How to Tell When Bread Is Done

Updated August 2026 · Baking Resources

Take its internal temperature. That's the only test that gives you a straight answer, and it takes five seconds. Lean bread (flour, water, salt, yeast) is done at 200 to 210°F. Enriched bread (butter, eggs, milk, sugar) is done at 190 to 200°F. Push a probe thermometer through the side or the bottom into the center of the loaf and read it.

The hollow-thump test is a rough backup that gets you within a few degrees if you already know what your bread sounds like. Crust color is the least reliable test of all, because sugar and dairy brown a loaf long before the middle has set.

Working out how long the bake should run in the first place? Our free baking time calculator adjusts times for loaf size, pan type and temperature changes.

Updated August 2026

Quick reference: the numbers

How to tell when bread is done: the temperature test, done right

A wrong reading is worse than no reading, and there are only three ways to get one.

1. Use an instant-read digital probe. A dial thermometer is slow and reads the average along the whole stem, not the tip. A digital instant-read gives you the center in two to four seconds.

2. Aim for the true center, and go in from the side or the bottom. Slide the probe in at the widest point of the loaf, angled toward the middle, and stop when the tip is roughly halfway through. Going in through the top leaves a visible hole in the crust. Going in through the bottom leaves none at all once the loaf is turned over.

3. Avoid the false-reading traps:

• Don't hit an air pocket. Open-crumb breads are full of them, and a probe sitting in air reads low. Take two readings a couple of inches apart and trust the higher one.
• Don't touch the pan. Metal runs 30 to 60°F hotter than the crumb and will tell you a raw loaf is finished.
• Don't probe a filling. Cinnamon rolls, babka and swirl loaves have wet, sugary seams that read cooler than the dough around them.
• Check the thermometer itself. Stir a glass of crushed ice and water, let it sit a minute, and probe it. It should read 32°F. Anything more than 2°F off means your bread readings are off by the same amount every single bake. The USDA's food safety guidance covers the same ice-water calibration check.

Take the reading in the last quarter of the bake, not at the halfway mark, so you're not venting heat and steam for nothing.

Why enriched bread is done at a lower temperature

This trips up more bakers than any other part of bread doneness, because the instinct is that a richer, heavier dough must need more heat.

The opposite is true, for two separate reasons.

Enriched dough browns before it bakes through. Sugar caramelizes and the milk proteins and sugars in dairy drive the Maillard reaction hard. A brioche can be deep mahogany on the outside at an internal temperature of 165°F, which is nowhere near done. Color arrives early, so it stops being a signal.

Enriched dough dries out at lean-bread temperatures. Fat and egg give the crumb its softness, and past about 200°F you're driving off the moisture those ingredients are holding. A challah taken to 210°F is not more baked. It's a done challah that then spent five extra minutes drying out. The crumb turns cottony and it stales within a day.

Practical rule: if the recipe has more than about 5% sugar or 5% fat by flour weight, drop your target by 5 to 10°F and tent the top with foil once it's the color you want. Tenting stops the browning without stopping the bake, and it's the single most useful trick for enriched loaves.

The other doneness tests, ranked honestly

1. Internal temperature (reliable)

Objective, repeatable, works on every bread. The only downsides are needing a thermometer and putting one small hole in the loaf.

2. The hollow thump (rough backup)

Turn the loaf out and rap the bottom firmly with your knuckles. A finished loaf sounds hollow and slightly sharp. An underbaked one sounds dull and thuddy, like knocking on a full box.

This works because the crumb sets into an open, dry structure that resonates, while a wet crumb absorbs the sound. It's real, but it's comparative. You need to know what your bread sounds like when it's right, and it barely works at all on small rolls or soft sandwich loaves.

3. The crumb-side check (decent, but destructive)

For rolls and buns, tear one open. If the center is still glossy, sticky and translucent, it needs longer. This is honest but costs you a roll.

4. Sides pulling away and firm edges (weak)

In a loaf pan, a finished loaf shrinks slightly from the sides. It happens near the end of the bake, but it also happens on an underbaked loaf that's been in a hot pan.

5. Weight and feel (weak)

A baked loaf loses 10 to 15% of its dough weight as water evaporates and feels light for its size. Useful if you weighed the dough. Meaningless if you didn't.

6. Crust color (least reliable)

Color depends on sugar, dairy, egg wash, oven hot spots, pan material, steam, and your oven's actual temperature versus its dial. Two loaves the same shade of brown can be 25°F apart inside. Use it to decide when to tent, never to decide when to pull.

7. The clock (a starting point, not a test)

Times in recipes assume the recipe writer's oven, pan and loaf size. If your oven runs 20°F cool (most do run off by something), every time in every recipe is wrong for you. Check yours against the oven temperature guide before you blame the recipe.

Worked example: an 800 g sourdough boule

Real numbers on a standard Dutch oven bake, 450°F, lid on then off.

The 30-minute mark is the trap. The loaf looks done, smells done, and is 15°F short. Twelve more minutes is the difference between a set crumb and a gummy stripe through the middle.

Note the peak at 210°F after it left the oven. That's carryover, and it's worth 2 to 5°F on a loaf this size. Pull lean loaves at the bottom of the range and let carryover finish the job, especially on anything over about 1.5 lb.

