Lately I've been on a sourdough kick. The whole wheat and white loafs I've been making were easy and turned out great. But then I tried a pumpernickel. It was about the stickiest dough I've ever encountered. More so than any other bread I've ever made.
I resisted the urge to add much more flour since the white and whole wheat turned out fine using similar ratios. In the end, the pumpernickel turned out just fine but making it was a PITA. It was kind of like kneading The Blob. I wasn't sure who was going to eat who.
At any rate, I went off this recipe:
3C pumpernickel
2C all-purpose
1 1/2 C caramel syrup
2C sourdough starter
couple pinches of salt
Question is: is there some technique that bakers use to deal with sticky doughs if kneading by hand? Or -- should I stop procrastinating and just get a stand up mixer? I was all set to buy a Kitchen Aid a few years ago until I read the reviews about exploding gearboxes. Now I'm thinking almost any mixer would be worth it.
-Doug
I resisted the urge to add much more flour since the white and whole wheat turned out fine using similar ratios. In the end, the pumpernickel turned out just fine but making it was a PITA. It was kind of like kneading The Blob. I wasn't sure who was going to eat who.
At any rate, I went off this recipe:
3C pumpernickel
2C all-purpose
1 1/2 C caramel syrup
2C sourdough starter
couple pinches of salt
Question is: is there some technique that bakers use to deal with sticky doughs if kneading by hand? Or -- should I stop procrastinating and just get a stand up mixer? I was all set to buy a Kitchen Aid a few years ago until I read the reviews about exploding gearboxes. Now I'm thinking almost any mixer would be worth it.
-Doug