Flour Humidity Issues
I live in a very dry western state and I think it is affecting my flour humidity, if that is possible. I am not able to keep my flour in the freezer because we have a tiny refrigerator, but I keep it cool in my pantry and bake frequently so it rotates quickly. My starter is not stiff (I do 1/2 cup starter, 1/4 cup water, 3/8 cup ww flour for feedings), but as I bake and add the required water and flour I find that the resulting dough is overly dry and I usually have to add more water to compensate. This seems to happen even when I bake regular bread. Today I was using King Arthur Flour's recipe for Pain au Levain using Bob's Red Mill flour. The recipe said that after mixing the levain, flours and water, the dough should not be thoroughly kneaded and "quite sticky." I could not even get my dough to fully absorb the flour in the recipe, and it was a far cry from sticky. Is that normal for a dry state or could something else be the problem? Any thoughts?