Hi there! This may or may not be a silly question, but as a bread baking newbie it's one I felt the need to ask before wasting tons of dough trying it myself
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Wow, this was really helpful! Thank you so much for all the information... it doesn't seem as daunting a task as I thought! I'll have to give these a try :)
If you have to err one direction or the other, being a bit too wet is better than a bit too dry. It rises better. Flouring your work surface and hands if it is too wet is really necessary. It lets you handle the dough without it sticking to everything.
Will do! I do have one question though... is it doable without having a stand mixer with a bread hook? I basically have the good old "by hand" method, and a hand mixer. I really need to invest in a stand mixer... everything I want to do seems to call for one!
I've never tried to do it with a regular mixer, but you know, we made bread for centuries before we had mixers at all, so I don't see why not. The one problem I see is getting the dough out of the beaters. I think you might need to actually do it by hand. I'd start with 3 cups of flour and knead the last cup in by hand. Look at it before turning it out onto your heavily floured surface, because you don't want it to actually pour. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
I used to make all my yeast breads by hand until my mom gave me the bread machine that SHE was gifted it. I found that only really wet bread doughs like ciabatta breads benefited from being made in a bread machine and haven't ever resorted to my stand mixer as the cleanup for it takes more time than simply kneading dough for a single loaf for 8-9 min
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If you read the baking guide link I included above you'll find.
Adding Moisture While Baking
The level of moisture in the oven is an important factor in achieving proper results when baking bread. Moisture, in the form of steam, allows the bread to form a thin, golden crust while allowing the interior to remain soft and moist. It is often beneficial to add moisture to the oven either before the bread is placed in the oven or during the baking process. There are a number of methods for adding moisture to the oven.
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Adding Moisture While Baking
The level of moisture in the oven is an important factor in achieving proper results when baking bread. Moisture, in the form of steam, allows the bread to form a thin, golden crust while allowing the interior to remain soft and moist. It is often beneficial to add moisture to the oven either before the bread is placed in the oven or during the baking process. There are a number of methods for adding moisture to the oven.
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