The Art of Sourdough Scoring: Your All-In-One Guide to Perfect Loaves with Gorgeous Designs

By Brittany Wood

Make Every Loaf a Work of Art

Get ready to bake bread that looks as phenomenal as it tastes. From graphic artist and baker Brittany Wood comes a gorgeous and comprehensive guide to all things sourdough scoring. With lush full-page photography, step-by-step tutorials and expert tips, Brittany covers every skill you’ll need to successfully create one-of-a-kind patterns on your loaves. Learn how the depth and timing of your cuts can affect the way your lines bake and burst, and never be disappointed by deflated dough again as Brittany’s calm, encouraging voice guides you through a huge variety of dazzling designs.

As an added bonus, Brittany includes her tried-and-true master method for high-hydration sourdough. She then takes it a delicious step further with 10 additional recipes for incredible flavors, like Sharp Cheddar–Rosemary Sourdough and Chocolate-Cinnamon Sourdough, as well as gorgeously shaped goods like Orange Brioche Festive Star Bread. With this inspiring resource, you’ll bake your creativity and artistry into every loaf you make and bring your sourdough scoring dreams to life with bread that never looked more beautiful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Apr 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781645675051

Book preview

THE ART OF

SOURDOUGH

SCORING

PUBLISHING

YOUR ALL-IN-ONE GUIDE TO PERFECT LOAVES WITH GORGEOUS DESIGNS

BRITTANY WOOD

PHOTOGRAPHED & DESIGNED

BY BRITTANY WOOD

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: http://us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

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Table of Contents

Copyright Page

About the Author

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TO LANDON

FOR ALWAYS SUPPORTING MY PASSIONS

BATARD SCORING DESIGN INDEX

EACH NUMBER COORDINATES WITH THE DESIGN’S PAGE NUMBER

BOULE SCORING DESIGN INDEX

EACH NUMBER COORDINATES WITH THE DESIGN’S PAGE NUMBER

INTRODUCTION

As an artist, creating is essential for me. Having an artistic outlet is my therapy, and throughout my life I’ve always found different avenues and ways to create. Whether I’m creating charcoal portraits, painting, photographing or baking; in every stage of my life, I find a way to make and create art no matter what medium I’m using.

Being a busy mother of 3, I lost the time to create art, so I found my new creative outlet through the process of making sourdough and scoring intricate designs on my bread. It was something I could do with my children in the kitchen, it allowed me to get my creative energy out and it resulted in nourishing, fresh bread for my family to eat afterwards. I found what worked for my lifestyle and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I started my sourdough journey in 2019, in the depths of winter in Rhode Island. After 2 months of trial and error, I finally felt like I had successfully baked sourdough, but the artist in me still wasn’t satisfied, and I wanted more from the process. I had seen scored designs on sourdough before, but as I searched for tutorials and tips I couldn’t find anything to help me get started.

I searched for hours online, went to all the local libraries and bookstores, and yet still could not find any books or tutorials remotely mentioning scoring sourdough. It was so frustrating to me to not have any direction or help on how to hold a bread lame or what tools to use to achieve specific results; so that’s when I decided I would have to figure it out on my own.

I started from knowing nothing about sourdough and scoring bread, to knowing everything I needed to result in beautiful yet tasty sourdough, and I taught myself through it all. I’ve been through the errors that a beginner home baker goes through and remember all the questions I had that no one had answers to.

In this book I share everything I’ve learned along the way; from the very basics to the more essential intricate steps. You can use these scoring tips and designs with your own sourdough recipe; just be aware that your results may differ from the example photos, but you’ll still have a beautiful loaf. For the best results with these scoring designs, I recommend following my sourdough recipe and technique, which you can find in great detail on here. My recipe yields a high fluffy crumb, keeping its height and shape, all while withstanding multiple cuts into the surface, resulting in a rewarding piece of art. I hope that through your sourdough scoring journey you can find a new creative outlet and share beautiful, intricate designs with your family and friends.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

SCISSORS

Scissors are used at the very end of scoring. They are great to separate the skin of the dough from the main flesh of the dough itself. When corners or flaps are incorporated in the design, snip the edges right before baking allowing them to open up and bloom in the oven. When you do cut with scissors, try to make them as parallel to the dough as possible—think about cutting the orange peel off rather than cutting into the flesh of the orange.

RAZOR TIP

If you are using a tool to hold the razor blade as shown on the right, cut off the middle of the razor tip so that it doesn’t interfere when scoring the design. By doing this you can achieve better curved designs. The blade is so thin that any type of scissors will cut through it.

