This is the part of bread baking that confuses me the most and I feel like I’m just guessing every single time. Sometimes my dough looks ready it has grown it feels airy I do the poke test and it slowly springs back so I think okay this should be good. But then I bake it and the result is off the rise is not what I expected or the crumb looks tighter than it should
Other times I think maybe I rushed it and didn’t let it proof long enough so next time I wait longer and then I start thinking maybe I went too far. It feels like I’m constantly second guessing myself and I don’t actually understand what I’m looking for. I know people say you just learn with time but right now it just feels inconsistent and frustrating. For anyone who struggled with this what actually made it click for you was it just experience or was there something specific you started paying attention to?