October 8, 2022 - 4:37pm
Rough Ear
I have a double question about ears. Firstly, if you look at the pictures, why are my ears so rough? I never seem to get "classic" ears that are smooth and a bit like a wave. Is it scoring or something else? Secondly, how can I promote a double ear? Usually one side is large and the other side has little or no ear. Thank you. (In the pictures below I used a simple, sharp straight razor blade with a straight perpendicular cut about 5 mm deep the whole length of the bread. The dough had been chilled so the score was reasonably neat).
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This might help. I'd guess it was related to the angle of your cut, (perpendicular rather than angled) and more like 1/4" is normal.
https://challengerbreadware.com/bread-techniques/spotting-scoring-mistakes/
See: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71202/clean-effortless-bread-scoring
Thank you for these replies. It's a good point about the perpendicular cut, and returning to a more angled blade has indeed made the ears smoother. The butter tip is an interesting one too, which I will try. I think I have had smoother ears with rougher scores than these in the past, but everything helps!