I haven't made bread with a starter for more than 40 years so I may not be much help but if you answer a question or two, one of the folks who do may be better equipped to help. Are you saying that you just take one of the KA starter kits and add it to the bread or do you add (feed) flour and water and wait, then feed more several times with removals and all sorts of stuff BEFORE you start making this bread? If the second, I could imagine ending up with too much liquid (or not); if just new starter into bread sounds kind of frustratingly wasteful.

I have recently made some whole wheat bread via a KA recipe with and without KA flour. I WAS surprised to find that my other flour weighed more per cup (I was checking weight thinking that I might package up batch amounts to freeze from a large bag). So I can imagine that one could end up a little dry or wet depending on flour. I don't think you can really ruin bread if you have made other bread before. I almost never follow exact measurements but rather just add flour to gain the consistancy that I am after.

I usually mix and first rise my dough in the bread machine. I find that whole wheat flour can take more water after the initial mix. In other words, it starts out sticky or goopy but after perhaps 5 minutes of machine mixing, it has coalessed into a reasonable dough. I seem to get a better rise with the wetter dough. Perhaps your mixer isn't really doing a good mix?

That does sound like a large amount of water for the flour used, but I have also made sticky doughs, and I oiled my hands in order to be handle them. After the first rise, they are not as sticky. It takes the flour perhaps an hour to get fully hydrated, which is why it starts out so sticky. The last time I made bread dough (last week-end) I let it rise in the KA bowl for the first rise.

Couple things here....one the bread improver is most likely vital wheat gluten and will definitely help your bread with "kneadability" ( just made up that word!!)...if you try it again be sure to add some. Whole wheat flour is very low in gluten, the stuff that makes dough hold together, and extra is always recommended with WW or Rye flour.
Another thing is the "liquidness" of your fed starter...another made up word....
But the most important thing is the resting time. The recipe says 30 minutes....I suggest more like 3 hours. It takes a really long time for whole wheat flour to absorb liquid.
It will be a very soft dough...it will be a task to get it into shape and into the pan....
One more thing....try hand kneading next time....there is a different texture in dough mixed in a stand mixer and dough done by hand....don't know why but I have found it to be so.
HOWEVER....you asked do you deal with it? Or just add more flour?
I just add more flour...when making bread, I never have a finite measure for flour....the amount depends on so many things, like moisture in the atmosphere, the particular kind of flour and small differences in measurements.
I made a LOT of bread...easily 2 loaves a week or more ...if you count sticky buns as bread!! In fact there are 2 loaves rising now and I am trying to decide, sesame seeds? or poppy seeds? Or no seeds at all?

Well the bread is made and this is what I observed. After the first rise, the dough was actually manageable. I floured the counter and was able to fold the dough quite easily without getting it all over my hands. During the second rise, it crowned about an inch above the pan (which it is supposed to do). But what I found really interesting was that the bread rose another inch in the oven. Never saw that before.

I usually do knead by hand but thought I would try the stand mixer this time around to see if it made any difference. I don't like the crust - it's not crispy but a little rubbery. But the interior is delicious. This surprises me because I kneaded it in the mixer a really long time.

So I am not sure I learned anything from this experiment since the previous bread to which I added flour is not considerably different from the bread that I made today.

I think I will take your advice, linda, and get the improver. I think you are right about the gluten not developing enough.

I WAS surprised to find that my other flour weighed more per cup

chas, that is interesting. I know that 00 Italian flour is lighter but I didn't realize that there could be a weight difference between the same kind of flour in a different brand.

After the first rise, they are not as sticky.

Lars, This is true as I discovered today. I never thought this dough would start behaving but it did. I agree that there might be too much water in this recipe. At first I thought maybe my starter was too liquid, but I decided that it's fine. It's the recipe.

Very wet recipes are in style. You'll get a more open, softer crumb with it. Sandwich bread usually does have a soft crust. You might be able to crisp it some by misting it just before you put it in the oven, or if you make it into a boule you could do the pan of water/ice underneath.

Most flours have different weights--KA runs heavy--and the amount of humidity in the atmosphere can affect the measures too. A scale will get you closest to the same every time, though you'll still need a pinch more or less depending on the environment, etc.

Any loaf baked in a pan will have a softer crust than a free form loaf. It will be crisper if you get it out of the pans as soon as you can.

