- Baking bread has become a popular pastime for people at home.
- All over the world, first-time bakers are trying their hand at fragrant focaccia and airy sourdough.
- Many social-media users are proud to share their stunning loaves, but some are also willing to show off their failures.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
I’ve baked bread three times since being in quarantine – that’s three times more than I’ve ever baked it before.
I tried making rolls by following along with a Food Network tutorial, and then beer bread using a recipe from celebrity chef Alton Brown. My final attempt was homemade pizza dough, which actually came out great.
From my first experience proofing yeast, I learned that this process really is a science. And it’s not easy.
But, I’m not alone. Home bakers around the world have taken to Instagram to show off their failed attempts at bread baking. So, however badly you may have messed up your own bread, here are 12 home cooks who probably made an even bigger mess, but who had fun doing it.
This blackened confection is a loaf of banana bread, and the burning pile on the bottom of the oven is a bunch of leaky batter.
Yes, that is a "mini volcano of cake" on the oven floor. The baker of this banana bread, Nic Hilton, told Insider that the load erupted with 20 minutes still left on the timer.
She said she cut off what had burned and managed to save what was on the inside of the blackened shell. Hilton said she ate the inside with custard, which made it tastier.
This banana bread played tricks on its baker.
Instagram user @undefined posted this photo saying they couldn't see the banana bread climbing out of the loaf pan on one side - it created a finished product that looked a little phallic.
The caption read: "So...this looked to be baking perfectly and happily in the oven...this was the surprise on the other side #nocomment."
This loaf of sourdough also found an escape route out of its pan.
"Just don't ask..." wrote Elizabeth Walter, who shared this photo on Instagram of her bread overflowing.
Even still, this sourdough looks delicious.
This attempt at sourdough didn't quite make it, either.
Philip Harker told Insider that his sourdough bread was made with white flour and sourdough starter. He posted a photo to Instagram showing how the bread did, in fact, rise, but not to it's fullest potential.
"Quite stodge, but nice," he wrote in his caption. "Still getting the hang of the sourdough starter."
Sourdough has proven to be a difficult feat. The baker of this loaf said it "looks more like a brain" than bread.
This was the end result of a five-day-long attempt to bake gluten-free sourdough.
Cortney Zieky, a health coach in Austin, Texas, wrote in her Instagram caption that her kids had a great time making the bread - and they thought it tasted delicious, too!
This sourdough didn't quite rise right, either.
Atso Catullus told Insider that the issue with this loaf was the type of flour he used.
"The main problem was that I was using a low gluten flour mix, the gluten structure was too weak to hold its shape," he said.
But, his Instagram feed proves that he got it right after another couple of tries.
Using the wrong type of yeast can also cause a fiasco. This tray of accidental flat rolls was the result of using pizza yeast.
Melanie Anderson of Edmonton, Alberta, wrote in an Instagram caption that she thought she "scored big" when she found yeast at the supermarket.
As it turns out, the yeast was pizza-specific, which didn't work out so well for her puffy bread rolls.
Focaccia is naturally a flatter bread, but it's not a "biscuit" as the baker of this one called theirs.
"I had already started adding water when I realized I didn't have enough yeast," Camila Humphries, the baker, captioned their photo.
They even wrote that they steeped rosemary in olive oil for 12 hours "... for nothing."
This was supposed to be a fun and festive bunny-shaped bread for Easter.
In an effort to make a bunny-shaped loaf of bread for Easter, Cap Cooke actually wound up making something more suited for a horror movie.
His Instagram caption read: "BunBun gon'getchu."
The baker of this keto-friendly bread said it came out looking more like a gravy boat.
Home baker Emily Broz tried her hand at a keto-friendly loaf of bread. She posted a photo to Instagram revealing that the entire top sunk after baking.
This loaf of French bread also experienced some sinkage.
Even though Kim Hlava's loaf of bread deflated on top, she wrote in her Instagram caption that "it still tasted sooo good though."
"When I looked through the top of the bread maker and saw the bread, I thought maybe it would rise at the end but it never did," Halava told Insider via Instagram message. "It made my husband and I laugh quite a bit!"
This may not be the prettiest loaf on the outside, but Barry B. said it still tasted good on the inside.
Something went wrong when Barry B. was baking this loaf of floured, crusty bread.
The pattern on top looks like a combination of tie-dye and camouflage, but it also looks wet in some places. Regardless of what went wrong, the baker said it still tasted delicious.
- Read more:
- 14 baking fails to make you feel better about yourself
- Photos show how common baking mistakes can drastically change your chocolate-chip cookies
- 15 ingredients to add to your banana bread that are not walnuts or chocolate chips
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding baker has an easy hack for her lemon loaf recipe to make it taste like the royal cake