How to Make Dough Less Sticky (2024)

By Brittani Rable

How to Make Dough Less Sticky (1)

Dough can be tricky, especially when it comes to baking bread. There’s a science to the process, and it’s all too easy for things to go awry. However, just like in chemistry, there are ways to counteract certain challenges with dough. Whether it’s pizza dough, bread dough, or cookie dough, one problem that’s often faced is dough being too sticky.

Why Is My Dough Too Sticky?

So your dough is too sticky—what gives? Generally, while dough should be a little tacky to the touch, it shouldn’t cling to your hands (certain types of bread might call for a stickier dough, but unless that’s stated in the recipe, sticky dough is a no-go). Most often, the problem is too much water in the dough. Flour can be tricky, and factors like temperature, humidity, and altitude can affect how much water your flour absorbs. High humidity can cause the flour to start absorbing water before you even start mixing. Additionally, using cold water rather than warm water can cause the gluten to leak out, which leads to a sticky dough.

Can I Just Add More Flour?

If your dough really is unbelievably sticky, you can try adding a teaspoon of flour at a time but proceed with caution. Too much added flour can actually end up ruining your dough. Remember, baking is a science, and ingredient measurements matter.

Does Kneading Dough Make It Less Sticky?

Generally, yes, kneading the dough more can make it less sticky. The drawback to more kneading is risking a denser dough, which will lead to a flatter, chewier bread.

How to Make Dough Less Sticky (2)

Fixing Sticky Bread Dough Before Rising

The earlier you catch a sticky dough problem, the better. There are some measures you can take to prevent and remedy sticky dough in the early stages. This also counts for breads that don’t require active yeast.

  1. When mixing ingredients, hold back about 40% of the water the recipe calls for. Then slowly add more as needed until your dough is the right consistency.
  2. Make sure you’re mixing the dough thoroughly. Mix it long enough so that it’s smooth and slightly bouncy to the touch.
  3. As mentioned above, add small increments of flour as needed, as little as possible.
  4. Use a dough scraper to ensure you’re getting all the ingredients off the side of the bowl and mixing them in.
  5. Use a small amount of oil to prevent dough from sticking to your hands too much and aid the kneading process. You’ll likely have to oil the bowl anyway when it’s time to rise, anyway.

Fixing Sticky Bread Dough After Rising

If you’ve already mixed and kneaded your dough and placed it in a bowl to rise, there’s still hope. You might find that your dough is sticking to the bowl. During the first rise, your bread should roughly double in size. After the first rise, you would normally knead the dough again. However, if you find your dough is too sticky at this point, do not knead it again. Instead, gently press and deflate the dough. You can also use a light coating of flour on your hands and working surface to press and stretch the dough.

What About Sticky Cookie Dough?

When it comes to cookie dough, stickiness is likely due to temperature. When you’re kneading cookie dough, the natural temperature of your hands will warm it up, making it a bit sticky (especially if butter and eggs are involved). The simplest way to avoid this is to chill your dough in the refrigerator after mixing and kneading. Pro tip: Place your dough on parchment paper before putting it in the fridge to make it even easier to remove and lay out when it’s time to prep for baking.

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Practice Makes Perfect

Perhaps the most important tip of them all is this: practice. Baking is a skill, and the more you do it, the more you learn. We help make the process easy with simple instructions and premeasured ingredients. Check out our rotating menu of globally-inspired recipes and practice your dough-making skills!

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How to Make Dough Less Sticky (2024)

FAQs

How to Make Dough Less Sticky? ›

If your dough is too sticky and it's impossible to work with you can add some extra flour, just a little at a time. Make sure you weigh the extra flour you add and then you'll be able to adjust the recipe correctly the next time you bake.

How do you make dough less sticky? ›

Use a small amount of oil to prevent dough from sticking to your hands too much and aid the kneading process. You'll likely have to oil the bowl anyway when it's time to rise, anyway.

How do you remove sticky dough? ›

Use cold water, not hot

Use cold water and soap to do the first round of cleaning of bowls and utensils, giving them a good soak if you need to. (Just avoid soaking wooden spoons and rolling pins!) Once the big lumps of dough are gone, you can switch to warm water again.

Does oil make dough less sticky? ›

We prefer a less common approach that replaces the flour with vegetable oil. Rubbing a teaspoon of the neutral-flavored fat onto the countertop works just as well as flour does to minimize sticking, and the dough readily absorbs excess oil without any negative effect on its consistency when either raw or baked.

How do you handle wet sticky dough? ›

Another option is to simply accept that it's very wet and sticky sticky. Instead of dabbing your hands with flour to keep them dry, rinse them in water to keep them wet! There is a lot of technique to it, you can flour your hands and using a bench or dough scraper that you can also flour helps.

Does salt make dough less sticky? ›

Unsalted dough mixes faster, has little resistance to extension and feels sticky. Bakers who delay the salt addition during mixing find that once salt is added, the dough tightens, becoming more difficult to stretch, but also becomes stronger, and is thus capable of stretching farther without ripping.

How to make dough less sticky without flour? ›

The best advice I can give when working with sticky dough is to reach for water not flour to help. Using damp hands each time you work with the dough can help prevent it from sticking to you. Also use your bench scraper to help you move the dough around.

What is the difference between sticky and tacky dough? ›

These two words have basically the same meaning (able or likely to stick), but "tacky" is weaker - it means "only slightly sticky".

Does hot water make dough softer? ›

Found in baked goods across the world — tortillas, milk bread, cornbread and cream puffs, to name but four — hot water can speed mixing time; make it easier to fill and form doughs; yield softer, fluffier breads; and create stunning pie crusts like Ms.

What if 2 ingredient dough is too sticky? ›

Instructions. Place flour and yogurt in a medium bowl; stir well with a wooden spoon until just combined and then keep mixing dough in bowl with your hands until smooth (about 2 minutes of kneading). If dough is too sticky to knead, add more flour, 1 Tbsp at a time, until no longer sticky; let sit five minutes.

Why do people put oil on dough? ›

The goal of adding oil to pizza dough is to improve the texture of the dough and flavor the finished crust. The oil will specifically: Making the dough softer will improve its capacity to stretch when rolled out. If you don't use any oil, the dough will pull apart and produce holes.

Should I use butter or oil in dough? ›

The spongy texture and moist flavor that oil creates can be a boon to certain recipes. Not to mention oil is cheaper and easier to work with. Butter will always provide superior flavor and that melt-in-your-mouth texture. In many recipes, combining the two gives the best of both worlds.

How to fix dry dough? ›

First, try adding more liquid to the dough. This can be milk, water, or even just a little bit of extra oil. If that doesn't work, you can try kneading the dough for a few minutes to help it come together. Lastly, if all else fails, you can always add in a few tablespoons of flour to help bind the dough together.

How to make cookie dough less sticky without flour or cornstarch? ›

Tips for Preventing Sticky Cookie Dough

Use Shortening: Substitute all or a portion of the butter or margarine in the recipe with shortening. Vegetable shortening does not melt easily at room temperature. This keeps the dough firm while rolling and shaping and keeps the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.

What is tacky dough? ›

"Tacky" refers to the experience of pulling your finger off the surface of a lump of dough and noticing that your finger sticks a little bit but no dough comes off at all. A well-kneaded high hydration dough can be very soft but not at all sticky, because it can form a skin.

What happens if you bake wet dough? ›

Strong, wet doughs spring well in the oven, forming nice “ears” and, if given time in cold fermentation, a blistered crust. But for many, the most coveted feature of high-hydration loaves is their dramatically open crumb or alveolar structure.

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