Dough consistency

[draigwen]

I've just come from the kitchen where I've just made some delicious scones. However, as always seems to happen when making something dough-like, the dough ended up being too sticky and I had to add more flour, which meant that it was a little too floury and not sweet enough.

Does anyone have any idea
(a) why I might be getting dough too sticky (the wrong type of margarine, the wrong type of milk?), or
(b) what the best way to rectify sticky dough is without just adding random amounts of flour until it's non-sticky?

Comments

[wychwood]

I find dough sometimes gets sticky because my hands are very warm, and the butter / margarine gets too runny. If temperature is your problem, you could try putting it in a clingfilm-topped bowl, or similar, and chilling it in the fridge for a bit - half an hour, say? See if that fixes it.

[draigwen]

Oooo, that's certainly worth a try... except for the fact that our fridge is currently a freezer! But once it's fixed we'll definitely have to give it a go.

[wychwood]

The freezer will work too! Just, you know, leave it in there for less time :)

[lasergirl]

Scones are a tricky thing, because the more you work the dough the less fluffy the finished result is (because you exhaust the baking soda's PUFF power) so flour it JUST until it stops sticking to your fingers.

I have a recipe I love and use all the time - you can check my 'food' tags to find the recipe if you're interested.

[draigwen]

Thanks... we did work the dough quite a lot so that's something we'll have to remember!

[sporky_rat]

Also, go with the absolute coldest butter you can use (and I use butter because it stays colder longer than margarine and I like the finished taste better) when you cut it into the flour.

[draigwen]

I'd normally use butter but we were running out. Will get some tomorrow... hoping to try again tomorrow night with hopefully more success!

[moizissimo]

For scones, I just leave them sticky! Instead of rolling them out, I gently pat them out into a big circle with floured fingers, and score it into pie shapes. Once baked, I cut it into pie shapes, and nom.

I use different flour (spelt or gluten free, depending on who I'm baking for) and I always cook dairy free, so I often have this problem. Or, even worse, dough that isn't moist enough!

[draigwen]

Cool, thanks... something to try if we can't get it drier!

[ex_calla653]

I had a similar problem with bread-dough once and managed to fix that by adding a little bit less water. MAybe that helps?