Mistakes You Should Avoid Making When Baking Bread

Baking your own bread brings a unique sense of satisfaction. To craft your own loaf is to immerse yourself in the pleasures of the senses; from the bouncy stretch of the dough under your hands as you knead it, to the irresistible scent as it bakes, to the sight of the loaf rising and turning golden in the oven. If all goes well, you'll enjoy the satisfaction of eating bread handcrafted just for you. With all the comfort and pleasure bread-baking offers, it's no wonder so many of us took it up during the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pleasurable as bread-baking can be, the process is also laden with pitfalls for the inexperienced. Many an eager novice has dived into their first bread recipe head first, only to end up with a flour-encrusted kitchen and a flat, dense, misshapen, or gummy loaf. The reality is that while bread-baking can be relaxing and pleasurable, it's also a technical craft that rewards practice. To walk you through the process and common mistakes to avoid, we've enlisted a team of experts: baker and recipe developer Emily Laurae, personal chef Ben Randall, and baking instructor John Oechsner.

Unless you bake regularly, you may have not paid much attention to the different varieties of flour available at most supermarkets. Besides all-purpose flour — the default type most of us have in our kitchens — you'll also find cake flour and bread flour. As their names imply, the latter two are intended for different uses: Cake flour, which is soft, fine, and low in gluten, produces pastries with a tender crumb and is thus ideal for cakes and other bakes with a delicate texture.

Bread flour, in contrast, is coarser and has more gluten than all-purpose flour. "Bread flour is higher in protein than all-purpose flour, which gives bread a more chewy texture and helps with a strong rise due to extra gluten development," pastry chef Emily Laurae explains.

So if you're craving a loaf with a hearty, chewy texture, such as a crusty sourdough boule, it'll be worth your while to pick up some bread flour on your next grocery run. But if all that's available to you is all-purpose flour, it's not the end of the world. You'll still end up with an edible loaf, but with a slightly different texture and consistency. "All-purpose flour, while more versatile, will yield a softer loaf with slightly less structure but is still a fine choice for most bread recipes," Laurae says.

Many bread recipes offer some leeway in the amount of flour required, and many will instead give a range of measurements. This is because different batches or brands of flour can vary in how they interact with and absorb liquids: You might need a smaller amount of flour with one type than with another to obtain dough of the right consistency.

Knowing what the right consistency is, however, is key. Don't expect normal bread dough to be as dense as modeling clay; it should be soft and slightly sticky to the touch. Moreover, since it takes a few minutes for dry flour to absorb all the liquid in the recipe, your dough may look and feel wetter than desired when you first add the flour. Don't be tempted to dump in more flour –- this will make your dough, and your loaf, overly dense. Instead, wait a few minutes. Chances are, the dough will thicken to its intended consistency as the flour absorbs more liquid.

Less-experienced bakers often underestimate the amount of time needed to produce a loaf of bread; from measuring out the ingredients to making the dough and all the way to rising, shaping, and baking it. A critical step that's tempting to rush through is the all-important step of kneading the dough. While this is one of the most fun parts of the process for bread-baking aficionados, novices may believe it's just an old-fashioned way to ensure everything is evenly mixed. But nothing can be further from the truth: Kneading, in fact, is what gives bread its spongy, airy texture.

"If you're kneading by hand, the main issue folks have is they will not knead long enough. You should really be tired and maybe a little sore after fully kneading bread," chef Ben Randall advises. This is because the kneading process is what gives bread its structure.

"Kneading should stretch and fold the dough in a way that allows gluten to develop without tearing it, using the heel of your hand in a gentle, repetitive motion," chef Emily Laurae explains. "Hand-kneading usually takes about 8-10 minutes, though it varies by dough type and personal technique. You can check if your dough is ready by performing the 'windowpane test' — stretching a small piece to see if it forms a thin, translucent layer without breaking." If the dough is stretchy enough to form a windowpane, she explains, it's ready.

Besides flour, yeast is an essential defining ingredient in bread: It's what distinguishes an airy, springy loaf of bread from a dense, unpalatable lump of dough. Unlike other leavenings, such as baking powder and baking soda, yeast is composed of living organisms. As the yeast digests the sugars in the bread, it releases carbon dioxide, which forms bubbles in the dough, and these bubbles are what give bread its spongy texture. This means that how well your bread rises depends on how healthy your yeast is.

Thus, yeast behavior can make bread-making unpredictable. Chef Ben Randall recommends doing what you can to hedge your bets. "It's best to use whatever the recipe calls for, but, in general, active dry yeast is the most reliable and shelf stable," he says. "'Quick rise' active dry can change the rising time of your dough, making the process unpredictable. Fresh yeast (sold in the dairy cooler section of grocery stores) is great, but it is perishable and will die if left too long."

Many recipes call for dry yeast to be mixed with a small quantity of liquid and allowed to sit until foamy before being added to the flour, and there's a solid reason for this step. "It's a good way to be sure the yeast is alive," Randall explains. To protect the yeast further, he advises against adding salt too early in the mixing process –- it can weaken or kill yeast.

Even non-bakers know that bread dough needs time to rise before it's baked. But what many casual bakers may forget is that most loaves actually require two rising periods. "Once you've made your dough, you allow it to rise, usually until doubled," chef Ben Randall explains. "After that, you shape your loaf, sometimes dividing the dough into pieces for shaping smaller loaves. The second rise happens after that, generating most of the bubbles and air pockets you'll find in your finished loaf."

Thus, the second rising period, often called the proofing stage, is just as critical as the first. "The second rise is essential for building the loaf's texture and flavor, as it allows the dough to relax and develop a light, airy crumb," Emily Laurae says. So be sure to schedule in enough time for both rising periods. However, keep an eye on your loaf and don't let it proof too long. "To test readiness, gently press your finger into the dough; if it springs back slowly, it's properly proofed, but if it doesn't, the dough may be over-proofed," Laurae says. "Over-proofed dough often loses shape and can bake up with a flat, overly soft texture due to excess gas release."

