Water
Most bakers do not use as much water as is possible in bread-making. A hard, northwestern flour requires a slack dough if the flour has been made from wheats having the right characters and properly milled. The best results are obtained by setting the dough as soft as can be handled. When mixing the dough the water at first is not thoroughly absorbed by the flour particles, as the gluten is so hard it takes some time for these particles to thoroughly absorb all the water they will hold. This continuing to absorb is known to the baker as “tightening up.” This feature is characteristic of Northwestern flours, and is lacking in other flours. When mixing a dough from Northwestern flours always allow for “tightening up,” and mix the dough softer than it is intended to be when you “take the dough.” The opposite is the case in softer flours as they “slack off.”
Any flour will lose this characteristic of “tightening up” if a dough when mixed is too hot. Gluten is in reality a vegetable glue and softens when the dough is mixed warm, and consequently will not absorb the amount of water it should, and it will have a tendency to “slack off” instead of “tightening up.”