Effect of adding wet ingredients to dry when making bread?
I inadvertently omitted the eggs from my challah recipe, but realized this only after the final step of mixing in and after fully incorporating the flour. Rather than throwing everything away, I attempted to resuscitate the dough by adding the eggs.
The dough took on a very odd texture initially, then I kept mixing and added a few tablespoons of extra flour very gradually. Eventually it resembled the normal dough.
Should my bread turn out alright? What happens when you add extra liquid to a flour rather than adding the flour last?
Best Answer
The main issue you will face is the extra mixing allows for additional gluten development. In some breads, this could create a risk of over-kneading, which could make the dough less workable, more prone to tearing, and more difficult to get the proper rise.
Challah is a basic egg enriched bread, so other than the eggs themselves (which are fairly effective at helping prevent over-kneading) you don't have a great deal of protection. The worst case scenario is that your bread will be a little flat and crumbly; the best case is that you are still well within the tolerance window and it will be just fine.
Edit: I will leave this for reference, but I was thinking of brioche: in a very sweet, fatty bread like brioche, this risk is minimized. The fat and sugars in the dough act as barriers preventing the glutin-precursors from interacting as frequently or as easily, making it much, much more difficult to over knead.
The main reasons for the traditional order of dough assembly are:
- As you no doubt realize, it is much easier to incorporate the liquids evenly into loose flour, rather than a partially formed dough
- The yeast acts on the ingredients present, so sometimes ingredients which inhibit yeast growth are held back until after a fermentation phase
- You want time for all of the flour to be fully hydrated--normally, in yeast raised doughs, this is hardly an issue.
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Quick Answer about "Effect of adding wet ingredients to dry when making bread?"
The main issue you will face is the extra mixing allows for additional gluten development. In some breads, this could create a risk of over-kneading, which could make the dough less workable, more prone to tearing, and more difficult to get the proper rise.What happens if you add wet to dry ingredients?
Generally speaking, yes \u2013 you want to add the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients. Adding the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients can end up being clumpy and messy. You know that thing where you have an exploding pocket of flour in your batter or dough? No good.When baking Do You Add wet ingredients to dry?
Most recipes for bread dough or batter call for combining the dry ingredients separately from the liquid ingredients and then stirring the wet stuff into the dry, rather than the other way around.Why is it important to alternate the dry and wet ingredients?
Believe it or not, this is for a good reason. Adding the liquid all at once could saturate the creamed butter mixture and cause the batter to separate. Adding all of the dry ingredients will cause the batter to be thick and likely result in over mixing, which will yield a tougher cake.How does water content affect bread?
The amount of water affects the bonding of the gluten network. A high water content dough creates a more open crumb, whereas, dryer doughs provide a more close-knit network. There can be issues when the dough is too wet or too dry.Reading your Dough: Too wet/Too Dry
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