Something odd going on
Hi
Apart from the odd 'fancy' bread I bake at least 3 bloomer style loaves a week - been doing it for a long time with no problems. However, in the last couple of bakes something has changed - I know not what.
It's the usual ingredients: 500gm flour, 320ml water, 7gm easybake yeast & 40ml oil.
The dough rises normally on the first rise but for some reason it's then really sticky. The finger test is not possible because the dough sticks to your finger (even when wet) and pulls up the surface.
I then knock it back & start forming it but the dough is so sticky that it's next to impossible. I use a little flour on the surface but it doesn't help that much - it sticks badly when moving the dough around. I don't like to use loads of flour at this point - never needed to so unfotunately I'm unable to shape it properly.
Now since I'm gonna bake in a tin it doesn't matter a great deal, but it just looks wrong flattened out at the bottom.
However, it bakes and rises just fine & there's nothing wrong with the resulting bread but should I want to bake without a tin I'd end up with a thick pizza base.
Everything's the same, flour, oil yeast, kneading time. I tested the yeast & it froths away merrily
So I'm puzzled as to what's going on. Ant ideas?