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Table: A list of common bread faults and the likely cause

Loaf Characteristic	Cause or Fault.
Exterior: Small loaf. The top crust will display evidence of unrelieved internal dough stresses such as tears and fissures. Rough shred. Interior: dense, moist and possibly doughy, “crumpet-like“ crumb. Fine crumb texture.	Not enough water.
Exterior: Small loaf, generally smooth unbroken crust. Little or no shred. Interior: dense, dull and possibly doughy crumb. The crumb may compress and not recover.	Too short a cycle time. Cold weather, no warming cycle. Flour was used, in place of a Premix. Not enough yeast.
Exterior: Looks more like a brick. Severely reduced volume. Little or no shred.	No yeast or very poor yeast. Flour was used, in place of a Premix.
Exterior: Looks more like a brick. Severely reduced volume, with white spots on the loaf. - a brick may be considered more edible. Interior: Unusual “off“ aroma.	The Premix quality has been affected by storage within an airtight container. The lack of air circulation allows Microflora and Mites to degrade the Premix.
Exterior: Leathery crust, soggy exterior of loaf. Loaf sides caved in.	Loaf left in machine too long after baking cycle completed.
Exterior: Loaf sides caved in.	Insufficient effective kneading. Rough handling of loaf during removal from the bucket and prior to cooling.
Exterior: Loaf sides caved in.	The crust will not support the loaf due to either insufficient baking time, or too large a bucket size, or possibly too much water.
Exterior: Patches of unmixed flour adhering to the bottom corners of loaf.	Ingredients placed in wrong order into bowl.
Exterior: No, or insufficient colouring to the top of the loaf.	Bread machine is losing too much heat. Cover the inspection window with aluminium foil.
Exterior: Excessive size, otherwise acceptable. Underbaked where the loaf hit the lid.	Too much dough for the bucket size, or too much yeast.
Exterior: Large or collapsed loaf. Interior: Too many holes, yeasty flavour.	Too much yeast. Weather too warm.
Exterior: Pale colour, soggy exterior of loaf. Loaf sides caved in.	Bread machine baking too long & too cool.
Exterior: Top crust with a weakness in one place due to an air pocket under the crust, extra volume. Very smooth shred. Loaf tends to fall back, and top crust to collapse. Interior: more holes in a sticky, dull crumb.	Too much water.

Remember that the Premix, water and yeast all interact, so that a mistake in the rate of addition of one will affect the performance of another. Misunderstanding of this interaction may even lead to wrong conclusions.

For example: if a dough has too little water added, the volume of the resultant loaf will be reduced due to ineffective kneading, and aslo because the dough lacks flexibility and cannot 'rise'. The resultant loaf will be smaller and consequently more dense and apparently moist.

The addition of extra dry yeast will compound the problem by soaking up more of the already insufficient water and thus make no discernible difference, or even further reduce the loaf volume.

Likely conclusion? “The yeast is no good!“ Problem: insufficient water.