SC - OT-OOP-bread help!

[cclark at vicon.net]

'Lainie wrote:
> ...
>2) I might have miscounted the cups of flour that I was kneading in. But
>if there was too much, why was it sticky? And if there was too little,
>why was there so much dough?

Perhaps the dough was sticky because you didn't miscount. As Ras mentioned,
flour gets moist in humid air and won't absorb as much of the liquid
ingredients. Likewise, dry flour needs extra liquid. That's why I prefer to
add the last of the flour to a dough by feel and not by volume or mass.

Do you keep your flour and knead and rise your dough in a place that's
climate controlled for either temperature or humidity? If not, then I would
recommend using less water on humid days, and looking for a cooler spot for
the dough to rise any time that the temperature gets up into the mid 80s.
Yeast goes a little bit crazy (or barmy?) at higher temperatures.

>3) I looked at the bottle- I got dark molasses instead of light. But
>that should only be a taste difference, no? ...

Right. Dark molasses is basically the same as light, except that it's been
cooked to a darker color. If it was produced as a sugar refining by-product
then it might contain more sulphur, but I'm under the impression that the
molasses on the market these days (other than that horrible blackstrap
stuff) is now usually produced especially for sale as food.

In conclusion, I think that both 2 and 3 can be eliminated as causes of the
trouble. One other possibilty is a change in water quality. If the liquid in
the dough doesn't have the right mineral content, then the gluten might not
develop properly. But that wouldn't explain the rapid rising. A combination
of fast rising and inferior taste tends to mean that the dough rose at too
high a temperature.

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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