitely an interesting recipe! It's closer to proper puff pastry than what I do for blitz/rough puff. This is my ingredient list.
All the dry ingredients get mixed together, the wet ingredients get mixed together, and the butter I cube into ~4cm cubes.
I put the wet mix in the fridge and the butter in the freezer until it's firm but not solid.
I toss the butter cubes in the dry mix to stop them sticking, and one by one I use the palm of my hand to crush them flat into discs and put them back in the dry mix. A bench scraper is good to use to unstick it from the counter if it's a little warm, or you get any sticking.
I stir in the fridge cold wet mix until it's just formed a dough, and I form it into a rough square and rest covered in the fridge for half an hour.
Then I do 5 single folds, with 20 minute rests after the first two and then again after the second two.
Then I roll it long out to make nice sized blocks that have 4 portions worth of pasties/hand pies that I can defrost.
I'm usually bad about documenting my steps with photos but this is one of the few things I've taken photos of during most steps. Here are all the progress pics, and some pasties I made. A simple cheese and bean filling as a test for the pastry, and the second pic is is a mushroom bechamel with caramelised onions, tarragon, and wilted spinach. Cooked at 175c in a gas oven for 50 minutes.
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Comment on Bakers of Tildes, what do you like to bake, and for what type of occasion? in ~food
drewgi (edited )LinkI bake any and all kinds of breads and pastries. For special occasions, I like to pick someone else's culture at work and make breads for them. One year I made cozonac for a Romanian co-worker and...I bake any and all kinds of breads and pastries. For special occasions, I like to pick someone else's culture at work and make breads for them. One year I made cozonac for a Romanian co-worker and her mum for Christmas. Most things I bake outside meal-involved breads are just random experiments and recipe ideas.
Otherwise, I like to bake and freeze sliced sandwich bread, rolls, blocks of shortcrust and blitz puff pastry ready to be rolled out, dumpling wrappers, pizza pinwheels. I also regularly make flatbreads to go with meals, usually I can go back and forth between those and the main meal and use resting/cooking time to do more things.
With the pastries I like to make different hand pies, pasties, desserts, which all freeze and reheat well too :) It's a little more involved but I find the work soothing and a lot of it ends up a lot nicer, and a lot cheaper.
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Comment on What is your most used piece of kitchen equipment / what surprised you in its usefulness? in ~food
drewgi (edited )Link ParentThere are two types of bench scrapers, rigid and flexible. I quite like my rigid metal one for cleaning, and portioning dough, as well as helping me shape larger high hydration loaves. It has a...There are two types of bench scrapers, rigid and flexible. I quite like my rigid metal one for cleaning, and portioning dough, as well as helping me shape larger high hydration loaves. It has a nice thick plastic handle on the top that's comfortable to grip.
I like my flexible scrapers for getting inside bowls and moving/shaping smaller items. With flexible scrapers, the answer is it's bigger, but it makes it much easier/more comfortable to bend it to the curve you want and generally hold it. (edit: I should also mention the other main difference - the shape. I have two shapes I use, a rectangle with a curve cut out on the side, and bean shaped. This makes it so much easier to scrape out the inside of bowls)
My issue with using something like a card is that sometimes the ink/coating can start to flake off, and I'd be weary about that getting into food. For most things, I'd say if you don't see why you'd use it, there's not much point getting it. Flexible plastic bench scrapers can be had for so cheap, though, it's worth a go if you're curious.
I have a section at the top for calculating water temp to get the dough temp you want, although I'm not 100% confident on how accurate it is. It was from a javascript calculator I found on github and thought I'd give it a go. At some point I want to make a proofing box that controls temp/humidity, brod and taylor make a nice collapsible one but it's so expensive. Otherwise, I definitely play around with temp depending on what ambient is, I have a beer brewing heater mat that I'll sometimes use in winter if things are a little chilly, or I'll cold proof in the fridge sometimes too.
In terms of seed/multigrain/alternative flours, there are a few things people can try out. For seeds, it's generally a good idea to presoak them in water so that they don't absorb excess from the dough.
In terms of whole wheat flours I'll usually add an extra 3% or so for every 10% of bread flour that I change out for whole wheat, and presoaking the whole wheat can help soften the bran a bit which stops it from damaging the gluten as much. It's vaguely similar for other grains, but each type of flour will have its own optimal absorption rate, and it'll depend on humidity, how much the flour has absorbed from the atmosphere, et c. And each flour will also have its own quirky rules, depending on if it has gluten forming proteins, what level of those it has, and what ratio those proteins are present in. Then for something like vital wheat gluten I might increase hydration by 1.5% for every 1% I add.