• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Baked logo

  • Winter
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Work With Us
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Winter
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Work With Us
×

Baked » Dessert

Troubleshooting Sourdough Bread

Published: Jan 21, 2021 by Baked · This post may contain affiliate links · 8 Comments

Things often go wrong during the process of learning sourdough, so we’ve written a post to help you troubleshoot sourdough bread!

Sourdough bread, side/top view, in a black dutch oven with parchment paper.

Baking sourdough can be daunting even for the most experienced of bakers. So many factors come into play — water and flour amounts and types, temperature, timing, handling, weights and volumes, oven temperatures — the list goes on and on.

In this post we’ve got a list of information to help you troubleshoot sourdough bread. We plan to frequently update this list, as we continue to explore the world of sourdough baking along with you!

Jump to:
  • Sourdough Starter
  • Ambient Room Temperature And Sourdough Starter
  • Ambient Temperature And Dough Rising
  • Tools
  • Whole Grains and Flour Substitutions
  • Weights vs Volume
  • Stretches and Folds
  • Proofing
  • Stickiness & Sticking
  • Scoring & Slashing
  • Crust

A scale with a jar mixed flour and water on top with a small jar of flour, measuring cup of water, cotton tea towel, and long spoon nearby.

Sourdough Starter

As a fermented culture, bringing a sourdough starter to life takes time. Visit this post called how to make a sourdough starter from scratch to learn the basics of creating and maintaining a starter. You may see some bubble activity in the first few days, however, it’s common for a starter to fall flat 5 to 7 days after creation. Don’t give up! A healthy and strong, sour-tasting starter can takes months, even years to nurture! That being said, you should be able to bake a loaf within one month.

Ambient Room Temperature And Sourdough Starter

Because sourdough starters are alive, they are susceptible to ambient room temperature like any other living being. If your house is cool, it can make the activity in your starter more sluggish. On the other hand, if your house is too warm, your starter may become overactive, with a less distinguished sour flavour.

If baking a few times a week, test your freshly fed starter in different spots around the house until you find a spot it likes. A happy starter will rise up light, bubbly, and fluffy, with a texture like melted marshmallow, within 5 to 8 hours of feeding. Store your starter in the fridge if you are baking less often, feeding a couple of times before baking.

Ambient Temperature And Dough Rising

There are a couple of reasons your sourdough might be rising slower than you think it should, or than the recipe states.

Same as with the sourdough starter itself, ambient house temperature makes a big difference here. If your house is cool or there are drafts, the dough will rise much slower than compared to a warm, draft free place.

Second, additions to dough – enriched doughs, like in our sourdough dinner rolls – will have a slower rising time, and this is compounded if it’s also cold or drafty. Using eggs, milk, butter, or any of their vegan counterparts will slow the rise of your breads.

To fix these issues, make sure that your dough can be placed in a spot that’s relatively warm (not hot – on top of a radiator is a no), without drafts or variations in temperature.

For enriched dough, start with all ingredients at room temperature to help speed up the process, as cold milk and eggs will cool down the total temperature of the dough and cause it to slow down.

Bread dough proofing in a glass bowl.

Tools

We have a whole post dedicated to our favourite and essential sourdough tools. You can spend a lot of money if you have it, however, rest assured you can also make great sourdough bread with basic tools you probably have in your kitchen right now!

Whole Grains and Flour Substitutions

Try our cinnamon raisin sourdough for a 40% whole wheat loaf, or this 100% whole grain sourdough. You can also use spelt or rye flour, as in this sourdough dark rye bread. Ancient grains are lower in gluten and a little more difficult to work with, but they make for excellent flavour.

For most recipes, it’s safe to substitute up to half of the plain flour with whole wheat. It is a bit harder to work with, but if you have some experience, you can try altering your favourites to make them a bit more wholesome.

It is possible to bake gluten free sourdough bread, but not to adapt an existing wheat-based sourdough recipe to make it GF. We recommend the recipe linked above, or you can look for books that are specifically gluten-free for good recipes, like Cannelle et Vanille.

step 6

Weights vs Volume

We always recommend using weights (grams) for baking sourdough bread in any form! Measuring with volume (cups) varies from person to person, and will never be as accurate.

Here at BAKED we measure regular all-purpose flour at 150 grams per cup; A cup of water is 250 grams. If your personal measurements vary from this, please use those trusted weights instead (as recommended by Penguin Random House recipe guidelines, along with our 50+ years of combined baking experience).

We always test recipes with both cups and grams to ensure our recipes will work either way, however, weights are more reliable. Cups are included for ease for beginner bakers who might not be sure they want to invest in a scale, but if you want to bake regularly, a decent scale is your friend. If using volume measurements, do the scoop and level method for the most consistent results possible.

If you choose one or the other, make sure you’re sticking with only one method of measuring for each recipe, as mixing volume and weight will often result in a subpar bake.

Oval loaf of bread with three diagonal scoring marks.

Stretches and Folds

We have a whole post on how to do stretches and folds! These add structure to your bread by helping to activate the gluten present in wheat flours.

Proofing

Proofing is the time sourdough spends rising before baking.

Under-proofed Sourdough

Not giving your loaf enough time to rise will yield an under-proofed loaf. Under-proofed sourdough is:

  • Can actually get a good rise from under-proofed dough, however, crumb may be “tight” rather than open and airy.
  • Possibly gummy and dense on the inside after slicing.
  • Chance of large empty air pockets inside loaf.

To fix — Increase rising time of loaf.

Over-proofed Sourdough Bread

When sourdough bread is given too long of a rise time it will result in bread that is over-proofed. Signs of over-proofing are:

  • A huge puffy ball of dough after the end of the rising time.
  • Bread doesn’t rise when baked.
  • Pale crust after baked.
  • More noticeable sour taste, possibly unpleasant.

