Some Common Faults & Thoughts on How to Fix Them

Cracking

Probably the most common bread fault I've experienced. Again several causes come to mind. My explanation is that, in the oven, the top of the dough has formed a firm crust, but the rest of the dough has got `more to give' and is trying to push up through a firm 'lid'. Consequently, and not surprisingly, it will boost the lid up intact, causing, at times, very unfortunate horizontal cracking right down the length of the loaf, in extreme cases causing slices to have a kind of 'Sigma' shape. (Not so good for breaky presentation.) Cures abound, first make sure the dough is proved away from droughts, perhaps even with a damp tea-towel covering the dough (droughts will prematurely dry out the crust), second, make deeper slashes in the top just before the oven (very effective) -- the thinking here is that the slashed dough will allow deep, 'wet' dough to become exposed, allowing lots of room for growing new surface that is pre-wetted since it comes from the middle of the dough; or finally, an imbalance in the oven temp is to blame -- here focus on that large piece of crockery (or pizza-stone) to distribute the heat (very effective).

Tunnelling

Quickly following on from cracking, this is also a cause of great disappointment, the reason being that a loaf will look excellent from the outside, but will sadly, like the Russian Kyoto carbon-credit booty, be full of `hot air'. That is, a long, almost loaf-width, loaf-length hole will be present inside the loaf. Sometimes so bad you can practically hide your fore-arm in there (if you so wished). This has a simple cause -- the dough is not holding together as it pushes up in the oven. The solution: 1) more kneading to develop the structure; or 2) roll that log tighter, making sure that the dough isn't too well floured before rolling up (or else each layer will not stick -- an easy way to get a tunnel).

Flaky Crumb

What I mean, is that when cut, the loaf looks and feels very similar to so much white-nothingness available in commercially made breads. This is pretty close to the issue here. The dough doesn't have enough sourness to cause it to be `different'. You have essentially made white bread, not sourdough bread. More time proving will almost certainly fix this. (Also, wait till the loaf is completely cool before cutting -- even the best sourdough loaf will have a moist 'crumbly' crumb if cut too early.)

Sickly Sour

The opposite of flaky crumb. Caused most often when things bready get forgotten in the chaos of life. The bread has most probably been proved too long. In theory, dead easy to fix, try not to forget the bread!