What I continue to see is that the dough gets to the "Ball stage" and
then no matter how much flour I add it reverts to what might be called
the "Pre-ball-stage"; meaning that about 25% of the dough is clinging
to the dough hook while the remainder is in a level mass clinging to
the sides of the bowl. The part clinging to the hook rotates around
while the remaining mass doesn't move very much.

Tonight I made my standard recipe ("Honey Whole Wheat from Beth
Hensperger's 'Bread Made Easy' ") and even though I added 40% more
flour than the recipe called for the situation described above
occurred. It reached the "Ball Stage" then reverted back to the
"pre-ball-stage" within about 90 seconds even though I had given the
first portion of flour about 20 minutes to hydrate. In other words, I
added enough flour to the liquids to make a very thick paste then left
it to hydrate for about 20 mins.

I'm assuming that in order to properly knead the bread it's important
for it to be in the form of a ball which is being crushed or squished
by the hook as it rotates ...otherwise there's a danger of a tearing
action developing if the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl while
the hook is rotating with a small partial doughball clinging to it.

I just can't believe that this isn't happening to anyone else. What do
you do about it? I even tried to add flour to the sides of the bowl in
an attempt to keep it at the ball stage but when it gets to 40% over
the recipe I figured I didn't want to go any further.

Patrick