wet sticky dough?

hotcookie101

I am just wondering what I am doing wrong when breadmaking. I am trying to make HFW flatbreads from river cottage veg. It calls for 250g strong white flour, 250g bread flour, yeast and salt, and 325ml water.
He says it is a wet dough, and not to worry, but it was so wet it sat in the bottom of the kenwood and would even be kneaded properly, so I added a wee bit more flour (not much, a shake of the bag, maybe 50g?)
and kneaded it for AGES in the chef-I did about 8 minutes on 1-2 and then it was still really sticky so I did 5 minutes on 4 (holding it down on the worktop )

But when I take it out to let it rise, it is REALLY sticky still, my hands get covered with it, and it was hard to wash out the bowl IYKWIM.

Is this how it should be? Or should I have added less water (it is designed to be made by hand, but I always use the kenwood, as kneading hurts my shoulder, but in his other books a mixer kneaded dough is fine)

Seakay

I've not made this recipe myself, but for what it's worth, here are a few thoughts:

When you say bread flour do you mean wholemeal? Because stron white flour is bread flour. Strong white is nmore absorbant that plain white and wholemeal is more absorbant that either so that would make a difference to the wetness.

Wet dough will still rise, - a Grant loaf is practically liquid and that proves and bakes ok, although you stir rather than knead!

I'd hold off on deciding to alter the recipe until you've prooved and baked

Tescodealqueen

We like this bread recipe and generally make it by hand. We have been making it in the machin every other day this week, and all the bread has been edible though the mix a bit hit and miss. We have found it helpful to stir in the mixture when it first starts mixing to give the machine a hand to get all the flour taken in. It is very runny when poured out, but we let it rise again in four small bread tins, and the dough has risen and cooked well. Hope this helps - todays batch is sitting doing its second rise at the moment

hotcookie101

Seakay wrote: »

I've not made this recipe myself, but for what it's worth, here are a few thoughts:

When you say bread flour do you mean wholemeal? Because stron white flour is bread flour. Strong white is nmore absorbant that plain white and wholemeal is more absorbant that either so that would make a difference to the wetness.

Wet dough will still rise, - a Grant loaf is practically liquid and that proves and bakes ok, although you stir rather than knead!

I'd hold off on deciding to alter the recipe until you've prooved and baked

Sorry, meant plain flour, not bread flour. So its 50:50 strong white & plain white

It rose (raised? rised? ) fine, and the flat breads were delicious. However-I had to use at least half a cup of flour for rolling out, it constantly stuck to the pin.... Maybe for rolls would be ok, or shoving in a tin, but just seemed really hard to work with for flat breads (although truly was yummy)

Tescodealqueen wrote: »

We like this bread recipe and generally make it by hand. We have been making it in the machin every other day this week, and all the bread has been edible though the mix a bit hit and miss. We have found it helpful to stir in the mixture when it first starts mixing to give the machine a hand to get all the flour taken in. It is very runny when poured out, but we let it rise again in four small bread tins, and the dough has risen and cooked well. Hope this helps - todays batch is sitting doing its second rise at the moment

When you say machine-is that breadmaker? I think the mix would be delicious as rolls (less effort!) The flatbreads were really tasty but it took me about 15 minutes to roll out 8 of them-is that normal?

eilidh_s

I have heard that the wetter the dough is, the better it is. I make all my bread by hand and if I ever have an accident with too much water, it does take a while longer to knead it but I haven't ever noticed a difference in the end product.

Gigervamp

When making bread, I've found that if it's a wet day, I need to use a little less water as the dough seems to soak up water from the air.

hotcookie101

The flatbread was delicious, and for a loaf or rolls it wouldn't have been too bad, but it was a right faff rolling out. Does anyone have any tips on how to roll it without it sticking to everything?

Sambucus_Nigra

Wet your hands and pull it into shape.

For this recipe - and I use 500g flour and 350 g water for all my breads [so even wetter than yours] and the bread machine to knead it, then tip it out straight into a square plastic container and let it rise if it hasn't already done so.

Then, using flat plastic scrapers, or a spatula - slice a bit off, shape it on an oiled surface with wet hands, put on/in the pan, leave to rise, slash and bake - or shape, dress and bake [for flatbreads]. If you must roll it, then oil or moisten the rolling pin.

This recipe is used in this method on you tube...and it's the way I was taught to knead this particular recipe...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvdtUR-XTG0

Or shown more slowly...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yno_JaLvfOc&feature=related

Tescodealqueen

hotcookie101 wrote: »

Sorry, meant plain flour, not bread flour. So its 50:50 strong white & plain white

It rose (raised? rised? ) fine, and the flat breads were delicious. However-I had to use at least half a cup of flour for rolling out, it constantly stuck to the pin.... Maybe for rolls would be ok, or shoving in a tin, but just seemed really hard to work with for flat breads (although truly was yummy)



When you say machine-is that breadmaker? I think the mix would be delicious as rolls (less effort!) The flatbreads were really tasty but it took me about 15 minutes to roll out 8 of them-is that normal?

I mean breadmaker - we make the dough and then bake in the oven. When making the flatbreads we shape with our hands, often dangling it like making a pizza base. No longer try to roll it out after the first time when we were covered in dough. And I admit they were somewhat rustic although the taste was great

thriftwizard

I've been making sourdoughs & "artisan" breads a lot lately & they are usually very wet dough, often using a minimum of commercial yeast, sometimes risen overnight and with a minimum of handling - variations on No--Knead Dutch Oven Bread, in fact. The initial mixture is almost pourable and definitely not kneadable! But the end result is absolutely yummy. Not tried the River Cottage one but maybe it's meant to be a bit like the American one?

hotcookie101

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Wet your hands and pull it into shape.

For this recipe - and I use 500g flour and 350 g water for all my breads [so even wetter than yours] and the bread machine to knead it, then tip it out straight into a square plastic container and let it rise if it hasn't already done so.

Then, using flat plastic scrapers, or a spatula - slice a bit off, shape it on an oiled surface with wet hands, put on/in the pan, leave to rise, slash and bake - or shape, dress and bake [for flatbreads]. If you must roll it, then oil or moisten the rolling pin.

This recipe is used in this method on you tube...and it's the way I was taught to knead this particular recipe...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvdtUR-XTG0

Or shown more slowly...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yno_JaLvfOc&feature=related

Thank you! Will try moistening hands next time. I use the rolling pin, as it is so springy it is hard to get the breads/pizzas big enough