Flour

When I make bread, I always consider basing it on a recipe, and then always, always, always adjust the flour content to get the texture of the kneaded dough right. Recipes can never predict what the moisture content of the flour will be, how much liquid it will require to get the dough soft, say, but not too sticky.
This is one of the most difficult things to learn when making bread: one has to learn to not follow a recipe slavishly, but to adjust to make things right.
LOML and I had noticed last week when making pasta that the recipe seemed way off in terms of the amount of flour needed (or rather, LOML, learning to make pasta, was surprised by how much less was needed than the recipe predicted: or rather, again, how the pasta took an extra egg and a bunch of extra half-teaspoons of water before coming together to the right consistency).
So yesterday I actually measured the flour out with scales, used the lower estimate of the amount of flour needed for the bap dough, and ended up having to add about 25% more liquid in spite of this. Apparently our kitchen is really dry, beyond the aridity of the current drought!

Today, LOML went and bought a humidifier for the kids' room: if it is that dry in the kitchen, perhaps this is making it harder for them to fight those nasty coughs!

Yours, dryly,
N.