By The Eumundi Trading Co · Eumundi, Queensland

Sourdough has a reputation for being difficult. In our experience, it is not difficult — but it can be confusing and is unforgiving of a handful of specific mistakes that nobody tells you about until after your third flat, gummy loaf. If your sourdough keeps failing, the problem is almost certainly one of the issues on this list and most of them have happened to me over the course of the last year! Most of them are simple to fix once you know what to look for.

This guide covers the twelve most common sourdough mistakes beginners make, why each one matters, and exactly what to do differently. By the end, you will understand not just what went wrong but why — and that understanding is what turns a frustrated beginner into a confident, consistent baker.

Mistake 1: Using an Immature or Inactive Starter

This is the most common reason sourdough fails to rise.

A starter that is not yet fully mature and used too early or one that has been neglected and lost its vitality (usually me) doesn't have enough active wild yeast to leaven a loaf of bread. The dough will not rise properly during the fermentation stage and will produce a dense, heavy loaf with little flavour (fermentation is flavour).

How to know if your starter is ready: Your starter should reliably double in size within four to eight hours of being fed, smell pleasantly sour and yeasty, and pass the float test — a small spoonful dropped in water should float rather than sink. If it does not do all three things consistently, it is not ready to bake with.

The fix: Feed your starter for two or three consecutive days before baking, at the same time each day. Use it at peak activity — when it has doubled and is just beginning to dome at the top — rather than when it is hungry and deflated. A ripe, active starter at peak is one of the most important variables in successful sourdough.

Mistake 2: Wrong Kitchen Temperature

Temperature governs everything in sourdough — fermentation speed, flavour development, dough behaviour and timing.

In a warm kitchen (25 to 28°C), bulk fermentation might take four to six hours. In a cool kitchen (18 to 20°C), the same recipe might take eight to twelve hours. If you are following a recipe that assumes a particular temperature and your kitchen is significantly warmer or cooler, the timing will be wrong — and either under-fermented or over-fermented dough will result.

This is particularly relevant in Australia, where kitchen temperatures swing dramatically between seasons. A sourdough recipe that works perfectly in a mild Sydney autumn may behave completely differently in a Sunshine Coast  summer or a Melbourne winter.

The fix: Get an inexpensive thermometer and note your kitchen temperature when you bake. Use the dough itself as your guide — look for the dough to increase by 50 to 75 percent in volume during bulk fermentation and feel bubbly and aerated when you handle it, rather than relying on a recipe's timing as an absolute.

Mistake 3: Under-Fermented Dough (Fermentation Cut Short)

Under-fermentation is the single most common cause of dense, gummy sourdough with a thick, pale crust.

Bulk fermentation — the long first rise after mixing — is where most of the flavour development and dough structure building happens. Cut it short and the dough simply has not developed enough gas, gluten strength or flavour. The loaf will be dense, the crumb will be tight and gummy, and the crust will be pale and thick rather than blistered and crackling.

Beginning bakers often cut bulk fermentation short because they are nervous about over-fermentation or simply impatient. Both are understandable — but under-fermentation is much harder to recover from than slight over-fermentation.

Signs that bulk fermentation is complete:

• The dough has increased by 50 to 75 percent in volume (not doubled — sourdough is not commercial yeast)
• The surface looks domed and slightly jiggly when you shake the bowl
• The dough feels airy and slightly bubbly when you pull it away from the bowl
• The edges of the dough look slightly domed rather than flat

The fix: Trust the dough, not the clock. Check the signs above rather than the time. If in doubt, give it another 30 to 60 minutes — a slightly longer bulk ferment almost always produces a better result than a shorter one.

Mistake 4: Over-Fermented Dough

The opposite problem — less common but equally frustrating.

Over-fermented dough has gone past its peak. The gluten structure has broken down from too much acid, leaving the dough slack, sticky and impossible to shape properly. It spreads flat in the banneton, cannot hold its shape in the oven, and produces a loaf that is flat, gummy and overly sour.

Over-fermentation happens most often in warm kitchens where fermentation is faster than expected, or when a recipe is left to ferment overnight and the kitchen is warmer than anticipated.

