Last Updated on July 26, 2020

I say something like this in almost every bread machine recipe:

Check on the dough after five or ten  minutes of kneading.  Just pop the top of the bread machine and see how the dough is doing.  It should be a smooth, round ball.

If you’re new to the bread-making game you might wonder what I mean by that. So here you are, a photo of a smooth, round ball of dough in the bread machine:

If the dough is too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until the dough balls up. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks as expected.

Not Enough Flour

Wondering what it looks like when you need to add some flour?

One Thanksgiving weekend I made some dough that looked like the below after kneading.  

It’s not one ball, it’s two balls of dough.  See the smeared area that I’ve circled in blue?  That’s a sure sign that the dough isn’t going to behave when it’s removed from the machine. I added flour and that helped a lot.