#Dough scoring knife how to#
#Dough scoring knife full#
#Dough scoring knife professional#
#Dough scoring knife series#

In this case, you should leave the dough unscored and allow it to fully proof before baking so that it is delicate to the touch. When should you not score bread?Īs a general rule, you should not score bread if you are baking it in a pan and want the loaf to have a “domed” top. While baking, the dough will puff up slightly in the oven, but not enough to require any score marks.

If you are baking bread in a pan, let it proof fully so that it is light and delicate to the touch. When you do this, the bread will burst open along its natural seams, so you won’t need to score the dough. If you are baking an artisan-style loaf of bread, bake it seam-side-up on a baking stone or in a Dutch oven. You do not have to score bread before baking it. Do you have to score bread before baking?

This is typical of sandwich loaves baked in pans or tins. However, if the dough has been proofed to 80-90% of its capacity before baking, it will likely not burst open in the oven at all. This usually happens along the sides or near the bottom of the loaf. Related Questions What happens if you don’t score bread before baking it?Īs a general rule, if you don’t score bread before baking it, the bread will burst open at its weakest point inside the oven as it expands. When it bakes, your bread will burst open naturally along these weak points. An imaginary straight line should run relatively straight across the top of the dough through the middle of the scissor cuts.

#Dough scoring knife series#

Cut the dough in a series or quick snips from the top of the dough to the bottom. To score bread with scissors, hold the scissors at a very shallow angle, between 15-20° to the dough. So, once your dough is fully proofed and ready to bake, get some scissors or kitchen shears and wash them well with soap and water. Since kitchen shears are most likely to be food-safe, they’re definitely the better option, but standard household scissors will also work to score bread, as long as they are clean. If you want to score bread without a lame, another option is to use a pair or scissors or kitchen shears. For an oval-shaped loaf, hold the knife at a 45° angle and score one long slash from the far end of the loaf to the near end. For a round loaf, cut two long confident slashes on top of the dough in a cross pattern, going about 1/4 inch deep, and holding the knife at a 90° angle.

#Dough scoring knife full#

To score bread with a utility knife, release the blade to its full extent and hold the knife firmly by the handle. If you have a utility knife lying around your house, consider cleaning it, changing it out for a new blade, and using it to score your bread. Although that’s twice as thick as a razor blade, it’s much thinner than any knife in your kitchen. The blade of a utility knife also happens to be extremely thin! According to Fine Homebuilding, utility knife blades are usually 0.018 inches thick ( source). A razor blade can slide through the dough easily. The main benefit of scoring bread with a lame is that the razor blade is extremely thin.

#Dough scoring knife how to#

If you’re making this type of bread, here’s how to score it without a lame.

This is the kind of bread I’m talking about.

#Dough scoring knife professional#

In a professional oven, these breads are baked on the oven “hearth,” but in a domestic oven, they’re baked on a baking stone or in some kind of Dutch oven. This is the kind of bread, usually shaped in a ball or an oval, that you bake directly on the oven surface. These loaves are the ones that usually require scoring. Luckily, there are actually a handful of common household tools that you can use to score your bread! In this article, I want to share with you three easy ways to score bread without a lame.įor the purposes of this article, I will be focusing on artisan-style hearth loaves. If only I had known then what I know now about effective scoring, I would have avoided plenty of ugly loaves. So, I scored my bread with a standard kitchen paring knife (with disasters results). That seemed like a purchase for a more experienced baker. When I was a beginning bread baker, I didn’t own a bread lame.