How To Troubleshoot What Went Wrong With Your Bread.

It happens to the best of us. Maybe you are new to bread making, trying a new recipe, or just experimenting, but the loaf that you envisioned is not the load that you received.

Don’t worry or lose hope! Failure is a key component to success. Fortunately, in the world of homemade bread, it only cost you a little bit of time and even less money.

Learning from mistakes is essential to building proficiency. This post will continue to evolve as I get more feedback on the issues that people are seeing (if you don’t see your problem, please leave a comment). Also, if I missed a potential solution to an issue – let me know as well.

Common Problems

My loaves didn’t rise as much as expected.

Test your yeast for potency

1. 1. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar into half a cup of 100ºF water
   2. Pour a 0.25 oz packet or 7 grams of active dry yeast (5g of instant) and stir. The yeast should be about at room temperature before testing.
   3. In 10 minutes, you should have a foamy/bubbly mixture that has approximately doubled in size.  If you do, great! It’s not a potency issue. If it didn’t double (doesn’t have to be exact) or rise at all, your yeast may be dead 🙁

My yeast is alive, what next? Check your water temperature

1. You’ll notice that most of the recipes I use call for lukewarm water or specifically water around 90ºF. Yeast is a living organism. If the water is too hot (probably greater than 115ºF) you can kill the yeast.

Buy a digital thermometer and ensure you aren’t getting too hot for the yeast. If you don’t have a digital thermometer less scientific method is to make sure that the water is not hot to the touch.

Are you using Whole wheat or whole grain flour?

Whole grain flours have both the germ and the bran of the wheat kernel. This makes a healthier, fuller tasting bread, but can cause issues with density and rising. Why? For bread to hold its structure, it requires gluten development. Gluten is a protein that when worked (i.e. kneaded) will align into long strands providing strength. Bran is a fiber (think raisin bran). It’s designed to protect the wheat germ (seed). It’s hard and can cut long strands of gluten. This is why so many wheat breads are dense.

Here’s how to fix that:

1. Use vital wheat gluten.

Vital wheat gluten (sometimes called vital wheat gluten flour) is essentially just gluten. By adding extra gluten to your recipe, you can counteract the action of the bran.

2. Increase the hydration.

By adding more water to your recipe, you will allow the gluten to move more in your bread dough. You will probably need some increased kneading or stretch and folds, but this will allow wheat breads to get airier.

You may be over-proofing.

If the bread rises and then collapses, you are probably proofing it too long. The basic rule for proofing is that you want the dough to double in size. Any more than that and you risk collapse. Try one of the following:

1. Cut the amount of yeast in half. This will allow it to proof slower.
2. Proof the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
3. Cut the proofing time. At room temperature, dough (not a poolish or biga) with a normal amount of yeast (~one packet) should only require an hour or two to proof.

You may be under-proofing.

Yeast takes time to convert starches into sugars. When it does this it creates carbon dioxide which adds volume to your bread dough. If you don’t give it enough time, you end up with a flatter bread. Try the finger dent test. This will tell if your dough is done proofing.
The dough may be too wet/not having enough surface tension in the loaf.

1. Take a look at my post on how to shape doughs. You want a good amount of surface tension. I detail two different shaping techniques for boules (round bread loafs) that should provide this.

2. Most likely the dough will not be too wet if you have followed a recipe. It’s probably just a tension issue. However, if you are experimenting, try cutting the hydration ratio.

2a. With wet dough, it’s all about the development of the gluten. Gluten development provides structure and strength to the bread. Try kneading more or doing a few more stretch and folds to the loaf before you proof.

You degassed the dough too much when shaping or shaped it later in the proofing process.
Some recipes call you to degas or punch down your doughs before shaping (i.e. baguettes), others do not. If you do degas your dough, make sure that you are then allowing enough time before baking to allow it to expand again.

Otherwise, you want to be careful when shaping. Check out my shaping post on proper shaping techniques that will help avoid degassing the dough too much.

