Recipe/formula conversion AP to WW - which ratios to adjust?

[MixUp]

I have some old recipes around for various goods using volumetric measurement for everything. I've been converting over to weights, and then formulas from there. One of the things I'd like to convert it for is replacing various percentages of all purpose/pastry flours with whole wheat. However the whole wheat is fresh milled, so it still has the oils in tact. I'm making the appropriate weight and thus percentage adjustments between the flours, just kind of cheating using King Arthur's charts (I.E. 1 cup AP = 4.25oz, 1 cup WW = 4oz.)

What I'm unsure of is how to handle the conversion of AP to whole wheat in terms of the other ingredients.

If I take the volume to weight conversions of the original recipe, including the weight adjustment for the changed ingredient from AP to whole wheat, the percentage of hydration is DECREASED if the weight of hydration remains constant. This sounds very wrong since the WW will take on more water (or should, fresh milled might be different with the oils still present.)

Technically I would think the ratio for hydration would have to remain constant at worst, or increase most likely. But I'm not sure what kind of adjustment to make for the change.

Here's a fictional example of what I mean:

If I have an old recipe that takes

3 cups all purpose
3/4 cups water​

I'm converting that out to

12oz all purpose
8.3oz (by wt) water

or (assuming it's a 2 ingredient recipe)
59% flour
41% water
​

If I convert half the flour to whole wheat by volume I'm converting that out to :

6.4oz all purpose
6oz whole wheat
8.3oz (by wt) water

or (assuming it's a now 3 ingredient recipe)
31% AP flour
29% WW flour
40% water
​

That seems wrong. That decreased hydration where WW will increase absorbtion. I'm not sure when substituting WW how exactly to handle the percentage of total flour versus liquid.

Edit: And yes, I know the percentages aren't proper percentages since flour isn't 100% - but doing it that way doesn't demonstrate the actual question well !

 

[retired baker]

I've never seen a bread recipe that didn't require adjustment to accommodate moisture levels in flour, in Boston it was often huge due to humidity in the flour. In the end it still comes back to what your dough feels like.
I worked in a place that made 20K loaves a shift, the chef still checked the dough by hand and adjusted.
Once he had it right he'd apply the same to each following batch, water came from a regulated supply on the wall that controlled temp and amount.
Its not like pastry cream where the amounts are locked in, bread is by nature dynamic not static.
Given a precise recipe I still check and adjust manually during the mixing, I don't want to fight with brioche consistency or bagel toughness.

 

[MixUp]

That's a very good point, of course! I suppose I'm mostly just trying to update my book stand and ancient recipes floating around to a new uniform recipe set where I can just pull up my formulae and generate recipe cards in a standard template for any size batch...phones and tablets weren't so much a thing the last time I set up on my recipes. Aprons didn't have phone pockets on them either.....

I've also improved my scales now with a high res gram scale and a very rapid update/fast stabilizing legal for trade scale that makes doing even measuring "1/2 tsp salt" possible on the scale, and am converting, best as I can using standard conversions, all volume to weights for everything. I don't want to ever see a volumetric measuring device again, save for liquid measure (which I'm also trying to convert to all weights except where impractical for things like eggs.)

So I wanted to get my conversions from AP to WW mixes built into the formulae at least for general scaling. But, of course in practice, you're right, it does have to come down to feel. Especially since the WW component is down to fresh milled flour and the specific harvest starts coming into play. Add in some heirloom grain experimentation and I'm probably going to drive myself nuts.

Pasta's a tough one to do by feel though. It always feels wrong when its right. If it feels right it's horribly wrong and becomes a sticky mess when laminating/cutting.

 

[retired baker]

...phones and tablets weren't so much a thing the last time I set up on my recipes. Aprons didn't have phone pockets on them either.....
.

Its not that new, it goes back a ways,
Moses was the first to use a tablet to contact the cloud.

I defy conversion, I'm going metric .... inch by inch.

 

[MixUp]

Haha! Well, that sure got a rise out of me...

If the proof is in the pudding, how do I get it out?