Sticky Challah Monster

Posted: Fri, May 14 2010, 5:05 am Post subject: Sticky Challah Monster

Ok I think I need help!!!
Usually whenever I make Challah I use one quarter ww and the rest regular. So last night dh asked me if I could try half/half. Ok, no problem. right? WRONG
I always knew that for ww you need more water cuz it absorbs more so put in more water than usual. anyways it seemed a bit more liquidy than usual so I added some flour. I let the dough rise for an hour as usual and instead of my nice smooth dough I ended up with a thick sticky something. Whatever it was, I definitely couldn't make Challah out of this!
So dh decided it needs more flour so I added flour but it was practically impossible to knead because the whole thing was just stuck to my hands (I do it by hand). I let it rise again and it was no better. At the point it was around 3.30 am, I was close to tears and at the end of my wits so I just took the bag stuck it in the fridge and decided to deal with it the next morning. Which is now - gulp...
Anyways what do I do with this monster that is threatening to take over my fridge (I thought the fridge was supposed to stop it from rising and rising and rising...
Do you have any ideas how I could salvage this???
_________________
Bite off more than you can chew - then chew.

Platinum Member Joined: Mar 07 2007 Posts: 10429

With more ww you're not going to get a nice smooth dough that looks like a baby's tush the way you do with white flour. Ideally, dough should be a little sticky anyway, like a post-it note. I think your mistake was adding too much water. You don't need THAT much more water for ww.

In any case, punch down the dough, put some oil--not flour-- on your hands to reduce the sticking. You don't want to add more flour b/c that will make the dough too heavy. If it's still too sticky to make braids, just make loaves in a loaf pan.