There is too much salt in the recipe.

Salt is mostly added to add flavor to bread, but it also plays an important role in regulating the yeast fermentation of the yeast and it helps to tighten the gluten structure.

Too much or too little salt can have an adverse affect to how the dough rises. Too much salt will slow or kill the yeast. Too little will cause the dough to be stickier with a lessened ability to hold gases (which give you shape).

Typically, salt will be about 2% of the total amount of flour. If the amount of salt in your dough is significantly different, it may be worth experimenting with the amount used.

There is too much sugar in the recipe.

A less common problem is too much sugar. Sugar can help stimulate yeast fermentation, but it also dissolves in water, potentially changing the hydration ratio.

The temperature of the area where the bread was proofed was too low.
Yeast is a bacterium and need the correct conditions for it to do its job. Professional bakers can proof in areas that have as high as 80% humidity and 80°F. Cooler temperatures may require longer proofing times. Use finger dent test to check.

Your baking pans/proofing baskets are too big.

You did the windowpane test to check if your gluten had proper structure, but that doesn’t mean that a dough will always hold its shape without support. Use properly sized equipment that will give you the shapes you need.

Your oven is too hot.

This is another rare case. However, if the dough looks good going into the oven, but your loaf doesn’t expand as expected when baking (called oven spring), your oven may be too hot. I find that residential ovens can’t get hot enough for this to happen, but it’s worth noting.

My loaves stick when I try to move them or stuck to the pan.

Flour and/or cornmeal is your best friend. When it comes to shaping and baking, don’t be stingy. I will scrape up the excess flour on the countertops and use it the next time I shape.

Another good tip if possible is to shape the dough in the pan or on a peel. You can’t always do this, but its best to handle the bread dough as little as possible. I find this especially important when making pizza. I always make it directly on a well floured/corn mealed peel or pan (if I’m not baking on stones).

My loaves look ugly or didn’t hold their shape.

This could be a couple of things.
1. Your dough could be under or over proofed.
2. The gluten may not be developed enough. Try the windowpane test to see if you did enough kneading.
3. The dough may be too wet or there is not enough surface tension on the outside of the loaf.
The crumb of my bread is too dense.

My crust is too dark.

1. Your oven may be too hot.
2. If the crust is too dark either on the top OR the bottom – you may need to move your oven rack more centrally.
3. You may be baking the bread too long.
4. Make sure that you are baking and NOT broiling the bread.
5. There may be too much sugar in the recipe.

My crust is too light

1. The oven temperature is too low.
2. You didn’t bake the bread long enough. I typically control the darkness and the heartiness of the crust by adjusting how long I bake the bread for. 10 minutes can change my bread from a light brown thin crust to a dark and hearty crust.
3. The dough dried out during the rise. Dry dough doesn’t allow for a Maillard reaction. Make sure that you either cover the dough with plastic wrap (ideally) or a moist (and clean) kitchen towel.
4. You may have too little sugar (mainly for enriched breads).
5. You may need water vapor when baking. This can be fixed by either using a dutch oven to bake the bread or throwing a cup of water in when you begin baking.

My crust isn’t as thick/hearty as I hoped.

Loaves of bread that have thick crusts but are not burnt or overcooked in the center are typically made using steam. I’m assuming that like me, you do not have a commercial oven at home. There are two ways to replicate this in a home oven:

1. Use a dutch oven.
1a. This is my preferred method. They will last a lifetime and then some, and they provide that wonderfully amazing crust that you are hoping for. It works because the bread releases water as it bakes and the lid traps that steam. This cooks the crust faster than the center, providing a nice moist center with a wonderful outside.

2. Throw a cup of water in the oven at the beginning of baking.
2a. I’ve done this many times and it works – just not as well as a dutch oven. The water will instantly turn to steam, which means that you run the risk of getting burnt. You also run the (rare) risk of shattering your oven glass. If cold water gets on the hot oven glass bad things happen. Spend the money and get a dutch oven.