Bourke Street Bakery Book

I'm not a professional baker but i have been successfully baking as an amateur for a couple of years now. In this time I have learned a few basics, such as that strong white flour can absorb water of 60% of the flour weight (approximately). That is, 3/8 water to 5/8 flour. I know that this is flour dependent, but only within a couple of percent.

Today i tried to use the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook to make simple white pizza dough. The recipe called for 600g flour and 445ml liquid (water, milk, oil). This equates to 74% liquid to flour weight. Needless to say, the dough resembled a batter and required several handfuls of flour to bring back to workable dough.

I normally use a Ciabatta dough for my pizza bases, so I am quite used to working with a wet dough, but this was ridiculous. Luckily I have enough experience to know what to look for, but others may not be so fortunate. I will be interested to see how other recipes from this book work out.

I am keen to hear other's thoughts and experiences with this book.