Hi there, Sarah! You sure can make this dough without a mixer. It sounds like a bit too much flour is still sneaking its way into the mixing bowl. If the dough doesn't absorb the full 2 cups of flour in the second mixing stage, that's OK — the remaining flour that couldn't be incorporated can be used as bench flour for shaping the dough. It would take a really long time to over-work dough when mixing by hand, you'd be pretty tired, so don't worry about this too much if you're not using a mixer. We hope this helps and if we can help to troubleshoot further please do feel welcome to give our Baker's Hotline a call at 85-371-BAKE (2253) so we can help to troubleshoot further! 

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