Every, and I mean every, goddamn time I make bread, I always end up with a super sticky dough that I have to add lots of flour too once I dump it out of the mixing bowl. When preparing the dough, I add all the ingredients as called for by the recipe, but I usually end up adding a little (1/8 ~ 1/4 cup) extra water. Otherwise the dough is far too stiff, and I find myself unable to believe that the firm mass could be made into bread. Then once I dump it out, I can’t even begin kneading - I’m just pulling apart dough that sticks to my fingers. It seems like I then have to add at least another cup of flour to get things manageable. This seems like a huge proportion of flour:water. Any bakers want to share their insight here?
It would be helpful to know what sort of base recipe you’re working from.
What type of flour are you using? What’s your method for measuring it?
I’ve also noticed that most bread recipes call for a range of flour measurements (i.e. 3-5 cups) rather than a set measure. Is that the case in the recipes you tend to follow?
In any event, why are you adding extra water? Though there’s definitely room for art in bread, baking really is a science, and messing with liquid content is a sure-fire way to end up with a screwed up batch of anything, bread included.
My tips for now:
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Follow the recipe’s liquid guidelines exactly (dry ingredients shift and settle and otherwise call for adjustments; liquids are easier to measure accurately).
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Add the flour about 1/2 cup at a time and stir it in until stirring becomes impractical. Turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface, and dump some more flour over it. Begin kneading then – and be prepared to have messy, sticky hands. Continue to work in more flour until your dough releases easily from the work surface (not leaving sticky dregs behind).
I typical use whole-wheat flour (with extra gluten added to compensate) and I measure it my volume in measuring cups.
The recipes I have followed have called for an exact amount of flour. You’ve got me on the adding extra water bit. I need to be more discipline and reduce the urge to add extra water. The reason I do, though, is because I feel like I’m working with a brick in the mixing bowl (I mix by hand) and I add water to loosen the dough up. This comes back to bite me in the ass when I turn out the dough, though.
Thanks for the tips.
As beadalin says … too much water.
Bread isnt normally a batter, it does need to be fairly solid. If you apply for a trial membership for cooks illustrated online, I think they have a bread tutorial you can watch.
THough I hit yahoo vids, and found this - but you need to be able to convert from metric to imperial if you are of a mind to…
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2815066/8180170
Although I do a slightly different method, I sort of reverse it and start with the flour in a bowl and add the liquid to it, and actually knead it in the bread trough [an 18 inch diameter bowl that is reserved for breadmaking] this looks like it is well filmed and easy to follow.
Dont be afraid to get your hands covered in dough=) it is just flour and water and pretty much washes off if you get messed up. Wish I was close enough to teach you how by showing, it really is very easy=)