Tip - How to practice shaping and scoring w/o anxiety

Is shaping and scoring your precious doughs a major source of anxiety? I’m not a gambling man, but I am will to go out on a limb and wager it is. I know for me it gets so bad, my wife needs to leave the kitchen.

Over time I’ve tried many ways to practice shaping and scoring. I even made some home made play dough and shaped and scored it :-)

Completely on accident I stumbled upon something that has greatly helped me, and I hope it will benefit others as well.

I am presently experimenting washing the starch out of a kneaded flour and dough mixture in order to compare one flour against another. It is revealing and hope to post my fingings in the near future. In the process of kneading the dough for the experiment, I started to practice shaping baguettes and since they where shaped, I thought why not try my hand at scoring? It’s easy, fun, informative, and builds muscle memory needed to become proficient at those skills.

By-the-way; the dough in the video is 100g flour and 65g water only. Of course, the options are open. You could mix a full size dough, and/or play with the hydrations. Please let me know your ideas and improvements. I posted this video NOT as an authority, but a novice struggling to learn. Let’s collaborate and all learn together.

Oh! The video ;-)  https://youtu.be/FJp8fti1paw

Dan