Signs of over-fermentation:

• The dough is extremely sticky and tears rather than stretches when you try to fold it
• It has a very strong, almost unpleasant sour or alcohol smell
• It collapses immediately when you turn it out of the bowl and cannot hold any shape
• The surface looks very bubbly and almost frothy

The fix: In warm weather, shorten your bulk ferment and monitor the dough closely. Consider doing an overnight cold bulk ferment in the fridge during summer — this slows fermentation to a manageable pace and gives you much more control over timing.

Mistake 5: Not Doing Stretch and Folds During Bulk Fermentation

Stretch and fold is how sourdough dough builds the gluten strength it needs to hold its shape and trap gas.

Unlike conventional bread dough, sourdough is typically not kneaded. Instead, it is developed through a series of stretch and fold sets during bulk fermentation — usually four sets in the first two hours, performed every 30 minutes. These folds align and strengthen the gluten network, giving the dough the structure to hold its shape during proofing and produce an open, well-structured crumb.

Skipping the folds leaves the dough weak and extensible — it will spread flat rather than rising upward, and the crumb will be dense and uniform rather than open and varied.

The fix: Set a timer for 30 minutes after mixing. Wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it upward as far as it will go without tearing, then fold it over the top of the dough. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees and repeat three more times. That is one set. Do this four times over the first two hours of bulk fermentation. After the fourth set, leave the dough alone to complete its bulk ferment undisturbed.

Mistake 6: Poor Shaping

Shaping is the step beginners most often underestimate — and it has a dramatic effect on the final loaf.

The purpose of shaping is to create surface tension on the outside of the dough. This tension holds the loaf together during proofing and baking, allows it to rise upward rather than outward, and produces the structure that creates an open crumb. Loose, poorly shaped dough spreads flat, cannot hold its structure in the oven, and produces a dense loaf with a thick, pale crust.

Good shaping feels counterintuitive at first. You are trying to create tension without degassing the dough — pulling the surface tight while being gentle enough not to knock the air out.

The fix: Use a bench scraper to pre-shape the dough into a rough round, then let it rest uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes (this rest, called the bench rest, relaxes the gluten and makes final shaping easier). Then shape firmly and deliberately — use the bench scraper to drag the dough toward you on an unfloured bench surface, using the friction to build tension. Place it in a well-floured banneton seam-side up.

Shaping is a skill that develops with practice. Your fourth loaf will be shaped better than your first. Be patient with yourself and keep going.

Mistake 7: Not Flouring the Banneton Properly

One of the most heartbreaking moments in sourdough baking: the dough sticks in the banneton and deflates completely when you try to turn it out.

A banneton that is not properly floured will stick to your dough during proofing, and when you invert it to score and bake, the dough tears and deflates. All the work of mixing, fermenting and shaping is undone in an instant.

The fix: Use rice flour rather than plain wheat flour to dust your banneton. Rice flour is far less absorbent than wheat flour — it creates a much more reliable non-stick surface and does not get absorbed into the crust during the long cold proof. Dust the banneton generously, making sure to get into every groove of the coiled cane. If you have had sticking problems before, dust with a mix of half rice flour and half plain flour for extra insurance.

After each use, tap out the excess flour and allow the banneton to dry completely before storing. Never wash it with soap.

Mistake 8: Scoring Too Shallow or Not at All

Scoring is not optional.

The score on the surface of your loaf controls where and how the bread opens during baking. A loaf that is not scored will burst unpredictably — usually along the side or base — as the expanding gas finds its own escape route. A loaf that is scored too shallowly will not open fully, limiting oven spring and producing a rounder, less dramatic loaf.

The most common beginner mistake with scoring is hesitation — a slow, dragging cut rather than a swift, decisive one. This drags and deflates the dough rather than cutting cleanly through the surface.

The fix: Use a sharp lame (a fresh blade makes an enormous difference) and score with a single swift, confident motion at a shallow angle — roughly 30 to 45 degrees to the surface of the loaf rather than straight down. The score should be two to three centimetres deep. Do it quickly. The whole motion should take less than a second.

Mistake 9: Dutch Oven Not Hot Enough

Putting dough into a cold or insufficiently preheated Dutch oven is one of the most reliable ways to ruin an otherwise well-made loaf.

The Dutch oven needs to be screaming hot before the dough goes in — typically 250°C, preheated for at least 30 to 45 minutes. This immediate burst of heat is what drives oven spring and sets the crust quickly enough to trap the expanding gas inside the loaf. A Dutch oven that has not been adequately preheated produces a loaf with poor oven spring, a pale crust and a dense crumb.