Another tricky aspect of bread-baking is determining if your loaf has fully baked, as they can look attractively browned and risen long before their insides have cooked through. While recipes almost always offer recommended baking times, they're no magic bullet. As chef John Oechsner notes, the temperature gauges on home ovens are notoriously unreliable, so you may be baking at a hotter or lower temperature than you think. "I believe that all ovens are wrong until proven otherwise," he warns. "It is probably a good idea to check your oven with an oven thermometer to make sure it is properly calibrated."

Once you've confirmed your oven temps are accurate, you can trust your recipes a bit more. But ultimately, the only real way to confirm your loaf is ready is by physical examination. "Crisp-crusted breads will have a hollow sound when tapped with the knuckles on the bottom of the loaf," Oechsner says. "Obviously, this is not possible with rich sweet breads such as brioche, cinnamon rolls, babka, etc. In these cases, use an instant read thermometer to determine if the internal temperature is 185 degrees. Denser, whole grain loaves and sourdough breads should be baked to about 205 degrees."

Few things smell more tantalizing than a fresh loaf of bread hot from the oven. It's tempting to tear right into it and slather a steaming slice with butter — or follow the trends by creating a butter and bread flight — so you can enjoy it at its freshest, and many eager home bakers do. However, the experts know that as wonderful as hot loaves smell, fresh from the oven is not when they're at their best.

"Allowing bread to cool completely lets the internal steam escape and helps the crumb set properly, avoiding a gummy, damp texture," chef Emily Laurae explains. "Cutting too soon releases steam prematurely, leading to a denser and stickier interior. Some extra patience will reward you with a better crumb and an easier, cleaner slicing experience!"

But if you do want to enjoy hot, fresh bread with your meal, you can: Wait for it to cool down, then slice what you need and gently reheat it. You'll still get that just-baked smell, but much neater slices and a more satisfying texture.

Shaping a loaf of bread is harder than it looks. Even a simple round boule requires a deft hand and a bit of technical know-how –- just rolling it into a ball isn't enough. "Broadly, shaping is all about tucking the dough under itself, so that the 'skin' on top of the dough stretches and gets tight. This is what holds the shape as it's baking," Ben Randall explains. The key is to be gentle but thorough, handling the dough neither too little nor too much. "If the dough isn't shaped tightly enough, it will spread rather than rise during baking, while overhandling deflates it," Emily Laurae says.

Many cooks flour their counters generously while shaping their loaves, hoping to avoid stickiness and maintain more control, but this can a mistake. "One of the most common mistakes is to use too much flour on the bench when shaping," John Oechsner notes. "This prevents the dough from getting any traction on the table, which prevents proper tension on the surface of the dough, causing a loose finished shape."

If you're dividing dough into multiple pieces, you may notice pieces becoming stiffer and harder to shape. Don't try to fight this, as what the pieces need is to rest. "Another mistake is not allowing the dough to rest sufficiently after being scaled and rounded," Oechsner says. "Rounding tightens up the gluten and makes it difficult to shape, so it should rest for at least 20 minutes."

Many classic bread types have super-simple ingredient lists. For instance, many crusty white breads contain nothing more than flour, water, yeast, and a bit of salt, and basic white sandwich bread may contain milk, butter, and maybe a touch of sugar or honey as well. Because they're so simple, the exact proportion of ingredients matters –- each plays a role in developing a loaf's structure and texture, so getting the proportions wrong can ruin your loaf.

For this reason, professional bakers, whose livelihood depends on turning out consistently good loaves every time, measure their ingredients by weight –- using a scale –- rather than use measuring cups. While weight measurements ensure you get the exact same quantity every time, the quantity of flour or yeast that can fit into a measuring cup or measuring spoon can vary, depending on how tightly you fill your cup or scooper.

It's frustrating to put hours of work into a bread-making project only to end up with a dense, burnt, of misshapen loaf that you'd never put on your table. First, don't beat yourself up over it –- this happens to nearly everyone who bakes bread. Second, no matter how embarrassed you may be over your baking fail, don't toss that loaf. Unless it's charred all the way through or thoroughly contaminated, you can easily repurpose it into any number of tasty treats.

If you're faced with a loaf that's too ugly for the bread basket, you can cut the bread up and upcycle it into croutons, French toast, or bread pudding. Bread-loving cuisines around the world have devised a wide range of recipes to make use of old or otherwise unwanted bread. For instance, Italian cuisine boasts panzanella — a juicy tomato salad with toasted bread cubes to soak up the flavorful juice — along with numerous soups thickened with softened bread. And you can always just pulverize your misfit loaf into breadcrumbs and use these for breading or as a binder for meatloaf.

Soul-crushing as a bread-baking fail may feel, don't let it discourage you from trying again. What makes bread baking so interesting to seasoned bakers -– and frustrating to novices –- is that each loaf is a different experience, even if you use the same recipe. For instance, flour absorbs more liquid during dry weather than during humid weather, meaning you'll have to adjust the proportions of flour and wet ingredients each time you bake. Similarly, yeast behaves differently in different seasons: During the warm summer months (or in warm kitchens), yeast works faster, causing bread to rise in a shorter period of time. Thus, even if you follow a recipe to the letter, you can end up with radically different results at different times.

The only way to make consistently good loaves is to recognize how your flour and yeast are behaving by look and feel. And the only way to attain the knowledge of when your dough has the right consistency or has risen sufficiently is through hands-on practice. So keep on trying -– the results will be well worth it.