Not Enough Water

Bread recipes in some domestic baking books produce low-hydration doughs: that is, they have relatively high flour to water ratios. This will be exacerbated if a “stickyphobe” baker throws armfuls of flour around to dust the work surface, dough and hands during production. Such “tight” doughs will be less stretchy than doughs that have a higher proportion of water. As Andrew Whitley says, “the wetter the better!”