This is one of the most common problems people have when they start making sourdough bread at home, but it can also happen to more experienced bakers as well. So, let’s see why this happens.
Sourdough bread can split during baking due to a number of reasons: using too much or too little water, not enough steam in the oven, over kneading the dough, under proofing, bad storage, or bad scoring.
As you can see there are quite a few things that could have gone wrong, but don’t let this intimidate you. Those problems are pretty common and they are very easy to solve. So, let’s have a closer look at each one, and see what’s the solution.
1. Not Enough Water
One of the most common reasons why sourdough bread ends up with ugly cracks in the crust is that you are not using enough water when you are making the dough, or you are adding too much extra flour when shaping the dough.
When the bread is cooking the water inside of it will evaporate into steam, as the steam escapes from the bread it will soften up the exterior, the crust, making it more flexible,
If your dough doesn’t have enough water the crust will form sooner and it will be extremely fragile, and while it’s baking cracks will start to appear.
There are a few ways to solve this problem:
- Use more water – try adding a little more water when you are making the dough, in most cases this should work
- Don’t use extra flour – it’s easy to go overboard with the extra flour when shaping the dough, so try to use as little as you can, or none at all, sourdough dough is hard to handle at first, but after you work it for a few minutes wt will become more elastic and easy to handle
- Spray some water – spray some water on top of the loaf before you put it in the oven, this will give the crust some elasticity and it will slow down its formation
- Increase the steam in the oven – If your dough doesn’t produce enough steam, you can always add more steam to the oven yourself, more on this subject in just a moment.
2. Too Much Water
While not enough water can be a problem, too much water can also one, even if it’s not as common.
If you have too much water in your dough, the crust will form as it should, but by that time not all the water inside would have managed to escape. So the pressure will start forming inside of the bread, and when this pressure reaches a certain point the steam inside will start to make cracks in the crust, in order to get out.
If your recipe asks you to use more water than flour, or if the amount of water is very close to that of the flour then this might be your problem. And if you want to get rid of the cracks you should either use less water or look for another recipe.
3. Not Enough Steam
We already discussed steam and why it’s important for sourdough bread, especially if you don’t want any cracks. But what we didn’t discuss is how you can make your own steam.
Most home ovens are horrible at keeping steam trapped inside, so what we are looking for is a constant source of steam, this will ensure that there will be steam in the oven, even if a lot of it will escape.
There are quite a few ways in which you can create steam in the oven, but I will only cover 3 of the most efficient ways:
A tray filled with water – while not the most efficient method out there, is by far the simplest method and the results will be extremely clear. But there are better ways in which you can do this, and almost just as simple.
A bowl of ice – due to its low temperature, when you put ice in the oven it will start melting and releasing steam very fast. And this can be extremely helpful, as the more steam you have in the oven the better the crust will turn out in the end. And when the ice has melted it will become water which will continue to produce steam.
Wet towels – This method will only work if you use 100% cotton towels, don’t use anything else, as it can catch fire, or melt. This method is very simple, roll up a few towels and place them in a tray. Put the tray in the oven while it’s preheating, and boil some water at the same time. When it’s time to put the bread in, take the tray with the towels out, pour some boiling water over them (don’t fill the tray with water, just get the towels wet), and put the tray back on the bottom of the oven. This method is a little more complicated than the rest, but it produces the best results, so if you have a few 100% cotton towels lying around you can give it a try.
4. Over Kneading the Dough
While the dough is not fragile in any way if you over knead it, you will most likely end up with cracks in the crust. And the same applies to over-shaping.
When you are shaping and kneading the dough you create tension on the surface of the dough, this is what makes it slightly rigid and elastic, without this part the dough wouldn’t be able to hold its shape.
When the dough is in the oven and starts expanding, it’s the tension you created that keeps the crust from breaking and helps it maintain its shape.
But if you over knead the dough, small tears will appear all over the bread, due to the excessive tension. And when the dough starts expanding in the oven those tears will be weak spots in the structure of the bread and big cracks will start appearing all over the bread.
The solution is quite simple, don’t over knead or over shape the bread. As soon as your dough seems elastic enough to hold its shape, you should stop.
You shouldn’t worry about not creating enough tension, if you don’t have enough tension the dough won’t be able to keep its shape, so it’s easy to notice.
5. Under Proofing
Another common cause for cracks appearing in sourdough bread crust is under proofing.
While proofing, sourdough bread is fermenting, this is when a lot of carbon dioxide is created, which is responsible for making the bread rise.
If the proofing process is not complete when you put it in the oven, due to the high heat the process will continue at an accelerated speed. This means that there will be more carbon dioxide coming out at an increased speed. All this carbon dioxide, just like the steam, has to get out of the bread, and in this case, due to the high pressure inside the bread, it will get out by creating cracks in the crust.
Most recipes will tell you exactly how long you should proof your bread, but what a lot of those recipes don’t tell you is that temperature can drastically change the proofing period. Basically, the colder it is the longer the dough has to proof for, and the hotter it is, the faster the dough will finish proofing.
It can be hard to tell the exact time that the dough has to be proofed if you don’t know at what temperature it will be staying. But what you can do is a simple test that will tell you if your dough has spent enough time proofing.
Use your finger to gently poke the dough, if the dough:
- Bounces right back up, it’s under proofed
- Slowly returns to its original shape, it’s perfectly proofed
- Doesn’t return to its original shape, it’s over proofed
6. Bad Storage
Storing your dough in a proper place while it rises is extremely important, if you don’t do it properly the exterior of the dough will harden and this will result in cracks when it’s baking.
By bad storage, I mean a place with intense air circulation and low humidity. A good bad example would be storing your dough by an open window in the middle of the summer while it’s uncovered. The airflow and lack of humidity will make the surface of the dough harden, and no matter how much water you spray over it, it won’t be able to recover.
And when you put the dough in the oven the surface will have lost all of its elasticity and won’t be able to expand with the rest of the dough, and the result will be a bread full of cracks.
This problem can be easily solved by covering your dough with plastic wrap. This will keep all the humidity inside the bowl, and no extra air should be able to get inside. Towels can also work, but they are not as efficient at keeping the humidity inside, so try to use plastic wrap.
7. Bad Scoring
Scoring sourdough bread does more than just giving it a nice aspect. The cuts or cuts that you make in the dough will create controlled weak points in the structure of the bread, which will guide the expansion of the bread.
If the bread isn’t scored properly the steam and carbon dioxide inside will try to make their own way to escape from the inside of the bread, and this will result in cracks all over the bread.
There are multiple ways to score sourdough bread, you can either make one big cut on the bread that covers the entire length, or you can make multiple smaller cuts all over the bread. What’s important is that the cuts are deep enough, half an inch is usually enough, and that there are enough of them.
The only exception, where scoring the bread will do more harm than good is rye sourdough bread. Rye flour retains a lot of water and has a relatively weak structure, and scoring the bread will hurt the already weak structure, so it’s not recommended to do it. But in all other cases, a half-inch cut along the entire length of the bread should keep most cracks from appearing.
Final Thoughts
Those are the most common reasons why your sourdough bread has cracks in it. As you can see there are a lot of reasons why this is happening, and they can happen at any stage of the process, not only when you are baking the bread.
But all of these mistakes are quite easy to correct, and if you do so you will notice not only that your bread doesn’t split anymore, but that it will also have a better texture and a better taste as well.