

If you don’t have a lame don’t worry! There are other options! One option is to use scissors to make cuts on the surface of the dough.

#BREAD LAME TECHNIQUE HOW TO#
How to Score Sourdough Bread Without a Lame A leaf pattern scored into sourdough bread. There are plenty of amazing scoring examples out there, so do a quick google search and find something interesting to try! Here’s one example from Bread Journey that gives some great scoring patterns. This approach looks particularly good on floured dough because you get a contrast between the dough and the flour! If you want to try it, just make sure to keep your blade perpendicular to the surface of the dough instead of at an angle and make quick slices.

Personally, I like the leaf like pattern shown in the video! It’s relatively simple and looks lovely. Other than the classic ear, there are tons of other patterns you can go for. You’ll also want to either add steam to the oven or bake in a Dutch Oven!Īnd finally when you’re scoring I’d recommend you start simple and practice frequently! You’ll have a beautiful loaf before you know it.
#BREAD LAME TECHNIQUE FULL#
let your oven preheat for a full half hour. To get this effect, you should bake in a properly heated oven. You also need to bake your bread correctly.įor the scoring to take effect, you want the dough to rise quickly and dramatically with what’s known as “oven spring”. A loose dough is difficult to score as the blade tends to get stuck instead of slicing cleanly through!įor more shaping tips, take a look at my sourdough recipe. That surface tension will mean that when you go to score, you’ll be able to cleanly slice through the surface. This means that you should be creating surface tension on your loaf while shaping it. There are a few other things to keep in mind if you want a perfectly scored loaf! The best way to achieve this is by using firm pressure on your lame and moving quickly as you slice. If you want to create an ear you should aim for a cut that’s about 1/2 an inch to an inch deep. People often do this on a slight arc as well, see the video for an example of this technique! Start at one end and slice, at an angle, from the top of the loaf to the bottom. It’s important to work quickly when slicing an ear and, ideally, you want to make the entire cut in one go. This happens when you score the dough at an angle such that when it rises, the top layer peels up to create a piece that sticks out like an ear. One of the most popular scores to make on your bread is known as an ear. Right: A very sharp bread knife that can also be used to score dough! How to get a nice ear on your bread? Center: A sharp knife which could be used like a lame but isn’t really ideal. Lames aren’t too expensive and in my opinion make it much easier to get great results when you’re scoring dough! Left: A lame blade, which is the ideal tool for bread scoring. The sharpness and thinness of the blade makes it ideal for slashing quickly through the surface of your dough.
#BREAD LAME TECHNIQUE PROFESSIONAL#
Professional bakers use a knife called a lame* (not the exact one I use, but very similar), which is basically a very sharp razor blade attached to a handle. Your cuts can either be perpendicular to the surface of the dough if you want to create a pattern, or at an angle if you want to create an ear. There’s a ton of different techniques that you can use to score bread, and you can get really creative with your approach! In general, though, you want to use a very sharp knife to quickly cut the surface of your dough.

Skipping the scoring step can also prevent oven spring and make it more difficult for your bread dough to rise! How to score sourdough bread? If you don’t score your bread, you might find that it will split open randomly and bulge instead of staying in the correct shape. Scoring can also make your bread look more attractive! Once you get the hang of the basic scoring techniques, you can delve into more advanced techniques and get creative with your scoring! What happens if you don’t score bread? You’re giving your dough an opening to expand into, so it opens where you’ve sliced the bread instead of just splitting randomly. Scoring helps your bread rise in the right way. Hopefully this is helpful, but at the end of the day, the best way to learn is to get out there and practice! We’ll look at why people score bread in the first place? What tools should you use to score sourdough? How deep and at what angle should you score your dough? And much more! Here I’ll try to break down the ins and outs of scoring bread. Instagram and Pinterest are full of beautifully scored sourdough loaves with amazing designs, but sometimes it can feel hard to achieve that in your own kitchen! One of the trickiest things with bread baking can be figuring out how to score sourdough bread.
