When It Goes Wrong
Dense bread crumb has five causes and the crumb tells you which
A heavy loaf is the most common home baking failure and the least specific complaint. The pattern of the holes narrows it down to…
When It Goes Wrong
Dense crumb, sunken middles, leaking butter — diagnosis before the next attempt.
20 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
When It Goes Wrong
A sunken middle is usually underbaking, whatever the internet tells you
Overmixing gets blamed for the crater in the centre of a cake, but the far more common cause is a structure that never finished setting before it came out.
More in When It Goes Wrong
When It Goes Wrong
Butter pooling under your croissants means the layers broke, and you can find where
A little fat on the tray is normal and produces the fried base. A pool with pale, greasy pastry sitting in it means the lamination…
When It Goes Wrong
That dense wet layer at the bottom of your cake has a specific cause
A distinct band of heavy, damp crumb across the base is not general underbaking. Something separated and sank before the structure…
When It Goes Wrong
Tunnels and holes in a muffin come from mixing, not from the oven
Long vertical channels running up through the crumb are a signature of overdeveloped gluten combined with a hot bake, and they are…
When It Goes Wrong
Your loaf burst at the side because the crust set before it finished rising
A tear along the base or the shoulder rather than an opening at the score is one of the most legible faults in bread, and it points…
When It Goes Wrong
Shortcrust that shrinks down the tin is telling you about gluten
Pastry walls that slump into a shallow crater during blind baking were stretched, not laid, and the gluten in them is simply…
When It Goes Wrong
A sharp alcoholic smell means the dough went past its useful point
Overfermentation announces itself before you ever cut the loaf, and recognising the signs early is the difference between adjusting…
When It Goes Wrong
Cookies that spread into one sheet: fat, sugar, flour or heat
Spread is a race between the dough softening and the structure setting. Four variables decide which wins, and each leaves a…
When It Goes Wrong
A flat, wide sourdough has lost structure at one of three points
A loaf that spreads into a disc instead of rising had the gas but not the container. Finding which stage failed takes one look at…
When It Goes Wrong
A gummy crumb after cooling means the loaf was never actually finished
Bread that feels sticky and clay-like when cut has usually been pulled early, cut early, or made with a flour whose enzymes ran…
When It Goes Wrong
A loaf that will not brown has run out of sugar
Pale crusts are usually blamed on the oven, and the more common explanation is that fermentation consumed the sugars that browning…