The top mistakes you're making when you bake bread (2024)

3 min read

Whether you're attempting tomake breadfor the first time and want to be sure you get it right, or are haunted by pastbread bakingfailures, these are some of the most common mistakes people make when it comes tohomemade bread.

Few projects are more satisfying than making your own bread, and few more disappointing than watching those efforts fall, er, flat. Much of bread baking is trial and error but avoiding these mistakes can improve your baking and raise your spirits (and loaves) to new heights. (Plus, what to do with your loaf if it still doesn't quite rise to the occasion.)

1. You're measuring incorrectly

You don't have to be a professional baker to be serious about accurate measurements, and when baking bread, accuracy is everything. So invest (just a little bit!) in akitchen scaleand learn how to talk in grams. It's not only more accurate, it's much easier to scale up or down from other recipes. Once you make this change, you'll never want to measure in cups or teaspoons again.

If you don't have a scale, make sure you fluff up your flour and level off each cup for an accurate measurement.

And if you're having trouble finding flour ingrocery stores(in-person and online) right now, it might be worthreaching out to a local bakery.

2. Your yeast is old

Most packets of yeast have an expiration date on them. When purchasing yeast, look for ones with a date farthest in the future. If you have packets stashed at home and you're not sure when you bought them, you can check to see if it's still active by dissolving a pinch of yeast with a pinch of sugar in a half-cup of warm water. If it's viable, it will begin to bubble in just a few minutes. If not, don't bother using it.

Check out Chowhound'sbeginner's guide to baking with yeastfor more tips. Or experiment withmaking your own sourdough starter.

3. You're using low-protein flour

Use bread flour or add vital wheat gluten to your all-purpose or whole-grain flour. Bread flour has a higher percentage of protein, and that helps in creating and strengthening the gluten in your bread. Gluten gives dough, and the bread that comes from that dough, the ability to hold in air bubbles, creating light and fluffy loaves. Less gluten, less air, more dense bread. If you are using a low-protein flour (such as whole-wheat, rye or spelt), you can use ¼ cup (32 grams) ofvital wheat glutenfor every 4-5 cups (480-600 grams) of all-purpose flour to raise the protein content.

4. You're using too much flour (or water)

Once your bread is initially mixed, give the flour plenty of time to hydrate before making adjustments. Chances are, it just needs a few more minutes to soak up the liquid. If you're noticing that it's still too dry (or wet), begin by adding small quantities of flour (or water) during the kneading process -- only a teaspoon or so at a time. You can always add more, but you can't remove it, so be patient.

5. Your oven isn't hot enough

Pre-heat your oven well before baking. On most non-commercial stoves, it will register that it's come up to temperature long before the whole oven is hot. Give it an extra 10-15 minutes to ensure it is thoroughly heated. Some estimates say that internal oven thermostats are off by as much as 50 degrees because they only measure the temperature in the spot where the actual thermometer is located. Install an inexpensiveoven thermometerto double-check if the times of your bakes are really far off from the recipes you follow, or just to be safe.

What to do if you botch it

Even less-than-perfect bread is still pretty terrific, and those loaves that don't make the cut can always be used ascroutons, breadcrumbs orbread pudding. The art of bread comes with lots of practice, but with a few simple steps, your loaves will be Instagram #humblebreadbrag worthy in no time.

Read more: Top bread machines for home bakers

See a no-knead bread recipe in action if you need a little more inspiration:

This story was written by Heather Reid for Chowhound.