What went wrong with your bread? (2024)

FAQs

What went wrong with your bread? ›

Wrinkled Crust - Loaf cooled too quickly in a draft. Soggy - bread was left to cool completely in the pan. Let it cool for a few minutes and then remove it from the pan to cool completely. Too Thick - too much flour, a crust formed during rising, bread baked too slowly in too cool of an oven.

Too much flour and not enough water can cause crumbly bread – people often do this if the dough is too sticky and they add more flour rather than kneading through it. Other culprits can be overproving or not kneading enough – the things you need to do to get a good structure.

Baking temperature

Some ovens run hotter than its settings, some cooler. If the oven is too hot the loaf will be brown and crispy on the outside but doughy in the middle and may collapse as it cools. When bread is baked at too low a temperature it will not rise enough in the oven resulting in a dense and sunken loaf.

When is bread not healthful? The highly processed flour and additives in white, packaged bread can make it unhealthful. Consuming too much white bread can contribute to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. However, buying bread with the word “whole” as the first ingredient still does not guarantee a healthful product.

8 reasons why your bread dough is not rising:

Yeast needs to be warm - not too hot, not too cold. Yeast is too cold If the other ingredients are too cold, it could cause some of the yeast to die. Was the dough kneaded properly? Dough may not have been kneaded enough.

There may be several reasons for a dense, cake like texture in bread. It may indicate the kneading wasn't enough for the gluten to develop properly, or the dough was proved for too short a time or the dough may have been too dry. It is also worth checking the flour you used.

Too much yeast could cause the dough to go flat by releasing gas before the flour is ready to expand. If you let the dough rise too long, it will start having a yeast or beer smell and taste and ultimately deflate or rise poorly in the oven and have a light crust.

This tip applies to loaves specifically. For recipes like banana bread, lemon loaf, or pound cake, your best bet is to bake in a metal loaf pan. Metal is a quick and efficient conductor of heat. This helps to ensure your recipe will cook through the center and not collapse.

Pop the loaves into a 375º oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The loaves should be golden brown. If you want to be sure they're baked through, use your thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bread. You're looking for about 185º.

Look for “whole grain,” “whole wheat,” or “whole meal” on the label. If a loaf contains 6 grams of fiber per 100 g, it's rich in fiber. Choose breads with plenty of intact grains, like oats, barley, and quinoa, as well as seeds, if you can eat these. Watch out for mass-produced sourdough breads.

What happens if you add too much flour to bread? ›

Too much flour can make your dough stiff and dry. And we all know what happens if there's not enough liquid for the yeast to use: It doesn't work how it should. So, be mindful of your measurements and how much flour your dough picks up in the kneading process.

It's a lot of work before your loaf even hits the oven. Baking bread is the last hurdle, and for new bakers, it can be challenging to get just the right bake. Bake too long and the bread is burnt tasting, but if you go under, you've got an underbaked, sticky mess inside.

If the dough is over proofed oven spring can't happen and the dough's structure collapses rather than springs.

Too Hot to Survive

Regardless of the type of yeast you use, if your water reaches temperatures of 120°F or more, the yeast will begin to die off. Once water temps reach 140°F or higher, that is the point where the yeast will be completely killed off.

You can also try adding more yeast. Open a new packet of yeast and mix 1 teaspoon (3 g) of it with 1 cup (240 mL) of warm water and 1 tablespoon (13 g) of sugar. Let the yeast mixture proof for 10 minutes. Then, add the mixture to your dough along with some more flour so there's a ratio of 60% flour to 40% liquid.

Store-bought bread uses preservatives that not only keep it moist but also help keep mold away. Homemade bread lacks preservatives, and so it does not last nearly as long as a store-bought loaf.

Do Not Over-Knead Your Dough. The over-kneading dough is a common bread making mistake, which makes gluten too tight for bread to rise, resulting in chewy bread instead of fluffy. Kneading correctly is most important to strengthen the gluten and give your bread a perfect texture.