Why Is My Sourdough Gummy in the Middle?

You cut into your sourdough and the crust looks properly baked, but the middle feels damp, sticky or slightly doughy.

Sometimes the loaf simply needed longer in the oven. Sometimes it was cut too soon. And if the bread was fully baked and cooled, fermentation may be worth looking at too.

The crust alone cannot tell you whether the middle is ready.

First, Did You Cut It While It Was Still Warm?

This is one of the easiest mistakes to make.

Bread continues to settle after it comes out of the oven. Moisture is still moving through the crumb, and the inside is still setting as the loaf cools.

If you slice it while it is hot, the crumb can look wet or gummy even when the loaf has baked properly.

For a standard sourdough loaf, let it cool completely on a rack before cutting it. This will often take at least an hour, and larger or wetter loaves may need longer.

If the crumb looks much better once the bread is fully cool, there may have been nothing wrong with the bake.

A Brown Crust Does Not Mean the Centre Is Done

The outside of a loaf heats much faster than the middle.

This matters particularly with a large or tall sourdough loaf. The crust can reach the colour you want while the centre still needs more time.

If this happens regularly, do not simply bake hotter. More heat may darken the crust even faster without giving the centre enough time to catch up.

Instead, you may need a slightly longer bake or a gentler finish once the crust has browned.

Use a Thermometer if You Are Unsure

An instant-read thermometer can be useful when you are trying to work out whether a loaf is genuinely underbaked.

For many crusty sourdough loaves, an internal temperature around 96–99°C is a useful check, although the recipe you are following should come first.

Insert the thermometer into the centre of the loaf without touching the pan or measuring inside a large air pocket.

Temperature should not be your only guide, but it is much more useful than judging the bread by crust colour alone.

Large and Wet Loaves Often Need More Time

Two loaves made from the same dough can bake differently if one is taller or larger.

A tall boule takes longer for heat to reach the centre than a smaller or flatter loaf.

Higher-hydration doughs can also retain more moisture, as can loaves containing plenty of wholemeal flour, seeds or soaked grains.

If you have increased the dough quantity or changed the shape of the loaf, do not assume the original baking time will still be right.

If the Crust Is Getting Too Dark

If the outside is ready before the middle, give the centre more time without continuing to darken the crust.

You can try:

• reducing the oven temperature slightly for the later part of the bake
• loosely covering the top with aluminium foil if it is already dark enough
• moving the loaf away from particularly strong top or bottom heat

Make one change at a time so you can see what actually improves the next loaf.

It May Be Fermentation, Not Baking

If the loaf was baked through, allowed to cool completely and still has a dense, gummy crumb, look at the dough before it went into the oven.

Underfermented sourdough often has not developed enough gas and structure before baking. The finished loaf may be dense in places and can feel gummy even though it spent enough time in the oven.

Look at the whole loaf rather than the gummy texture alone.

If you also see a very tight crumb, large uneven tunnels or dough that showed little fermentation before shaping, the bake may not be the only issue.

Overfermentation can cause its own structural problems too, so do not diagnose the loaf from one symptom alone.

Don't Change Everything at Once

If your next loaf comes out gummy, check things in this order:

1. Let the loaf cool completely before slicing.
2. Check that the centre has actually baked through.
3. If the crust is browning too quickly, give the loaf a gentler, longer finish.
4. Consider whether the loaf is larger, taller or wetter than the recipe was designed for.
5. If the bread is fully baked but still gummy, look more closely at fermentation.

A gummy crumb does not always mean you need a completely different recipe.

Start by working out whether the problem happened during fermentation, baking or cooling. Once you know which stage is responsible, the fix is usually much simpler.