New Approaches
Well we just made our annual trek from the Chicago area down to Fort Myers where we will ride out the winter until May. I am into day 5 of a pineapple juice/whole wheat flour sourdough system and so far, so good. Today I made Floyd's rustic bread recipe again and it turned out very good. What I really want to talk about is a new tool, which I haven't seen mentioned by anyone else. That is, an electric knife.
Like most of the people participating on this excellent site, I have periodic problems slashing. I have had my best success with serrated knives, but for very wet doughs they are too grabby. Today I tried an electric knife and it was like cutting butter. The tops of the loaves were stationary as the blades sunk in.
I would be interested to hear if anyone else has tried this approach.
George
Comments
If I remember correctly, Rose Levy suggested trying the electric knife in The Bread Bible.
sPh
that is a really smart idea, and i love the bread bible
I usually use a double edge razor blade threaded onto a chopstick (one of the good ones, not the cheap throwaways) as a lame. It works better if sprayed with a little oil and dipped into flour before slashing. (The only problem is actually finding a store that sells double-edged blades anymore.)
I was making some bread at my son's house a few months ago and had to improvise. The serrated knife dragged badly on the 1st loaf. My daugher-in-law suggested that I try snipping the top of the loaf with her small, thin, craft scissors. It worked like a charm! You have complete control of depth and length of the cut as you snip along. This was a single vertical slash on sandwich loaves, but I think it would work well on baquettes, also.
Cheers,
Roy