X-ACTO KNIFE

I prefer to use the other side of the blade, the side that is not sharp, to sketch out designs on the dough without actually cutting into the dough. It’s like using a pencil to sketch out the base of a drawing, but instead you get a precise line with the tip of the X-Acto knife. Use it specifically for curved lines as those are hard to achieve on sourdough. You can also use a toothpick, but I find the long handle of the X-Acto knife makes it easier.

BREAD LAME

This is used to create the main score across the bread and to achieve the infamous ear, specifically on batard or oval-shaped loaves. The arch on the blade cuts the dough while lifting it up, allowing it to rise and flap up while it bakes, creating the ear that every baker aims for.

RAZOR

Use a razor for shallow or detailed cuts. The blade itself is flexible and can easily curve as you are scoring into the dough. By using a thin razor blade, you can achieve intricate, thin cuts that open up when baked. It also gives you the control to cut into the dough more shallowly. Depths of line variability are achieved with a razor by barely scratching the surface or cutting deep for depth in a design. You can either hold the razor blade with your hands or find a fancy wood holder online. The UFO lame shown is from Wire Monkey.

SCORING SOURDOUGH

WHY SCORE BREAD?

When your cold dough meets the heat from the oven, the air in the dough will start to expand, causing the bread to rise. The steam in your dough needs to escape, and scoring your dough allows you to control where it will do so. If you don’t score your dough, the steam in the bread will release and crack in unexpected places in your loaf, making for a less aesthetically pleasing bake.

Scoring designs on your bread doesn’t have to be a guessing game of Will my design bake well or break open while baking? anymore. There’s more thought that goes into it, with aspects involving: where you want the steam to release in order to enhance your design, which tool you use for specific scoring results, how deep the blade needs to go into the dough, and what certain angles of the blade can achieve during baking.

With the why you need to score bread in mind now, think of how you want to control and manipulate where the steam releases from the bread and how you can use it to your advantage with a design in mind. If you want a part of the design opened bigger on your bread, then you’ll cut deeper, allowing more steam to release from that area. If you want to create intricate details on your design and do not want it to break open while baking, then barely scratch the surface of the dough using the razor blade. Follow these lines with deeper cuts along the base so that the steam will release there rather than through your detailed lines.

Scoring sourdough doesn’t have to be a guessing game of Will this deflate my dough? or How will this design look once it’s baked? I’ve done all the hard work for you. In the following pages, I’ll walk you through every step of the scoring process and let you in on my tips and tricks. You’ll also find helpful guidance throughout the design scoring tutorials themselves, ensuring you’ll have everything you need to know to achieve your best scored sourdough yet. With scoring sourdough, I like to have my handy toolbox next to me filled with a flour sifter, a bread lame, razor blades, X-Acto knife, scissors and wax floss or string. An artist doesn’t use one paintbrush to create a painting, so why should you use just one tool for scoring art on your bread? Refer to here for each tool and the best use for them.

DID YOU KNOW?

In many cultures, one of the world’s oldest baking traditions was using a public oven for the community. Public ovens have been in use since the 12th century. Many rural homes rarely had their own ovens, so the community oven was the place to do all the baking. Households would make their weekly bread dough at home, score the dough with a specific family marking or brand to their household and bring it down to the community oven. What would your family scoring brand be?

SCORING STEP BY STEP

1

PREHEATING THE OVEN & THE DUTCH OVEN

Make sure before you take the dough out to score that the oven is preheated to 500°F (260°C) and that the Dutch oven is also in the oven preheating with the lid on. You’ll get the best oven spring on the bread by putting the cold dough into the hot Dutch oven, creating the desired steam for baking bread. The Dutch oven recreates the same effect professional steam ovens create for baking; the steam gives the sourdough the desired crunchy crust, so don’t skip this important step!

2

FLOURING THE SURFACE OF THE DOUGH

First, prepare a sheet of parchment paper on a flat surface with enough length for handles on each side. See the photos on the next page for an example. By doing this, it’s easier to transfer the scored dough into the Dutch oven without ruining the design or burning your hands.

HOW TO PREPARE THE PARCHMENT PAPER FOR SCORING AND BAKING YOUR BREAD

1. FOLD A PIECE OF PARCHMENT PAPER INTO FOURTHS. EITHER DRAW A GUIDELINE FOR YOU TO CUT ALONG OR VISUALIZE WHERE YOU‘LL CUT AS SHOWN ABOVE.

2. CUT ALONG THE GUIDELINE. THE PARCHMENT PAPER SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS.

3. UNFOLD THE CUT PARCHMENT PAPER AND NOW YOU HAVE SOMETHING ON WHICH TO PLACE YOUR DOUGH WITH HANDLES ON EACH SIDE.

Remove the cold-proofed dough from the refrigerator and flip the dough over onto the piece of parchment paper—the rounded side of the dough should be