Hi everyone,
I've been learning a lot and improving my sourdough baking, but one thing that I never seem to get right is the scoring. When I take the lid off the dutch ovens, I rarely see the kind of big open crispy ear that I want to see. I can't figure out if this is a function of a suboptimal scoring technique, or if it's because my bread just doesn't have enough strength to have good oven spring.
For today's bake, the dough felt great, and I scored DEEP, trying to keep the blade at a 30-degree angle while making two passes across the loaf. But looking at the final product, it doesn't look like the score was very deep at all. So I keep thinking maybe my bread was overproofed.
Specifics:
838g KA AP flour
64g Gold Medal WW flour
705g water
150g 100% hydration levain
19g salt
2 hour autolyse
3 stretch and folds 15-minutes apart
3 more stretch and folds 30 minutes apart
about 3 hours of bulk
14 hours retard in 38-degree fridge
baked from fridge in preheated dutch ovens at 500, lids removed after 20 minutes, temp dropped to 450.
Any thoughts on my method, recipe, or scoring? Would love to refine this and get it right.
if so, think of the unscored loaf at the desk with the roll top closed. Score where the desk starts to open. If the dough was tightly rolled into a log shape, the desk roll top should open in the oven and the spring should give it that desired look. So you want to score even more at an angle sort of like cutting a lip or just the wood veneer to grab and open the desk top. See if this mental picture helps. :)
if you are not familiar with a roll top desk, well.... go look it up under images....then come back and try to picture yourself cutting the loaf in the previous paragraph.
If that doesn't work, score like you want to take just the skin off the loaf.
Thanks for the reply.
Are you suggesting that my scores should be shallow (just to slice through the top skin) and not deep? I have been burying the corner of the blade in the dough, so about 1/4" at least. Will a more shallow score result in a bigger lip?
And yes, familiar with a roll top desk. I should score at the base/bottom edge of the loaf so it pulls open across the top of the loaf?
If you really wan to learn scoring then carefully study what DMSnyder has already documented.
His tutorial is really masterful for a beginner, I know that it really changed my baking life once I tool in everything he had to say (and show), so now I barely put in an effort at ll and my loaves look beautiful!
Give him a try! Good luck!
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/31887/scoring-bread-updated-tutorial
PS Practice, practice, practice!