Scoring can be simple and straightforward, or intricate and complicated. It’s a chance for the baker to really personalize their loaf of bread. Some bakers opt for a single, long slash, whereas others prefer lots of tiny cuts that together form a beautiful, artistic design. Who hasn’t been drawn to a beautifully presented loaf of bread with its dramatic, surface ear or intricate pattern? It’s here where the baker can leave his/her individual touch on the final baked loaf. The second purpose of scoring bread is aesthetics… Some home bakers don’t mind these irregular openings, but scoring is the way to go if you want maximum height in a consistent and controlled manner. Without this step in the baking process, our loaf will burst open in unexpected areas.

In other words, wherever you slash or make cuts in the dough will be the places where the dough is able to expand out. Bread bakers score dough to create these weak spots and direct the expansion of the loaf. Whether intentional or not, the weakest points in the dough surface will give way and burst open. Through the production of gasses, the dough is forced to spring up and push against the taut surface formed during the shaping and proofing stage. When baking bread, the intense heat of an oven causes the dough to rise rapidly by expediting the fermentation process. Why Do We Need to Control the Way Dough Expands in the Oven? To control the way the bread expands in the oven.The cuts or the scoring of the bread dough are made with two purposes in mind: Scoring bread describes cuts made to bread dough before the dough is placed in the oven and baked. You can get 10% off anything from Wire Monkey if you use this link to make your purchase! (I have more recommendations below, depending on what kind of scoring you like to do). NOTE: If you’re looking for a great tool to score your bread, my current favorite is the UFO lame by Wire Monkey. But firstly, do we score bread just to make it look good or is there a bigger purpose? The tips above will give you a great head start to scoring your bread dough successfully, but let’s take a deeper look into a few fundamental techniques to get you slashing like a master baker. Once your loaf is scored, bake it right away.Cold dough is easier to score, so chill it before scoring.Wet your blade with water or spray it with oil so that you get smooth cuts rather than ragged ones, mainly if the dough is sticky.Score the dough using your whole arm, not your wrist.Make slashes to the dough swiftly with confidence and authority.Here are 7 steps to scoring bread dough successfully: It was also the most nerve-wracking part of the whole bread process, because if you get it wrong, you can’t undo it! But once you learn a few handy tips, it’s not too difficult to learn to score your bread dough like a professional baker.

And scoring bread successfully was surprisingly one of the hardest parts for me to get right. PO Box, APO/FPO, Afghanistan, Alaska/Hawaii, American Samoa, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cook Islands, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), French Polynesia, Gambia, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macau, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mayotte, Micronesia, Montserrat, Namibia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, US Protectorates, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U.S.Learning to make great sourdough bread comes with many challenges.

Lame bread tool