Crumb
The interior texture of a baked good: the size, shape and evenness of its air holes and how soft or firm it feels.
- Measurement, dietary and professional terminology
Also called: crumb structure, open crumb, tight crumb
A tight crumb has small, even holes, as in pound cake and sandwich bread; an open crumb has larger, irregular holes, as in ciabatta and many sourdoughs. Crumb is shaped by the amount of water, gluten development, mixing and proofing.
In cakes, overmixing or too much leavener can give a coarse or tunneled crumb; in bread, underproofing often gives a dense, tight crumb with a few large holes.
Bake it at VanillaGoods
Related entries
Sources
Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.
- Crumb (Q1552373), Wikidata