Nothing is as annoying as wet dough, you can’t knead it properly, you can’t give it a proper shape, and sometimes you can’t even get it out of the bowl. So why is this happening? And what can you do to fix it?
The most common cause of a wet brioche dough is using too many liquids. But there are other things that can make a brioche dough wet, some other common causes are improper kneading, using the wrong flour type, and not paying attention to the humidity of the room.
As you can see the causes can range from simple things like too many liquids to more complex things like the wrong flour type. So, let’s take a look at each possible problem and see how to fix it.
Hydration Level
But, indeed adding too much water to the dough is one of the most common reasons why your dough isn’t coming together.
All dough has a hydration level, which represents how many liquids you have in rapport with the flour. A hydration level of 50% means that you have 50 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. A hydration level of 75% means that you are using 75 grams of water for every gram of flour.
On average a good hydration level that will work with most flour types is 60%. (more about flour types in just a moment)
The hydration level will have a huge impact on the consistency of your brioche, and on how fluffy it is. But it will also affect the wetness of your dough.
In the case of brioche, you can have multiple things that can affect the hydration level: water, milk, eggs, butter, etc. So it can be somewhat hard to get an exact level. But, by weighing all the ingredients, you can still get a good average.
How to Solve This Problem
In case you have a high hydration level, 70% or more, you can simply add some extra flour to the dough and incorporate it properly by kneading it.
But if you already have a good hydration level of 60% or less, then the problem lies elsewhere.
Wrong Flour Type
Flour is separated into different categories using a rating system. One problem with the rating system is that it’s not uniform worldwide, a lot of countries have their own, including the US, and Italy, as well as France and Germany. Here is the rating system, with the different names each country has for the flour types, and what that actually means.
| Ash Content | Protein | US | Italian | French | German |
| 0.4% | 9% | Pastry Flour | 00 | 45 | 405 |
| 0.5% | 11% | All-Purpose Flour | 0 | 55 | 550 |
| 0.8% | 14% | High Gluten Flour | 1 | 80 | 812 |
| 1% | 15% | First Clear Flour | 2 | 110 | 1050 |
| 1.5% | 13% | Whole Wheat Flour | Faina Integrale | 150 | 1700 |
In the US you will most likely see the US grading system, but it’s not uncommon to see some manufacturers use a different label just because 00 flour can sound fancier than pastry flour.
But regardless of what system you are using to rate the flour, you have to know that there are differences between a flour rated 00 and another rated 0. The biggest one is how fine the flour is 00 being the finest one of them all.
How fine the flour is ground will have a huge effect on how much water it can absorb and what texture the brioche will have.
If a recipe calls for 100 grams of all-purpose flour and you are using pastry flour, it’s like you will only be using around 80 grams of all-purpose flour, and this difference will completely change the recipe.
Another big important difference is the protein content. The table that I showed you contains the average, but some flour will have more or fewer proteins, this is because different manufacturers have different grain sources, grown in different conditions. The amount of protein in a flour can greatly influence how much water the flour can absorb.
How to Solve This Problem
Different flour types can absorb different quantities of water. This is why I would suggest you stick to all-purpose flour, also known as 0 flour, this is the type that is usually used for brioches. Unless the recipe specifically calls for a different type of flour.
Improper Kneading
Another thing that could be preventing your dough from coming together is improper kneading.
On average a brioche dough should be kneaded for at least 15 minutes, in order to develop a good and strong gluten network.
Gluten is what gives any dough its elasticity and reduces its stickiness. If your dough doesn’t develop a proper gluten network it will break when you try to stretch it, or you won’t be able to stretch it at all because it will stick to your hands or you to the work surface.
As a side note, you should know that kneading the dough too much can also make the gluten too strong, and as a result, the dough will be as hard as rubber and, while it won’t be wet and sticky, it will also be impossible to stretch it. But this happens very rarely, and if you are kneading by hand you should easily feel if this is the case.
How to Solve This Problem
In most cases kneading the dough for 15 minutes should be enough, but everybody kneads their dough in a different way. Some do it more actively while others move at a slower pace, some apply a lot of pressure, while others are gentler. So, timing for how long you knead the dough is not the best solution.
What you should be doing instead is checking the consistency and stickiness of the dough. If your dough is too sticky you should knead it some more.
Another great way to test is using the windowpane test.
This is a very simple test that will tell you if you’ve kneaded your dough enough.
Take a small piece of dough and gently start stretching it out, and see if you can obtain a slightly transparent layer in the middle. If you can then you’ve kneaded the dough perfectly.
