Many people assume that if their dough is too sticky, the solution is to add more flour - but a sticky dough is actually a result of poor gluten development (it has very little to do with how much flour there is!) If you're making one of our bread recipes, have followed the gram measurements (using a kitchen scale to measure by weight), and are noticing your dough feels sticky, it means your dough needs some gluten development. You can let the dough rise for 30 minutes, then knead it a few times or add one set of "stretch and folds" to develop some more gluten, which will give you a smoother dough. Letting your dough do its first rise overnight in the fridge (covered) will also help gluten development. If you're using whole wheat flour, don't spend a lot of time kneading it when you first mix the dough. Whole wheat flour is made with the full wheat kernel, which means it has a bunch of heartier, sharper pieces. As you knead the dough, these sharp pieces can actually slice through your valuable gluten strands, which prevents the dough from turning smooth/elastic and can make it feel sticky. If you're working with whole wheat flour, mix the dough until everything is just combined, then let it rise for at least half an hour before kneading so that those sharp, sturdy flour particles can absorb some of the liquid in the recipe: This softens them up so you can knead the dough without destroying your gluten networks. You can also add a step called an autolyse if you're working with whole wheat flour - this step softens the flour particles for better gluten development and a smoother dough. PS - This is a very quick overview of dough strength: We cover this stuff in a lot more detail in our free bread bootcamp webinar and our comprehensive bread baking course.