What’s wrong with my bread?

[Doh!]

Hi all,

I’m new to baking (I’ve made 3 loaves so far) and was wondering if anyone could tell me what went wrong in the bread in the attached image. The outside (top/bottom/sides) is nice and airy, but the middle isn’t - it’s almost as if there’s a line that separates the two sections.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Given the overall uniform crumb and tight crumb, especially in the center, I’d say the dough is over-proofed. When the dough is a
proofed correctly the crumb will have big airy holes throughout.

Over proofing is not just time but temperature. And temperature is key. Too warm and your dough will get away from you fast.

But don’t fret—for only being a third loaf it’s really not bad at all.

Bread is hard to bake. Good bread is damn hard to bake. Great bread—well that’s a unicorn all bakers are still trying to lasso.