To fix — Reduce the rising time by at least one hour.

Close up of a loaf of sourdough bread on parchment paper.

Stickiness & Sticking

There’s no way around it. Sourdough bread dough is sticky! When making loaves we recommend lightly wetting your fingers and/or hands with water to reduce sticking rather than using flour. If you find your shaped loaves sticking to the banneton or bowl, a good dusting of regular flour or rice flour before placing the loaf in will help. You can also line your banneton or bowl with a clean cotton kitchen towel. Once removed before baking, we tap any excess flour out of our bannetons, however, we don’t wash them. Store them in a cool, dry place, covered with a clean cloth to keep out dust. A slight build-up of flour residue works similar to seasoning a cast iron pan, and helps reduce sticking over time.

Scoring & Slashing

Can’t Get A Clean Decorative Cut On Loaf

There are three reasons you may not get a clean score on the top of a loaf:

  1. The outer surface of your bread is slack, and did not receive a good amount of tension when being shaped. You can often tell this is the culprit if your blade feels like it is skipping and dragging over the loaf rather than slicing cleanly. See this post on shaping to troubleshoot.
  2. The lame or cutting blade you are using is dull. We switch to fresh blades often to get nice clean slashes on sourdough loaves.
  3. You did not score deep enough into the dough. A clean score should be seen clearly, without the dough trying to connect back together.

Bread Bursting Through Scoring

This can be a sign of over-proofing, that is, leaving your dough to rise for too long before shaping. Reduce the bulk-ferment time (the amount of time spent rising after stretch and folds are completed).

overhead image of a slice of sourdough with melting butter on top.

Crust

Crust Too Light Or Too Dark

A simple fix – bake the loaf longer, or for less time respectively, with the lid of the Dutch oven removed.

Bottom Of Loaf Dark, Thick, And Hard To Slice

This is an issue for many bakers, and not just beginners. Try placing a pizza stone, or metal baking sheet on the rack below the Dutch oven to absorb some of the heat from the bottom of the pot. This can help make the bottom of your bread less dark and tough.

More Sourdough Basics

How To Make Sourdough Starter From Scratch

Our Favourite & Essential Sourdough Tools

How To Stretch & Fold Sourdough

« How To Stretch And Fold Sourdough
How to Shape Sourdough Boules »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mary Robert Huspeni says

    January 27, 2021 at 1:03 pm

    I have made your cinnamon raisin loaf and it is delicious. I would like to try making the longer loaf you show in picture #6. How do you bake that? It doesn’t look like it will fit into my circular dutch over. I do have a pizza steel in my oven. Do you bake it right on the parchment paper?

    Reply
    • Sophie Mackenzie says

      January 27, 2021 at 11:32 pm

      Hi Mary, yes you totally can—just add some water (for steam) to the fist half of the bake. The pan loaf we shared recently has detailed instructions on how to cook your loaf without a cover :)

      Reply
  2. Jill says

    March 14, 2021 at 3:08 pm

    Question I can’t a place that tell you how to feed your sour dough starter. Where might I find this information. Thank You in advance !

    Reply
    • Alexandra Daum says

      March 15, 2021 at 4:46 am

      https://www.baked-theblog.com/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/

      Reply
  3. Karen M says

    October 19, 2021 at 7:23 pm

    re the last troublesome item – dark thick bottom crust – are you suggesting putting the insulator (pizza stone/sheet) on the same rack as the bread with the dutch oven sitting right on it, or on the lower oven rack beneath the dutch oven?
    thanks so much – this is the one disappointing thing I’ve consistently found happening on my bread bakes.

    Reply
    • Alexandra Daum says

      October 21, 2021 at 4:12 am

      Hi Karen, right under the Dutch oven, to add an extra layer to the base of the pot. Hope this helps!

      Reply
  4. Esther says

    January 10, 2023 at 3:53 am

    How do you save a levain that has deflated?

    Reply
    • Alexandra Daum says

      January 21, 2023 at 2:47 am

      Hi Esther, that means your levain has overdone it and you’ll have to feed it again and wait before mixing your dough.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Winter recipes in large text over a picture of cookies.

About Baked

Baked is a collaborative project brought to you by five Canadian women food bloggers. Our mission is to bring accessible baking recipes into your home kitchen with beautiful photography, lots of step-by-step images, and thorough, easy-to-read information. At Baked, there's something for everyone!
Join Our Mailing List
Get our recipes & baking tips direct to your inbox each week!

Get Baking!

A pile of English muffins in a shallow tray.

Sourdough English Muffins

A jar of active sourdough starter.

How to Make Sourdough Starter From Scratch

Stack of square waffles topped with strawberries.

Our Favourite Sourdough Discard Recipes

Sourdough crackers topped with Za'atar.

Sourdough Crackers with Discard

Hi, I'm Skylar! This is a fake profile talking about how I switched to a paleo diet and it helped my eczema and I grew 4". Trust me, I'm an online doctor.

More about me →

Popular

  • 15 cookies lined up in rows.
    Drop Sugar Cookies
  • Several soft sugar cookies topped with frosting.
    Vegan Pumpkin Cookies
  • Halloween-themed cookies on a plate with gourds.
    Halloween Sugar Cookies
  • Halloween decorated cookies.
    Royal Icing Without Meringue Powder

You can duplicate your homepage's trending recipes section in the sidebar to reinforce the internal linking.

We no longer recommend using a search bar, newsletter form or category drop-down menu in the sidebar. See the Modern Sidebar post for details.

If the block editor is not narrower than usual, simply save the page and refresh it.

Footer

Featured In

© 2022 Baked The Blog. This site uses affiliate links.

Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Copyright© 2023