December 9, 2017 - 9:10pm
Why Doesn't my Bread Open at the Score?
Hi guys, first post! Not sure if this is the correct forum, sorry if it's not!
You can see the healed score and ends busted open. I use a rough translation of the tartine method and this issue has happened each of the last 4-5 loaves. I can't figure it out. I've been baking pretty successfully for about 4 years, but took a break for a few months. Now this happens every time. What should I do different?
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It looks to me like there is insufficient steam and/or your score isn't deep enough. The blowouts on the sides shows that there is plenty of oven spring so I don't think it has much to do with fermentation or proofing. The score is sealing closed before the oven spring takes place.
How are you capturing or creating moisture or steam when you bake?
i had similar problem and I solved it by scoring deeper. I think it has to do with the dryer air we have in the winter heating season.
For capturing steam I use the La Cloche bread dome, it's the only one I've ever used so I think it's not a problem. Sometimes it takes me a while to do the transfer from the proofing basket, I don't know if that changes much.
But both comments mentioned not scoring deep enough, so maybe that's it. I'll try that next loaf and see how it goes.
And yes, it is super dry this winter in California, and cold in my kitchen. Hard enough to get a good proof!
IMHO is our very own dmsnyder. I had no luck with slashing after a year of searching all over the Internet. Failure after failure let me believe that it must be an inherent skill that I just do not have so I gave up. Fortunately I happen to have stumbled onto dmsnyder's tutorial and video and literally overnight (seriously) I was slashing like a pro. I cannot recommend dmsnyder highly enough! Give his tutorial a try and let us know how well you make out. Good Luck!.
dmsnyder: scoring-bread-updated-tutorial (on The Fresh Loaf)
Thanks for the link. After watching the videos and trying a few different things I got a pretty good result. I think it had more to do with using a not very sharp knife. I switched to a straight razor and tried to emulate the quick, smooth motion and it's turned out a lot better.
The first time I tried scoring deeper with the knife I was using before, it healed up just the same. I can visually see the difference in the score with the sharper blade and it opens pretty consistently when I bake. Thanks for the tips!