Big sourdough spring

[CanuckJim]

Re: Big sourdough spring

Chuckster,

There a many, many types of docking blades/knives. Some are serrated and stiff, with sharp points or round points. These are used mostly for stiffer doughs, like rye. The curved blade, called a lame in French, is used for the French grigne cut and many others. Bread competitions in France take the accuracy, effectiveness and decorative nature of the cuts into account when judging. It is they who come up with a lot of these names. The Wood-Fired Bread Cookbook has a pic of several types of blades.

Don't buy the plastic, fixed-blade lame. It's a bugger to sharpen, expensive, and you can only use one side of the blade unless you're ambidextrous. The retail operation of The San Francisco Baking Institute sells a Baker's Blade Holder for $6 USD: Baking Supplies|Baking Baskets and Supplies|Basket|Wicker Baskets |Plastic Baskets|Linen Liners|Proofing Boards|Wood Peel, or you could make one yourself. The holder uses standard double edged razor blades, which they also sell in bulk.

Having said all that, effective docking takes lots and lots of practice. You won't get it in one go; sort of like making pizza.

Jim

[pjones]

Re: Big sourdough spring

I bought a "Lame" from an expensive cooking store and I have never been able to make it work on highly hydrated dough. I always start with the "Lame" but switch to the serrated knife to finish the job. I have to make about 3 or 4 cuts on each slash to get it deep enough. Is that normal? Or am I not doing this correctly? I just looked at a picture in the "Bread Baker's Apprentice? and they show super deep slashes in pictures, I may need to cut deeper.

I can?t remember, are there pictures of docking in Jim?s videos?

Paul

[nissanneill]

Re: Big sourdough spring

So how deep should you actually cut into the risen dough?
I believed that you had only to 'score' the top of the dough and that it would 'open' when it rose and baked! (The term 'score' in the printing industry means to cut only partway through a sheet of paper the allow it to fold accurately along the straight score line).
Next thing, people will be using sophisticated software to programme a laser to cut detailed illustrations into the pre-baked dough!

Neill

[CanuckJim]

Re: Big sourdough spring

PJ, Neill,

No, it's not normal. You should only have to cut once, in a sweeping motion for the grigne. Highly hydrated doughs are another matter. I use kitchen shears held at a very shallow angle to snip Ancienne baguette; otherwise blade slashes just close up.

I normally slash sourdough boule about half an inch deep.

It would take awhile to assemble, but I'd be willing to make a video demo of the various techniques if members would be interested. Still, it's a difficult thing to learn unless you actually see it done in person.

Overall, don't be tentative with whatever method you are using. Make sure the tool is sharp and go to it.

Jim

[chuckster]

Re: Big sourdough spring

I know I would benefit from seeing the video. The folks on here are my only source to learn those "hands-on" things.

Most of my attempts to form the gringe turn out a lot like a wide scar (sorry for the bad analogy), but they don't have much of a lip.

Chuck

[Tim F]

Re: Big sourdough spring

PJ, Neill,

Overall, don't be tentative with whatever method you are using. Make sure the tool is sharp and go to it.

Jim

This is the best improvement I've made - although I still have lots to learn! Now I hold the blade firmly and give a quick and decisive slash . Before I was just kind of dragging the blade over the loaf and it wasn't that effective.

[james]

Re: Big sourdough spring

It did it again. I docked my Miche and it made a split in the middle along one of the lines. I'm still trying to get all the slashes to pop out.

Still, this was an unusual case -- I ended up being too busy to bake my loaf yesterday, so I put it in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight. It was definitely falling in by the time I baked it this morning. I guess everything new is a learning experience.