If the dough breaks too easily it means that you have to knead it a little more.
If the dough is too hard to stretch, and when you finally manage to stretch it breaks, it means that you’ve over-kneaded and you need to start all over.
And here is a video showing how you can do this test:
Humidity
Humidity, or the lack of it, can be a really big problem when making any dough, especially since there are not that many things that you can do to control it.
Think of your dough as a sponge and of your kitchen as a bucket. If there is water in the bucket the sponge will absorb it. And so will the dough do with the humidity in the kitchen.
Fortunately, this is not such a big problem, and will only affect your brioche dough if there is a lot of humidity in the air. Say for example if you were boiling a pot full of water in the kitchen while the dough is rising.
How to Solve This Problem
The best way to protect your dough from excessive or insufficient humidity is to cover the bowl with plastic wrap. This should keep all the humidity of the dough in the bowl, and the humidity of the room won’t affect the dough at all.
How to Fix a Brioche Dough That Isn’t Coming Together
Now you know why your brioche dough isn’t coming together, and you also know what you should do in order to prevent this from happening again. But chances are that right now you already have a dough in front of you that isn’t coming together, so let’s see what you can do to fix it.
Knead It Some More
The first thing that you should do in order to make your brioche dough come together is to knead it some more.
I know from personal experience that kneading wet dough can be a real hassle, but it really works, and after every kneading that you do, you will see that the dough becomes easier and easier to handle.
This method should work in 90% of the cases. The only cases in which it won’t work is when the dough has way too much water in it, and no amount of kneading will be able to solve this. But even in those cases, there is a solution.
Add More Flour
If kneading the dough won’t fix your dough, you should try to add some extra flour to it.
The best way to add flour to brioche dough is to sprinkle some on the work surface and then knead the dough over that flour. This way the flour will be incorporated equally all over the dough, and no clumps will form in the dough.
As for how much flour to add, it really depends on how much water you used in the first place. Chances are that you have a hydration level that is too high, and now you should try to lower the hydration level by adding more flour.
You could technically do a few complicated equations to figure out the exact amount of flour that you need to add, but I believe that it’s simpler to just add 20 more grams of flour at the beginning, and depending on how the dough is after 2 minutes of kneading, add a few more grams to it until it’s not sticky anymore.
When you decide that you’ve added enough flour to the dough, and you’ve kneaded until there is no more visible flour left, you should let it rest for at least 30 minutes. While the new flour is incorporated into the dough, it’s still not entirely hydrated. If you don’t let it rest for a few minutes, the dough will have an unpleasant, floury taste.
Before ending the article I would also like to cover two small but very similar topics, and those are preventing the dough from sticking to the bowl and preventing the dough from sticking to your hands.
How to Prevent the Dough From Sticking to the Bowl
Even if the dough is not too sticky to properly stretch it, a very common problem that people have is that the dough sticks too much to the bowl.
Solving this problem is extremely easy, just put some oil or butter on your hand and spread it all over the bowl. If when you are done there is a small puddle at the bottom of the bowl, you should throw it away, as it’s not needed.
My recommendation is to use butter since a lot of brioche recipes already use it in the dough, but if you don’t have any butter you can also use sunflower oil, as it has no taste, so it shouldn’t influence the brioche at all, just make sure you use as little as you can.
How to Prevent the Dough From Sticking to Your Hands
If you can’t knead the dough properly because it sticks to your hands you should put either butter, oil, or water on your hands before kneading.
If the dough is very sticky you should use oil, but if the dough is just a little bit sticky you can use water as it’s easier to clean and it won’t make the dough any stickier.
Final Thoughts
While it will take a little bit of work, any dough can be fixed, no matter how sticky it is. All you have to do is knead it until it stops being sticky, and if the dough is so sticky that you can’t handle it properly you can add some extra flour to make it easier to handle.
But as I said in the beginning, it’s more important to know why your dough is sticky, so that you can prevent it from happening, than knowing how to fix it. So here is a recap on what you should do in order to prevent your dough from becoming sticky:
- Aim for a hydration level of 60%, this means that for every 100 grams of flour you are using 60 grams of water.
- Use All Purpose Flour (also known as 0 flour).
- Put a plastic wrap over the bowl in which your dough is rising, this will prevent the room humidity from interfering with the dough.
- Knead your dough properly, the best way to test if you’ve kneaded your dough enough is to use the windowpane test.
As long as you follow those indications, you shouldn’t have any more problems of any kind with your dough.