Something went wrong with your loaf and you want to know what and why. This guide walks through 24 specific problems I've seen in my own kitchen and from readers, with the actual cause and the fix — not vague "it's your starter" advice.
Skim to your symptom. Each entry tells you what's happening, why, and what to change on the next bake.
Starter problems
1. Starter won't rise at all
If your starter is under a week old, this is normal — the microbial population is still sorting itself out. Days 3–5 often show a total stall after an aggressive day 2. Keep feeding once every 24 hours at 1:1:1 by weight and wait it out.
If your starter is older than two weeks and still won't rise, the water is the usual suspect. Municipal water with heavy chlorination will suppress activity. Leave tap water uncovered overnight or use filtered.
2. Starter rises then collapses before you can use it
It's peaking faster than you're catching it. A 1:1:1 feed at 24°C (75°F) can peak in 4–6 hours with a mature starter. Either feed at a higher ratio (1:5:5) to slow it down, or use it at peak instead of waiting.
I keep mine at 1:4:4 during summer and 1:2:2 in winter. Same starter, same jar, different feeding ratio depending on ambient temperature.
3. Starter smells like acetone or nail polish remover
Hungry. The yeast has burned through available sugars and the byproducts have accumulated. Feed it, and next time either feed more often or use a higher ratio. Not ruined — just neglected.
4. Starter has a layer of dark liquid on top
That's hooch — alcohol from yeast metabolism. Same cause as acetone smell (underfeeding), same fix. Pour it off or stir it in; it won't hurt the starter either way. Stirring in gives a tangier bread.
5. Pink, orange, or fuzzy mold
Throw it out. No debate. Any color that isn't cream, tan, or gray-brown means unwanted microbes have taken over. Start fresh.
6. Starter floats but bread still won't rise
The float test isn't reliable. A starter can float from trapped CO2 without being at peak activity. Better indicator: has it at least doubled in the jar, with visible bubbles throughout, and does it smell mildly tangy and yeasty? If yes, use it. If it's flat and smells sharp, feed and wait.
Dough handling problems
7. Dough is soupy and won't come together
Too much water for the flour. Different flours absorb wildly different amounts — a bread flour at 12.7% protein handles 78% hydration comfortably; a supermarket AP flour at 10.5% may fall apart at 70%. If you're using a new flour, drop hydration by 5% for the first bake.
The hydration calculator on this page makes this easy — plug in your flour weight and target percentage.
8. Dough is tight and dense, hard to stretch
Under-hydrated for the flour, or under-mixed. Whole grain flours especially need time to hydrate — an autolyse of 1–2 hours before adding starter and salt helps enormously. For 100% whole wheat, I go 90 minutes minimum.
9. Dough never passes the windowpane test
Either not enough gluten development or not enough time. With sourdough you don't need a strict windowpane before bulk — the long fermentation continues developing structure. Aim for a rough windowpane after 3–4 sets of stretch-and-folds spaced 30 minutes apart.
10. Bulk ferment takes forever
Temperature. Sourdough bulk time roughly doubles for every 8°C (15°F) drop. At 26°C (78°F) bulk might be 4 hours. At 20°C (68°F) it can be 8+ hours. If your kitchen is cold, use your oven with the light on (usually 24–27°C) or a proofing box.
11. Dough over-proofs during bulk
Signs: excessively bubbly on top, slack, no strength, tears when you try to shape. It happens fast at warm temperatures. Shape it anyway, cold-retard immediately, and expect a flatter loaf with an open but fragile crumb. Next time, end bulk earlier — 50% rise is often enough for strong flours; going to 100% is where people get burned.
Shaping and proofing problems
12. Dough sticks to the banneton every time
Not enough flour on the surface, or the dough is over-proofed and slack. Use rice flour, not wheat flour — rice flour doesn't hydrate and stays powdery. Dust the banneton generously and rub it into the fabric or grooves.
13. Dough spreads sideways instead of holding shape
Weak shaping, over-proofed, or dough too wet for your skill level. Do a pre-shape, rest 20–30 minutes, then a tight final shape. If it still spreads, drop hydration by 3–5% next bake.
14. Poke test is confusing
Because it's a rough guide, not a rule. Cold dough from the fridge always feels under-proofed by the poke test — it's cold and firm. Judge based on how the dough looked at the end of bulk, plus a light poke.
Baking and oven problems
15. No oven spring — loaf comes out flat
Three main causes, in order of frequency:
- Over-proofed. The dough has no gas-holding capacity left.
- Under-proofed with a weak starter — not enough gas produced.
- Not enough steam in the first 15 minutes.
If your loaf spread when you turned it out of the banneton, it's proofing. If it held shape but stayed dense, it's usually steam or scoring.
