The spots we score into the dough end up pushing up and outward, forcing the thin, taut wrapper to peel back and create the ear. When we score our bread dough before baking, we’re intentionally providing places for the dough to split open, which allows for a steady rise in the oven. The taut wrapper created during shaping stretches outward as the loaf expands in the oven, and if left unscored, will eventually rupture erratically. This way, there’s still plenty of “life” left in the dough to rise high and expand outward in the oven. When you bake your dough, the goal is to bake it about 10% to 20% shy of what would be considered fully fermented. And this wrapper does its job of keeping the dough’s structure all the way from shaping through proofing, until the loaf is eventually scored and baked. Much like the thin but strong rubber of a water balloon, the dough-wrapper works to contain all the fermentation going on inside your dough: bubbles expanding, contracting, coalescing - an intricate three-dimensional lattice of fermented dough. When you shape bread dough with sufficient tension, you create what I like to think of as a taut wrapper outside the dough. Bread dough scored with a curved blade to promote peeling back when baking How a sourdough ear is formed They show the baker’s skill in harnessing vigorous fermentation, imparting sufficient dough strength, shaping properly, proofing appropriately, and the last step in the process: scoring effectively.įirst, let’s look at how and why an ear is formed, then see some practical ways to promote its formation. If everything goes well, these cuts open up to form defined ridges that peel back and away from the main loaf, creating what many bakers call an “ear.”Īnd while you might see these sourdough ears as mostly an aesthetic addition to a loaf, they are also indicators of success in each step of the bread baking process. When all the pieces of the baking process are just right, a loaf of sourdough bread will have a beautifully controlled rise in the oven with a crust that opens dramatically along cuts made during scoring.
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