Why does my bread have a dip in the center?

I made some white bread this evening and was quite happy with it except for the dip in the center:

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I suspect maybe I left it to prove too long? it seems like the air holes are too big and it has now lost it's structure.

Recipe was for 1kg flour I halved it:

500 g flour
12.5 g oil
20 g sugar
4 g dry yeast
10 g salt
300 g water

1) Mix all dry ingredients.
2) Add water and mix till incorporated. 
3) Add oil and mix
4) Knead for 5-6 min
5) Leave for 1.5 hours
6) Place in bread tin
7) Leave for 1-1.5 hours
8) Bake at 220 C for 30 min

It was a very wet dough. I may have got the liquid measurement wrong. I ended up working it as much as I could and it remained pretty wet the whole time.

Can anyone indicate what I did wrong to cause the dip?

Apart from the dip I am quite happy with this attempt.

bread

Best Answer

Two possibilities:

Your dough overproofed, or
the oven wasn't hot enough. In this scenario, the dough rises and then collapses before it can set

I would guess it was overproofed. Your recipe seems fine, though with all bread recipes, steps like "Leave for 1-1.5 hours" are highly variable depending on ambient heat in the kitchen, humidity, et cetera, and you should really employ the finger poke test to be certain.

References

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Quick Answer about "Why does my bread have a dip in the center?"

Some ovens run hotter than its settings, some cooler. If the oven is too hot the loaf will be brown and crispy on the outside but doughy in the middle and may collapse as it cools. When bread is baked at too low a temperature it will not rise enough in the oven resulting in a dense and sunken loaf.

How do you keep bread from sinking in the middle?

Don't overmix the batter. Try mixing quick breads together by hand or by machine on the lowest setting just until ingredients are incorporated. Then stir in nuts, dried fruits or other add-ins. Bake quick breads as soon as the ingredients are assembled and place the loaf pans in the center of the oven for best results.

Why does my bread have a dent?

Or you have a big hole at the top of your crumb that runs through the whole bread, also known as \u201ctunneling\u201d. These wholes come from the gasses released by the yeast that feeds on the starches and sugars in the dough that result in them releasing carbon dioxide which in turn helps your dough rise.

We Sent Garlic Bread to the Edge of Space, Then Ate It

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Images: Nataliya Vaitkevich, Nataliya Vaitkevich, Rhiannon Stone, Naim Benjelloun