Since it sounds like this time you did it as you're used to, my first guess is that the cooked through part at the top wiped off the tester. But it also sounds like something was wrong with your loaf if it was still that raw when you expected it to be done. Perhaps the oven temperature, and therefore the loaf temperature, was way out of whack. Do you have an oven thermometer? If so, you might want to text your oven as you next use it, and move the thermometer around.

Or...maybe you put in the butter or liquid twice in a moment of spaciness? Unlikely, but weirder stuff happens...

I think your top heating element is not working.

I baked a loaf of bread today and it came out perfectly, so it's not the oven.

Regardless, it's the cake tester coming out completely clean yet the batter still being partly raw that is puzzling me. The raw part was at the top of the loaf.

Twilight Zone?

IME cake testers work best for telling you when a properly baked cake is properly baked, not when an underdone cake is underdone. I wish they would provide desired internal temp instead or in addition.

I an sure you put it on the same oven rack you always use. Was it a different pan?

Next time not only check the middle, check the top, also.

I found this temp.

Butternut squash bread is fully baked and safe to consume when the internal temperature reaches

200∘F
200∘F

to

210∘F
210∘F

(

93∘C
93∘C

-

99∘C
99∘C

) at the center of the loaf. A temperature of

200∘F
200∘F

or slightly higher ensures the quick bread is not gummy and has fully set, typically taking 50 to 90 minutes at

350∘F
350∘F

.

So, I asked a friend who makes a lot of quickbreads. (I only make a few per year.) She said if it's going to be raw, it'll be the top part, which makes sense if you're using the bake element rather than convection. Rather than using a tester, she taps with her palm, like using your finger to test a cake, but your palm won't leave a dent if it's underdone. She didn't have any other notions about what happened, though.

I still think maybe it was the self-wiping crust thing, or you hit a bit just right. The other day, I was testing an egg bake that should have been done by the time, but I used up some half&half in it and the custard was wetter than usual, and it just didn't look done. I Used a nice wire with holder-tab tester and it came out clean, so I stabbed a different spot and it was wet. A custard full of leaves is going to be a lot more variable than a quickbread should be, but....sometimes it just happens. In this way, learning the bounce method, especially for things you make regularly, might be a good alternative.

Re what FOAS said, the probe on my Thermapen ONE, the only food temp device I've used where I fully trust the results, based on my experience with having things come out right and more or less matching the charts, is pretty slender. I use it most of the time on improvisational yeast breads because all the stuff I add in can alter the thump test, and there's no telling what the color is going to be. It works really well! And works for a big turkey too.

I never used to have much success with cake tester type things- skewers, toothpicks etc. So for years I have used an old thin bladed butter knife which I insert in the middle in the direction I would normally cut the cake. Never fails.

I also check around the edge of the pan for a very slight gap. The gap is so narrow that you could slip a piece of paper between the pan and the baking quick bread.

A couple of things I was thinking...first off, did your oven happen to go out during the baking of this bread? Another thing, could the ingredients have been colder than normal? Trying to come up with a reason why it was so underdone in one spot? Do you keep an oven thermometer in your oven? It takes mine a good 15 to 20 minutes to get hot enough. So, perhaps the oven wasn't hot enough when you put it in?

I have never had any luck with sticking a tooth pick or anything like that with breads and cakes. I use a quick read thermometer for them. Around 200 degrees is a pretty good temp to go by.

Hmmm, a mystery to me. I always have luck with either a toothpick or touching for spring back. The cake tester I have is very thin/smooth and can sometimes come out clean before cake is done.

The big question is why this happened after so many successes. At this point, alk I can think of is bad luck.

^Pretty much…🤷‍♀️

What kind of oven? Perhaps there's a burnt-out or malfunctioning element? Do you use an oven thermometer?