Baguette scoring practice | The Fresh Loaf

Day 1

Day 2

I'm using Hamelman's sourdough baguette formula. For the scoring I use a blade on a stick. It's hard to get results without regular practice, I'm trying to do it at least once a week.

For scoring tips and tutorials I read Hamelman's Bread, Michel Suas' Advanced techniques and dmsnyder's really helpful tutorial (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10121/bread-scoring-tutorial-updated-122009).

milhomandioca's Blog
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I'm happy you found the tutorial helpful!

David

Thanks for your kind comment, David.

I always read your blog posts.

Great idea to practice this scoring as it is very much a knack that will improve over time. The main comment I would make looking at your photos is that you are probably trying to put too many scores into each baguette. It's not easy to see just how long those baguettes are from the photos but I suspect that like me, you are limited by overn size and thus are creating short baguettes. As such aim to do far less slashes. In the first pictures you have tried to put 4 slashes into what is more like a short batard rather than baguette, and in the second pictures you've tried to put 5 or 6 slashes in there. In my opinion it's too many. Go for no more than 3 slashes with these short baguettes and make them longer. You will get better results I'm sure. Keep the slashes almost vertical with just a little angle and obviously overlap the slashes by 1/3rd. Also practice the shaping too, I think you can achieve a tighter baguette and that will help the scoring. Also, it does help to put the baguettes in the fridge for 5-10mins just before scoring. ATB EP

Thanks for your comment and tips.

My baguettes are really short, it's a good idea to make less slashes.