Making bread is something that a lot of people have started doing as of late. When you have a bit of time on your hands and you want to eat something tasty, it’s going to be nice to bake some fresh bread.
If you’re new to baking bread, then you might make a few mistakes along the way. It’s normal for people to be a little off if they don’t follow a recipe carefully enough or do the right steps.
However, it’s going to be very unusual if your bread turns out gray. You definitely know that your bread shouldn’t look gray unless something is really wrong.
Read on to learn about why bread might turn out gray. This should help you to avoid having anything like this happen again so that you can enjoy tasty bread.
1 – Too Much Moisture
One of the first things that you should consider when you discover that your bread is gray is whether or not moisture is to blame. You see, moisture is something that can cause the starch in the bread to change color over time.
It’s possible that you might have made the bread too moist by using certain ingredients incorrectly. You could have made a simple error when mixing things up and the bread turned out overly moist.
When this occurs, the bread is going to become grayer over time. You might place the bread in storage and come back the next day to discover that the gray color has become more distinct.
Another potential reason for the moisture involves you wrapping the bread while it was still hot. If you don’t wait for the bread to cool down before wrapping it, then it’s going to trap moisture, which can cause the bread to look gray.
It might not be unsafe to eat bread like this if it seems like moisture is the cause of the problem. Sometimes people wind up having this happen due to little mistakes and impatience.
You can keep this from happening in the future by being more careful when mixing ingredients and storing your dough. Also, you’ll want to ensure that the bread is given time to cool off before you choose to wrap the bread and put it away.
2 – Ingredient Issues
It’s going to be wise to examine the possibility that the ingredients that you used to make the dough contributed to the problem. You know that moisture can cause bread to become gray over time, but some ingredients might contribute to discoloration.
For instance, some have said that using certain types of salt has caused bread to turn out with a slightly different color. This could be due to the difference in iodine content that is found in various types of salt.
There’s a difference between standard table salt and sea salt. You might have gotten unusual results if you chose to use a different type of salt when making dough.
Another possibility is that there could be an issue with your flour. Perhaps your flour went bad because you haven’t used it in a long time.
Generally, flour is going to have a very long shelf life, but that doesn’t mean that it stays good forever. Your flour should stay good for somewhere between three and eight months.
You have to consider how long the flour might have been sitting at your local grocery store, too. It’s usually good to try to make an effort to use your flour up within a few months of purchasing it to be on the safe side.
When baking bread, you need to try to ensure that you’re getting all of the steps right as well. Making little mistakes can lead to problems with how your bread turns out.
Make your dough exactly as instructed in the bread recipe that you’re following. Hopefully, this will ensure that you get good results instead of having your bread turn out gray.
3 – Mold
The worst-case scenario involves the bread being moldy and unsafe to eat. Gray bread can also be a sign that mold is present, and you might have even used moldy dough to make your bread.
Did you thoroughly examine your dough before you decided to bake bread? If you didn’t, then you might have missed the signs that the dough has mold on it.
When the dough has a gray color, there’s going to be a good chance that mold is growing on the dough. You might need to look closely to spot the presence of mold, but you should definitely do so to be safe.
Note that when the dough has become gray, it’s going to be harder to get the bread to turn out how you want it to. In most instances, people will just choose to throw the dough out once it has turned gray.
4 – Storage Issues
What causes the dough to turn gray like this, though? Well, it’s basically going to happen when the dough isn’t stored properly.
Too much air circulation could be the cause of your gray dough. It’s also possible that the dough was exposed to moisture due to being placed in a bad spot.
You might not have stored the dough as recommended and it led to the dough going bad. It’s said that the best way to store dough is to wrap it tightly with plastic and then put it into the fridge.
If you don’t have a plastic wrap that you can use, then you could place the bread dough in a self-sealing plastic bag to get good results. Many people will also spray the plastic with oil to keep the dough from sticking to things too much.
Mistakes with how you store the dough can cause the dough to go bad faster. It’s also true that bread dough doesn’t stay good forever.
Bread dough is only going to stay good in a refrigerator for three days. If you make bread dough and then decide not to use it, you’re going to wind up having to throw it out.
The dough will last a bit longer when placed in the freezer, though. You should be able to get the dough to stay good for up to two weeks, but storing it longer than that will likely cause it to lose flavor.
Final Thoughts
Baking bread is something that can be a lot of fun, but you do need to approach it the right way. If you make mistakes when making your dough, then it can lead to significant issues.
You also need to be wise when storing your dough to ensure that it doesn’t go bad. The dough can get moldy if it isn’t stored properly, and you need to make sure that you do things right if you want to be able to bake bread.
Doing your best to avoid making mistakes should make it less likely that you’ll have your bread turn out gray. It could be an issue with the ingredients that you’re using, but it’s also possible that it could have happened due to human error.
Try to retrace your steps to figure out what happened to your bread. It should help you to avoid this situation the next time you decide to bake a delicious loaf.
Remember to always check your dough to ensure that it isn’t moldy before using it as well. It wouldn’t be good to bake bread with moldy dough since it wouldn’t turn out right and it could make you sick.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.