Shortest path maze solving algorithm

Question

I have this method that solves the first possible path in a 2D maze matrix (works fine)

    public boolean findFirstPath() {
        boolean found = false;
        path = new ArrayList<Coordinate>(); // restarts the path in case the algorithm has been solved previously
        Coordinate coor = new Coordinate();
        coor.i = startI; coor.j = startJ; coor.direction = 0; // instance of the first Coordinate object
        path.add(coor); // the first coordinate is added to the path
        
        while (!found && path.size() > 0) {
            path.get(path.size()-1).direction++; // accesses the last element and increments the direction by 1
            if (path.get(path.size()-1).direction <= 4) {
                Coordinate coor_next = setNextCell(path.get(path.size()-1)); // we assign the last element of the path
                if (isValidSpot(coor_next)) {
                    path.add(coor_next); // add to the path the valid cell
                    if (coor_next.i == endI && coor_next.j == endJ) { // if it reaches the end
                        found = true;
                    }
                }
            } else { // if it has checked all 4 directions go back
                path.remove(path.size()-1); // deletes the last position in backtracking
            }
        }   
        return found;
    }

I need to make modifications to find the shortest possible path and I can't find an optimal solution, I've tried something like this:

    public boolean findShortestPath() {
        boolean found = false;
        int steps = 0;
        path = new ArrayList<Coordinate>();
        ArrayList<Coordinate> shortest = new ArrayList<Coordinate>(); // arrayList where the shortest path will be stored
        Coordinate coor = new Coordinate();
        coor.i = startI; coor.j = startJ; coor.direction = 0;
        path.add(coor);
        
        while (!found && path.size() > 0) {
            path.get(path.size()-1).direction++;
            if (path.get(path.size()-1).direction <= 4) {
                Coordinate coor_next = setNextCell(path.get(path.size()-1));
                if (isValidSpot(coor_next)) {
                    steps++;
                    if (steps < path.size()) {
                        shortest.add(path.get(path.size()-1));
                    } else {
                        path.add(coor_next);
                    }
                    if (coor_next.i == endI && coor_next.j == endJ) {
                        found = true;
                    }
                }
            } else {
                path.remove(path.size()-1);
            }
        }
        return found;
    }

but it does not even enter the if (steps < path.size()) comprobation, any suggestions? Thanks.