As a side note, I will add that the last loaf of bread I made (last week-end) I decided to bake in the toaster oven (because the weather was so hot), and that was not a good idea, as the top of the bread almost burned and came out rather crunchy. However, the rest of the bread was okay, and I just cut off the top crust after I sliced the bread. The dough I made was also very wet, but I like it that way. I have a stone/tile that I put in the bottom of my toaster oven that I use for small pizzas, and that works okay, but the bread loaf gets too close to the top burner, which is why it came out crusty. I will not bake bread in the toaster oven again. I have central A/C and so I really don't have to worry about getting the kitchen too hot. Also, I switched the halogen light bulbs in the kitchen for LED, and that made the kitchen quite a bit cooler and easier to work in.

I don't use improver, but I do add 1 tbsp of vital wheat gluten for every cup of whole wheat flour that I use in bread dough.

Re wet dough. Part of what I really like about making bread is kneading the dough and so I found the wet mess of this dough a really unpleasant sensation. I will try the oiled hands technique and maybe that will be helpful but I don't see how you can arrive at a dough that springs up lightly to let you know that it's ready!

Pillog, I am using the starter that you helped me make. It's still alive and kicking. In fact, I now have two of them. I was thinking of converting one into a dryer one (that gets kneaded instead of added to). I think it would be fun to try and I still have plenty of rye berries if it goes wrong - lol. I make sourdough waffles with the discard and they are heavenly. Next thing I want to try are English muffins - that sounds like fun.

About the rubbery crust: after slicing the bread, I freeze it and so when it comes out it needs to be toasted. Once I toast it, the crust gets nice and crispy so it hasn't yet turned out to be an eating problem - just a lapse in technique. I'll try the misting next time.

ETA: I was puzzled about why the bread rose another inch in the oven after I put it in. Well it turns out there is something called "ovenspring" when the yeast has a final burst of activity before it goes into the great beyond. I did not know that. I read that this is the time to get some steam into the oven.

Also "oven spring" is caused by the bubbles that were already in the dough expanding in the heat.
Another trick for kneading a very wet dough is rubber gloves...those disposable ones Dr's and nurses use are really best....I used to have a box in my kitchen, they are handed ( like right and left) and come in sizes....last ones I bought were $12.50 for a big box of 100. Oil the gloves and the dough doesn't stick and your hands don't take 10 minutes to get goop free.

Strangely, with my two starters, I gave one of them a feeding of KA whole wheat flour just once to experiment, and it started doubling and then tripling so fast that I actually went back to AP. It seemed a little bit too active. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing but I didn't want it overflowing everywhere so I backed off.

OK. I just thought of the question I should have asked right off the bat. If you are working with a wet dough, how do you know when it's ready after kneading. If you poke your finger into non-wet dough you get it to spring back; that doesn't happen with wet dough, so what do you look for?

dough will develop the gluten even without kneading....it just needs time. Ever make that no knead bread? Where you let it sit on the counter for2 4 hours and just dump the gloppy mess into a Dutch oven and bake? The gluten is well developed in that bread!!
Back to your question...you are done kneading when it stretches and doesn't break.

Thanks for responding. I will try it next time to see if I can get a stretch out of it.

There are different ways to check for different kinds of bread. I do a no knead whole grain bread when I want to limit my clean up water. It is wet, starts with a soaker and a preferment, and after mixing it rises for at least twelve hours. It's a long process without kneading. The volume only increases by about a third. There are a lot of seeds and other things mixed in which also help impede the rise, though the biggest culprit is the bran. I get my best rise by putting the mixed dough right into a terracotta banneton I can bake it in. It's not pretty but it is delicious. One checks by volume.

On the other end of the spectrum, my very yeasty, sticky but not wet, double rise challah dough is guaranteed to double in volume in a short time. Usually about 80 minutes.

The challah could do the windowpane test, but the whole grain won't stretch that much without breaking.

I use the spring back test for whether cakes are fully baked, but not breads. Both of the above would fail. The challah would deflate. The whole grain would look insouciant and say, "Huh?"

Linda is right, btw, about the gluten developing over time. Working the glop and stretching and folding is done to develop the gluten, according to the bakers who started this trend, and the sciency ones as well, but if you leave it to ferment long enough, it'll happen without. That's the point of "no knead bread". But it also takes days to make.

Re the whole wheat love of your starter, that's some magic flour! Generally, they like white because it's a sugar high. Don't be scared of a happy starter! Next time you decide to change the feed, give it some of each and put it in a bigger bowl so if it grows that fast, it's contained.