Why did my bread recipe turn out like this?

[Lexi127]

Please see attached picture. I was trying to make wheat bread Yesterday. What did I do wrong?

I’m usually pretty good at following recipes Instructions and I tested the yeast prior to mixing with the flour. I haven’t cut it yet but this doesn’t look good. Also I used a glass loaf pan so I’m thinking this might be the reason why it came out like this. When I took it out of the oven the top looked cooked and dry but not the bottom. FYI this is the bottom part of the bread. It’s pretty hard too.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Please see attached picture. I was trying to make wheat bread Yesterday. What did I do wrong?

I’m usually pretty good at following recipes Instructions and I tested the yeast prior to mixing with the flour. I haven’t cut it yet but this doesn’t look good. Also I used a glass loaf pan so I’m thinking this might be the reason why it came out like this. When I took it out of the oven the top looked cooked and dry but not the bottom. FYI this is the bottom part of the bread. It’s pretty hard too.

Not seeing the recipe, and without an explanation of what you did, it’s impossible to say what went wrong.

But in general...

Glass is never a good choice for baking, except for a pie plate. Recipes should state the appropriate bakeware.

That looks like wholewheat. That is not a good choice for novice bakers. Wholewheat requires 100% hydration; most recipes on the internet and in cookbooks are improperly written with significantly less water. Wholewheat is dense and heavy, so best mixed with unbleached high protein flour, usually marketed as “bread” flour. If you want to use wholewheat, look for a recipe that is a mix of the two flours.

 

[Lexi127]

This is the recipe I followed. To the tee. Except I didn’t use the correct pan. That must be why. Also it didn’t call for bread flour.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

This is the recipe I followed. To the tee. Except I didn’t use the correct pan. That must be why. Also it didn’t call for bread flour.

Yes, I understand it didn’t call for bread flour and that’s my point. I could tell by looking at your loaf that you used all wholewheat.

You need to learn a bit more about baking and practice a few fundamentals of bread before using all wholewheat to first understand how gluten works. Especially if you are milling your grains. Freshly milled flour is not the same as commercially milled flour. Commercially millled flour is exacting in its specifications. The protein content, ash, and, more importantly the moisture in the flour. When you mill your own flour you have no control over any of those specifications. You have no idea what any of your flour specifications are. You need to know the fundamentals of baking to understand how to deal with flour with variables that you have no insight about.

 

[Lexi127]

Update: I made it again today using a regular metal bread pan and it came out perfect!!! So happy. I used the rest of the dough so it looks like the issue was with the glass pan I used.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Update: I made it again today using a regular metal bread pan and it came out perfect!!! So happy. I used the rest of the dough so it looks like the issue was with the glass pan I used.

I would encourage you to get Jeffrey Hamelman‘s book on Bread. While that bread looks far better than the first, you can get far better results if you learn the fundamentals of bread. Plus there is a world of possibilities when you mill your own grains.