Hi I need some help here in deciphering hydration level and what is the standard way of doing it. In the suggestion for incorporating Tangzhon into a soft bread recipe, to make it even softer and more moist (as above) I see you use milk and consider it all as water. The reason I am asking is because to make Hokkaido bread I sum all the water contents of each ingredient I use that can contribute water to the recipe.
gr whole milk x .88 = weight of water contributed to the dough by the whole milk
gr eggs x .75 = weight water contributed to the dough by the eggs
gr butter x .18 = weight water contributed by the butter in
gr honey x .18 = weight water contributed by the honey
gr water x 1 = weight of water

If I calculate hydration level not considering the water in milk (and other ingredients that I add in) like you do above, my Hokkaido recipe shows a hydration level of 77.9 If I adjust for water content of the ingredients in my recipe, hydration level comes out to 70%

Do I adjust hydration level considering water content of the ingredients or not? Either way you do it, I believe each person (over time) will adjust the recipe until he or she gets the "best" results. But when it comes to exchanging information between people, we need to calculate and express hydration level using a standard method common to all. And I am not sure if I should drop adjusting for water content according to type of milk, butter fat in butter, eggs, honey or Barley Malt syrup, etc, which as in this case I do use in my homemade Hokkaido bread!

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