I've been having a lot of trouble lately with my bread, which I think has
been caused by humidity. Yesterday I started a loaf in my bread machine,
and the dough appeared to be fine after the initial kneading. It felt
firm and not at all sticky, and formed a nice dough ball. However, after
the second kneading cycle and part of the second rise (about 2 hours later)
I checked on the dough and it had completely changed. It was more like a
batter, very sticky and like a thick liquid. I started kneading, and had
to add nearly a cup of flour to get back to the proper consistency. And
even then, the dough barely rose at all, I tried baking it in the oven but
it came out heavy and dense.
Even though it's summer, and was fairly humid yesterday, it wasn't
outstandingly hot and humid. (I don't have air conditioning, I think it
was about 85 degrees F, which is about average for the summer.) I can't
believe that my dough, in a closed bread machine, would absorb that much
moisture from the air, but I can't figure out any other reason for the
problem. Is there a way to counteract the humidity, or special recipes
that will work even in the summer? What do people do who live in hot,
humid climates, or in areas where it rains frequently? When I lived in
the South, I ran my air conditioning in the summer, so it was never a
problem, but here in a "cooler" climate it feels hotter!
Karen Wheless
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Karen Wheless kwheless@rockland.net
"Every sentence I utter must be understood
not as an affirmation, but as a question."
Niels Bohr