The cooling rule nobody wants to hear

Bread is not finished when it comes out of the oven. It's finished when it's cool.

Starch gelatinizes during the bake, absorbing water and swelling. Then, as the loaf cools, that gelatinized starch sets into the structure you recognize as crumb. That setting only happens below about 140°F, and it happens gradually.

Cut into a loaf at 180°F and the starch is still soft and saturated. The knife smears it, steam that should have redistributed through the crumb escapes in one burst, and the slice compresses into a dense, damp band. That damage is permanent. The loaf doesn't recover.

Two things that help while you wait:

• Cool on a wire rack, never on a solid surface. Trapped steam under a loaf softens the bottom crust into leather in about 20 minutes.
• Don't wrap or bag warm bread. Condensation on the inside of a bag ruins a crust you just spent an hour building.

Rye is the extreme case, and it's not a preference. Rye's pentosans need many hours to set, and a rye cut at two hours really will be sticky no matter how well you baked it.

Underbaked, or just cut too early?

Both produce a gummy loaf. They have different causes and different fixes, and the tells are clear once you know them.

The definitive check: let the loaf sit overnight and cut a fresh slice from the middle. If it's fine, you cut too early. If the same wet band is still there, it was underbaked.

If it was underbaked and you catch it within a few minutes of pulling it, put it straight back in at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes and re-probe. Once it's fully cooled you can't fix it, though slicing thin and toasting salvages most of it, and cubes for croutons or bread pudding waste nothing.

If you cut too early, nothing is wrong with your baking. Set a timer for the cooling next time and leave it alone.

Common causes of an underbaked loaf

• Oven runs cold. Very common, and the dial won't tell you. A separate oven thermometer settles it in one bake.
• Loaf too large for the time. Doubling a recipe does not double the bake time, but it does add 10 to 20 minutes. Run the numbers through the baking time calculator.
• Opened the door too often. Every peek drops a home oven 25 to 50°F, and it takes several minutes to recover.
• Dark pan, or glass. Dark metal browns the crust faster and fools you into pulling early. Glass conducts more slowly and needs longer.
• Over-proofed dough. A collapsed, over-proofed loaf bakes dense and reads done at the probe while feeling heavy and wet. Getting the rise right starts with your leavening, and active dry vs instant yeast covers the timing differences that cause most over-proofing.
• Too much steam, too long. Steam is for the first third of the bake. Leaving a lid on the whole time keeps the crust soft and slows the interior.

Frequently asked questions

What internal temperature should bread be?

Lean breads made from flour, water, salt and yeast are done at 200 to 210°F, and enriched breads with butter, eggs, milk or sugar are done at 190 to 200°F. Take the reading in the center of the loaf, going in from the side or the bottom, and avoid air pockets and the pan. Big loaves carry over another 2 to 5°F after they leave the oven.

Does the hollow sound test actually work?

Roughly. A baked loaf rapped on the bottom sounds hollow and sharp because the set crumb resonates, while an underbaked one sounds dull because a wet crumb absorbs the sound. It's a comparative test, so it only helps once you know what your own bread sounds like, and it barely works on soft rolls or sandwich loaves.

Why is my bread gummy in the middle?

Either it was underbaked or you cut it while it was still warm. Let the loaf sit overnight and slice it again: if the fresh slice is fine, you cut too early, and if the same wet band is still there, it needed more oven time. Starch only sets as bread cools below about 140°F, which is why the cooling wait matters as much as the bake.

Can I put underbaked bread back in the oven?

Yes, if you catch it in the first few minutes. Return the loaf to a 350°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes and probe again. Once it's fully cooled the crust has set and the crumb won't recover, though thin slices toast well and the loaf still works for croutons, bread pudding or breadcrumbs.

How long should bread cool before slicing?

At least an hour for a standard lean loaf, 45 to 60 minutes for a pan sandwich loaf, and 2 to 4 hours for a large sourdough boule. Rolls only need 15 minutes. Dense rye needs 12 to 24 hours, which isn't a preference but a real requirement of how rye sets.

Why is my bread brown outside and raw inside?

The oven is too hot, the loaf is too big for the temperature, or the dough is enriched with enough sugar and dairy to brown well ahead of the interior. Tent the top with foil as soon as it reaches the color you want and keep baking until the center reads correctly. Verifying your oven's real temperature with a separate thermometer usually explains it.

What temperature is banana bread and other quick breads done?

200 to 210°F in the center, and the skewer test still applies to quick breads because they behave more like cake than bread. A skewer should come out with a few dry crumbs and no wet batter. Very moist batters like banana or zucchini bread lean toward the top of that range.

Do I need a thermometer to bake bread?

You can bake without one, but you'll be guessing, and it's the cheapest accuracy upgrade in baking. If you're going without, combine the hollow thump with a firm crust, sides pulling from the pan, and a loaf that feels light for its size, then add five minutes when you're unsure. Overbaking a lean loaf by five minutes costs you very little, while underbaking it ruins the crumb.

Related guides: Baking time calculator | Oven temperature converter | Active dry vs instant yeast | Yeast converter | Bread flour vs all-purpose | Ingredient weights chart