Product Control

... plastic is over bread bowl to help dough rise ...

Catie called.

She was wondering what to do with bread dough when it is too stiff. 

It's possible for all of us to add just a little too much flour, or in this case, maybe even way too much flour. 

She wondered what the perfect recipe is, amounts of water to flour.

After all these years I can never tell because so many bread recipes race to my mind, all of which have different ingredients, so need different amounts of flour to water.

To me the perfect recipe is to start with three cups of water, and that's because I know that my KitchenAid won’t really handle any more liquid than that. Even two and a half cups would be better but I continue to add three.

... redeemed from an unholy mess ...

On to Catie’s problem: dough that is too stiff and a sure knowledge that water should be added.

If the dough is still in the KitchenAid, then when I figure this out, I start adding the water then, maybe as much as a half a cup. 

I add that much because if it is only ¼ of a cup short, it isn’t short enough for me to have noticed. 

 If the dough is out of the bowl and into the oiled container because I know I have a real mess on my hands, then I find it just as easy to add that 1/2 cup of water by hand and try to squeeze it into the dough.

I might even have to add more water than that.

Who knows until the product is facing them?

... cinammoned brown sugar and melted margarine ...

Putting the dough back in the machine just means that it will still be a big lump, chased around the bowl, the starchy water spilling over the lip of the bowl, splashing both horizontally and perpendicularly, and onto the counter, and in the worst-case scenario, down the cupboards and onto the floor, which can happen, before I find the knob to turn the electricity off on the machine.

I can say that if I were averse to textures, the texture isn't going to feel all that good and probably binning the mess might work out here.

... needing a little more counter space? ...

What this feels like to me is like having pieces of dough that I have squished and are now slipping through my fingers -- little bits of gnocchi running around the bowl.

A bit of an exaggeration but close.

What's the worst thing that could happen?

At that point I can just figure out that was a colossal mistake and toss it in the garbage, but the down side of that is, the dough continues to grow, either in the garbage or in the compost.

I have faced that mess as well.

Bottom line?

I add as much water as I think the dough needs, work it up as much as I can while all the time remembering that in this context, waste is a sin.

I leave the dough now, in the bowl in a nice warm place covered with

... a one-person job ...

a plastic bag for an hour and then go back to it.

By that time everything will look relaxed and the dough will be, not in its most perfect shape, but good enough to punch down one final time.

I've made this mistake so many times. And corrected it, until the error no longer feels like a mistake.

Further on this point of how much water is too much water, I tried a new recipe for buns and the dough was so soft, that I just added an extra cup of flour.

How was I to know that the point of this new dough is to leave it so soft that my hands can't handle it.

Too sticky.

... ready to eat ...

The only way I can work with it is to keep my hands well-watered, grab a piece of dough, shape it into a ball while my hands are very watery and then put it on the pan and leave it there to rise. 

The product is spectacular

But I wouldn't have figured out that was the method until Moiya told me she'd been trying that way of making very soft buns.

When she called, I thought Catie was really making a loaf of bread. But when I got pictures it turned out she was on her way to into cinnamon buns, which is a whole other project.

... take one please, or two or three ...
... the corner ones are the best ...

Making bread is such a simple thing to do, and seems to take so little time, compared to getting those cinnamon knots rolled.

I was aghast when I looked at her pictures.

There was no one there helping her dip the strips of dough into butter and knotting them.
Maybe that was her choice.

I too have used the single-person method if I need product control.

Arta