---
name: sourdough-troubleshooting
description: "Flat, dense, gummy, or that weird gluey line at the bottom. Use when the user wants help with Sourdough Troubleshooting. Related topics: Food, Learning, Research."
---

# Sourdough Troubleshooting

Flat, dense, gummy, or that weird gluey line at the bottom.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **Describe the crumb** (longer free text)
- **Recipe and timings** (longer free text)
- **Starter condition** (longer free text)
- **Kitchen temperature** (free text, e.g. "Roughly")
- **Shaping and baking setup** (longer free text)
- **How many loaves have I made** (choose one: This is my first, A handful, Dozens, Usually fine but not this time)

## Prompt template

## What went wrong with my loaf

Work through this like a diagnosis, not a list of everything that can go wrong with bread.

**Step 1. What came out of the oven.**
{{Describe the crumb}}

**Step 2. What I did.**
- Recipe and timings: {{Recipe and timings}}
- Starter condition: {{Starter condition}}
- Kitchen temperature: {{Kitchen temperature}}
- Shaping and baking setup: {{Shaping and baking setup}}

**Step 3. History.**
- How many loaves have I made: {{How many loaves have I made}}

Now: name the single most likely cause, then the runner-up, and explain how each one produces exactly the result I described. Not five possibilities, two.

Give me one change for the next bake so I can tell what fixed it. Describe what the dough should have looked and felt like at whichever stage went wrong, since that is the part I cannot judge yet.

---

Source: [Sourdough Troubleshooting on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/rQqiuUbt4yX6l8yUAq9P/sourdough-troubleshooting)