I live in the south too, and the humidity is always a factor for me,which is why I asked. And if they're telling you that your dough may be too wet, then it again points to the humidity factor. I often have to put less liquid or more flour to account for the weather during baking. And my loaves are almost always higher rising, and just plain prettier in the winter months (when the humidity finally drops below 50%). I use the same recipes all throughout the year, but the bread/dough does not always look/act the same. You'd be amazed at how much moisture the dough can pull from the air. Especially breads that have whole grains (oat is even worse than wheat!), the longer they sit the more moisture they bring in.
It may help to just assume that that you need more flour than some recipes state. For instance, if I'm making bread from a King Arthur recipe, knowing that they are in VT and rarely deal w/the humidity that I do, makes me assume before even starting that I could probably omit up to 2T of liquid from the jump, and in the end, when the dough comes together during kneading, if it looks too wet at the end of kneading time, it probably is, and I can therefore add a bit more flour (1 T at a time till it looks right). So knowing
where your recipe came from and was tested (vs where
you are making it) does make a big difference.
Also, are you kneading in a bread maker? If not, you may want to give it a try if you have one. The longer kneading cycle is perfect for whole grain doughs (it's about 20 min of kneading on mine), just throw the ingredients in on the "dough" cycle, then shape and bake in the regular oven. Sometimes a dough may look too wet to me @ about 5-7 minutes into the kneading, but by 15-18, it's looking much better. I usually wait until just those last few minutes to decide if I need to add more flour or not. Since discovering this, I
only use this method for kneading whole grain doughs, my Kitchen Aid would be obsolete if not for angel food cakes, lol (and the ability to walk away during creaming butter and sugar in making pound cakes
, whipping up desserts, and other things I probably shouldn't be making in the first place)
ETA: I make
all of my family's bread products from scratch (and I make them using whole grains, which I grind myself), and have for almost a decade. We don't need to buy sandwich bread, hot dog/hamburger buns, dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls
, pizza, etc. It can be frustrating at first, and I pray that your family is as tolerable w/you as mine was w/me while I learned because it is SO gratifying when you finally "get" it. Good luck!
