LogFAQs > #970381595

If you can find recipes that use weight measures instead of volume (and you have a scale), I might suggest trying to learn with those. Depending on how hard you scoop, a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces, which is a huge variance that is easily enough to screw up whatever you're making if you don't account for it. There's still always going to be some intuition involved in bread making because the current temperature and humidity will affect how much flour you need, but if you can at least be certain that you've put in the amount the recipe called for, that makes adjusting easier.

Also, it will often seem like your dough is too sticky when you start kneading, but resist the urge to dump a bunch of extra flour in to fix that. As you develop the gluten, it'll become less sticky, so you only need to add the bare minimum to actually be able to work with the dough. A common beginner mistake is to underestimate how much kneading will bring the dough together, so watch out for that.