Effect of adding wet ingredients to dry when making bread?

Question

I inadvertently omitted the eggs from my challah recipe, but realized this only after the final step of mixing in and after fully incorporating the flour. Rather than throwing everything away, I attempted to resuscitate the dough by adding the eggs.

The dough took on a very odd texture initially, then I kept mixing and added a few tablespoons of extra flour very gradually. Eventually it resembled the normal dough.

Should my bread turn out alright? What happens when you add extra liquid to a flour rather than adding the flour last?

Answer 1

The main issue you will face is the extra mixing allows for additional gluten development. In some breads, this could create a risk of over-kneading, which could make the dough less workable, more prone to tearing, and more difficult to get the proper rise.

Challah is a basic egg enriched bread, so other than the eggs themselves (which are fairly effective at helping prevent over-kneading) you don't have a great deal of protection. The worst case scenario is that your bread will be a little flat and crumbly; the best case is that you are still well within the tolerance window and it will be just fine.

Edit: I will leave this for reference, but I was thinking of brioche: in a very sweet, fatty bread like brioche, this risk is minimized. The fat and sugars in the dough act as barriers preventing the glutin-precursors from interacting as frequently or as easily, making it much, much more difficult to over knead.

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The main reasons for the traditional order of dough assembly are:

• As you no doubt realize, it is much easier to incorporate the liquids evenly into loose flour, rather than a partially formed dough
• The yeast acts on the ingredients present, so sometimes ingredients which inhibit yeast growth are held back until after a fermentation phase
• You want time for all of the flour to be fully hydrated--normally, in yeast raised doughs, this is hardly an issue.