The before-shot: looks good!
Was very excited at the symmetry I achieved for this German bread.
The after-shot: amazing flavor, but the scoring looks pretty brutal. 🫣
Help! How to tame this particular bread / pattern?
50% APF, 20% Rye, 30% WWF
80% hydration
2% Salt
2% molasses
30% starter
Mix. Autolyse. Bulk ferment in fridge overnight. Remove from fridge and continue bulk until complete.
Shape loose and proof in baskets. Refrigerate.
Score direct from fridge and bake in a preheated 450F oven with steam.
Cooled on rack for 3h
by Kid-A-1978
6 Comments
You always need a ‘main’ score for where you want the bread to burst to expand. If you only do a bunch of superficial scores, it will find the weakest spot on its own and you’ll get an uneven rip like this. So you can do one deeper slit from one side to the other on one side to guide the oven spring, and do a bunch of these squares on the other side for decoration, for example. I saw a design yesterday in this subreddit which looked a bit like yours, I’ll see if I can find it to give an example of what I mean.
I will work with deeper scores .
How long did you bake at high temperature before dropping down?  Your scoring isn’t very deep, is it?
It looks like a werewolf attack, lol. Sorry, just joking. I hope it was delicious anyway; it’s still a nice loaf. 🙂
This was actually well scored! The problem is that your dough was (seemingly significantly) underfermented, both in bulk and in final proof from the process you describe. Visually, the latter is especially clear; there are no small air bubbles visible in the gap where your scores are opening before bake.
Sometimes those darn scores just don’t open. Had it happen to me too.