The fix: Preheat your Dutch oven inside the oven at 250°C for a full 45 minutes before baking. The pot should be genuinely hot — use oven mitts and treat it with the same respect you would a very hot pan. Lower your shaped, scored dough into the hot pot using the baking paper as a sling, replace the lid quickly to trap the steam, and bake.

Mistake 10: Cutting the Loaf Too Soon

This one is genuinely painful — a perfectly baked loaf ruined in the last five minutes.

How many TikToks have you watched yelling out to your screen not to cut the loaf yet! Sourdough must rest for a minimum of one hour after baking before cutting — and two hours produces even better results. The interior of the loaf is still cooking during this resting period as the residual heat continues to set the crumb. Cutting too early releases this heat and steam, leaving the crumb gummy, wet and under-set in the centre even if the outside looks perfectly baked.

The fix: Put the loaf on a wire rack the moment it comes out of the oven and walk away. Set a timer for a minimum of one hour. The crumb will reward your patience.

Sourdough has a learning curve. Your first loaf will almost certainly not be your best loaf. Many people bake two or three loaves that do not meet their expectations and conclude that sourdough is not for them — when in reality they were one or two loaves away from a breakthrough. For me, it was my third loaf where I really thought I had it all together and following the same recipe and approach.

Every loaf teaches you something. A flat loaf tells you about fermentation. A dense crumb tells you about shaping or scoring. A gummy interior tells you about cutting too soon or under-fermentation. The feedback is immediate and specific if you know how to read it.

Bake again. Change one variable at a time. Keep notes — even a quick photo and a few words about what you changed is enough to track your progress. I created the Farmhouse Notebooks for this very reason; the first 2 times I forgot to bookmark the recipes then I couldn't find them again so I used another one. I don't know about you but I usually combine the concepts of a few recipes and then create my own version but I never recorded it anywhere - geez I've lost some great recipes over the years!

Get your copy here - My Farmhouse Journal or Farmyard Notebooks 

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my sourdough so dense? The three most common causes are: starter that was not active enough when used, bulk fermentation that was cut too short, or dough that was not shaped with enough tension. Check all three before your next bake.

Why does my sourdough not rise in the oven? This is almost always a starter or fermentation issue. Either the starter was not at peak activity, the bulk ferment was not long enough, or the Dutch oven was not hot enough to drive oven spring. Work through these one at a time.

Why is my sourdough gummy inside? The two most common causes are cutting the loaf too soon (before the crumb has fully set) and under-fermentation. Let the loaf rest for at least two hours before cutting. If the gumminess persists, extend your bulk fermentation by 30 to 60 minutes on the next bake.

Why does my sourdough taste too sour? Over-fermentation and using an over-ripe starter both increase sourness. Try using your starter a little earlier in its rise cycle (before it reaches peak and begins to fall) and shortening the bulk fermentation slightly. Cold proofing overnight in the fridge tends to increase sourness — if you prefer a milder flavour, proof at room temperature for a shorter period.

Why did my sourdough stick in the banneton? Almost always because the banneton was not dusted with enough rice flour, or because plain wheat flour was used instead of rice flour. Rice flour is significantly less absorbent and creates a much more reliable non-stick surface. Re-dust generously with rice flour before your next bake.

How many loaves until sourdough gets easier? Most bakers find a real turning point somewhere between loaf four and loaf eight. The first three loaves are about understanding; the next few are about feel. By loaf ten, the process starts to feel instinctive rather than anxious.

Having the right equipment removes many of the most common points of failure. Our Farmhouse Sourdough Starter Kit includes a quality rattan banneton, bench scraper, bowl scraper and bread scoring lame — the tools that make the biggest difference to beginner results.

→ Shop the Farmhouse Sourdough Starter Kit

Continue reading:

• How to Start a Sourdough Starter From Scratch: The Complete Australian Guide
• What Equipment Do You Need to Bake Sourdough? The Beginner's Checklist
  

About The Eumundi Trading Co

The Eumundi Trading Co was founded by Karen Hobson after she relocated to Eumundi in the Sunshine Coast hinterland with her husband. Seeking more space, a slower pace of life and the opportunity to build something meaningful together, The Eumundi Trading Co is inspired by their modern farmhouse style of living centred around  gardening, growing food, creating, learning and living more intentionally.