16. Ear won't form
Scoring angle. A vertical cut gives you a split, not an ear. Hold the blade at about 30° to the surface, cut one confident 5–8mm deep slash, and let steam do the rest. A cold dough from the fridge scores much better than a room-temperature one.
17. Crust is pale and soft
Not hot enough, or too much steam for too long. Sourdough needs 230–245°C (450–475°F) for the first phase. Remove the Dutch oven lid or cut steam at 20 minutes so the crust can dry and color.
18. Crust is rock-hard, can't cut through it
Baked too long, or too dry an environment during the second phase. Try dropping the second-phase temperature to 210°C (410°F) and pulling 5 minutes earlier. Internal temp of 96°C (205°F) is done for most loaves.
19. Bottom of loaf burns
Dutch oven or stone too close to the bottom element. Move the rack up one position, or slide a second baking tray onto the rack below to buffer the heat. On my old oven I lost three loaves before I figured out the second-tray trick.
Crumb problems
Here's a quick reference for the three most common crumb complaints:
| Crumb symptom | Most likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Dense, gummy, tight | Under-fermented or under-baked | Longer bulk, bake 5°C hotter or 10 min longer |
| Large tunnel under top crust | Under-proofed, or too loose a shape | Tighter shape, longer proof |
| Even but tight — no big holes | Under-hydrated or over-degassed | Higher hydration, gentler shaping |
20. Gummy crumb even though the crust is dark
Two possibilities. First: under-baked internally. A dark crust doesn't mean a done interior — check with a thermometer, 96°C (205°F) minimum. Second: you cut it warm. Sourdough needs a full hour of cooling, ideally two, to finish setting the crumb. Cut a warm loaf and it looks gummy even when it's perfectly baked.
21. Huge hole right under the top crust
Classic under-proofed with a loose shape. Gas migrates up through soft dough during oven spring and collects under the crust because the interior wasn't strong enough to hold structure. Tighten your shaping and extend proof by 30–60 minutes.
22. Crumb is tight and even, no holes
Usually low hydration combined with over-degassing during shaping. If you're at 70% hydration, try 75%. Handle the shaped dough more gently — you want to preserve, not squeeze out, the gas built during bulk.
23. Sour taste too strong
Cold retard is where most sourness develops. If your loaf is too tangy, shorten the fridge retard from 16+ hours to 8–12. Also: whole grain flours ferment faster and more acidically. Dropping whole wheat from 30% to 15% noticeably reduces sourness.
24. Sour taste too mild
Opposite direction. Extend cold retard to 24–36 hours, add 10–20% whole wheat or rye, and consider using your starter slightly past peak (just as it starts to recede) for a more acidic bake.
Common questions
How do I know if my dough is over- or under-proofed before baking?
Look at bulk, not the final proof. Under-proofed dough feels tight, springs back fully when poked, and shows few bubbles on the sides of the container. Over-proofed dough is slack, has bubbles all over the top, and won't hold shape when turned out. The final cold proof is more forgiving — a well-bulked dough tolerates 8–24 hours in the fridge.
Can I fix over-proofed dough?
Not really — but you can salvage it. Shape it very gently, retard cold immediately to slow further fermentation, and bake straight from the fridge. Expect a flatter loaf with an open, delicate crumb. Or turn it into focaccia, where flatness isn't a problem.
Why does my second loaf always turn out worse than my first?
Almost always temperature. Your first loaf's dough sat in a cool kitchen; the second sat on the counter while the first baked, and warmed up. Refrigerate loaf two while loaf one bakes if you're baking sequentially.
Is it my flour or my technique?
Do a controlled test. Bake the same recipe with a strong bread flour at 12%+ protein. If the loaf improves noticeably, your previous flour was the limit. If it doesn't, it's technique or fermentation. I've had readers spend months blaming their starter when the actual issue was a 9.5%-protein pastry flour they didn't realize wasn't bread flour.
How long does a starter need to be mature before baking?
Two weeks minimum, four weeks for reliable performance. A 7-day-old starter can bake bread, but expect inconsistent rise. If your starter is under a month old and your loaves are dense, that's the most likely reason before anything else.
Should I discard starter every feeding?
For a jar-sized starter, yes — otherwise you're feeding an ever-growing volume that needs proportionally more flour. If you hate discarding, keep only 10–20g of starter and feed at 1:5:5, so you're using 60g of flour per feed instead of 200g.
The most useful habit I've built is keeping a two-column bake log: what I changed, what the crumb looked like. After twenty bakes you stop guessing. Almost every problem on this list gives itself away in the log — a soupy dough three bakes in a row when you switched flour brands, or dense loaves that started when the kitchen dropped below 20°C in October. The bread teaches you if you write it down.