Something went wrong with your loaf and you want to know what and why. This guide walks through 24 specific problems that come up again and again, with the 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. Day 4 often goes quiet after early activity on day 3. Keep to the 7-day starter plan (twice-daily 1:2:2 feeds from day 5) 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 can suppress activity. Leave tap water uncovered overnight or use filtered; if your utility uses chloramine, which doesn't off-gas, use a carbon filter, a Campden tablet or bottled water.
If it rises but never quite doubles, check the time it has had against your room temperature first: sourdough starter not doubling has the peak times by feed ratio.
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) peaks in about 3½ hours by the calculator's model, sooner with a vigorous starter. Either use a looser feed (1:5:5) to slow it down, or use it at its peak or up to 1 hour after instead of waiting.
A common pattern is 1:4:4 in 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 looser ratio. It isn't 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 peaked in the jar (risen well, often about double, domed, 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 very 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 Recipe Lab in the schedule calculator makes this easy: plug in your flour weight and target hydration 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 before adding starter and salt helps enormously: 30–60 minutes for white flour, up to 1–2 hours for high whole-grain doughs. For 100% whole wheat, lean toward the longer end, and shorten it if the dough turns slack.
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 4 sets of stretch-and-folds, 30 minutes apart, in the first 2 hours.
10. Bulk ferment takes forever
Temperature. Sourdough bulk time grows about 2.2× for every 8°C (about 14°F) drop. With 20% levain, the calculator's model puts bulk at about 4 hours at 26°C (79°F) and about 7.5 hours at 20°C (68°F). If your kitchen is cold, use your oven with the light on (often around 24–28°C (75–82°F); tape a note to the controls so nobody preheats with the dough inside) 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: aim for about 50–75% rise, depending on flour and temperature. Pushing toward 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 (see seasoning a new banneton).
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. Press a floured fingertip about 1 cm in: a fast spring-back means wait, a slow fill with a small dent means bake. Cold dough from the fridge always feels under-proofed by the poke test because it's cold and firm, so judge a retarded loaf by whether it has risen visibly and looks puffy. For when to start poking at room temperature, see how long to proof sourdough after shaping.
Baking and oven problems
15. No oven spring: loaf comes out flat
Three main causes:
- 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. Preheat 60 minutes at 250°C (480°F) and bake the first 20 minutes covered at that temperature. Then remove the Dutch oven lid (or the steam tray), lower to 230°C (445°F) and bake about 25 minutes more 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. An internal temperature of 96–99°C (205–210°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 sheet pan onto the rack below to buffer the heat. On ovens with a strong bottom element, the second-pan trick is often what fixes it.
Crumb problems
Here's a quick reference for four crumb problems:
| Crumb symptom | Most likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Gummy, wet strip | Cut warm or under-baked | Cool at least 1 hour; bake to 96–99°C (205–210°F) inside (why sourdough turns out gummy) |
| Dense, tight, dry | Under-fermented | Longer bulk to a 50–75% rise (the dense crumb guide) |
| Large tunnel under top crust | Usually under-proofed or under-fermented (dense below); a thin detached crust over an open crumb can also come from shaping or over-proofing | Dense below: longer bulk or proof. Open below: check shaping and 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
Usually one of two things: the inside is under-baked (a dark crust doesn't mean a done interior; check for 96–99°C (205–210°F)), or you cut it warm (cool at least 1 hour, ideally two). For the full diagnosis, see why sourdough turns out gummy inside.
21. Huge hole right under the top crust
Usually under-proofing or under-fermentation, especially when it's a large tunnel with dense crumb below: the gas migrates up through the soft dough during oven spring and collects under the crust because the interior can't hold it evenly. Extend bulk or proof (30–60 minutes is a sensible first step) and tighten your shaping. A thin, detached "flying crust" over an otherwise open crumb is a different case: it can come from shaping (trapped air, too much flour on the surface, a loose shape) or from over-proofing, so look at the rest of the crumb before you add time.
22. Crumb is tight and even, no holes
Usually under-fermentation, not too little water, sometimes with heavy handling at shaping. Check that bulk reached a 50–75% rise and handle the shaped dough gently. The 12-cause dense crumb guide ranks the causes.
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 the cold retard to 18–24 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?
Often 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. It's easy to spend months blaming the starter when the actual issue is a 9.5%-protein pastry flour that was never bread flour to begin with.
How long does a starter need to be mature before baking?
After the 7-day build, keep feeding it daily for about two more weeks before you rely on it; it gets steadier over the following weeks. Before baking, check that it doubles within 4–6 hours of a 1:2:2 feed at 24°C (75°F). A young starter is a common reason for dense early loaves.
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 50–100g of flour per feed instead of 200g.
The most useful habit is keeping a two-column bake log: what you changed, what the crumb looked like. Many problems on this list show up in the log as a pattern: a soupy dough three bakes in a row after a change of flour brand, or dense loaves that started when the kitchen dropped below 20°C (68°F) in October.