Do You Always Need to Score Your Bread?

I began my bread-making journey more than 15 years ago with legendary baker Jim Lahey’s classic recipe for no-knead bread. I got hooked on making simple, crusty loaves that didn’t require any fancy flourishes. Though I faced a steeper learning curve, I eventually became enamored with sourdough, too. I loved seeing my loaves come out of the oven with elegant scoring patterns or one confident slash that opened up gloriously during baking.

But what if I told you that you don’t need to score your dough? Yes, an exquisitely intricate design on top of a loaf will impress your guests. But it won’t make the difference between an airy or collapsed crumb.  Here’s what you need to know about scoring bread — and when you can get away with skipping this so-called baking “rule.” 

What is bread scoring? 

Scoring bread dough involves making a cut on the top surface of your dough before you pop it in the oven, which helps control how it rises. The loaf will expand in the oven’s heat, a phenomenon called oven spring. If you don’t score the dough, the thinking goes, the loaf will both be smaller and expand on its side, causing a blowout where the bread has popped out unevenly. 

To score bread, you first form the dough into a round boule, an oblong bâtard, or any other shape you wish. Then, you take a sharp knife or a lame (a razor blade with a handle) to make a slash in your dough about one-quarter inch deep along the length of your loaf. 

You can also make a slightly angled cut to give your bread an attractive “ear,” or slash a detailed decorative pattern as can be seen all over Instagram.

My thinking changed last year when I did a two-week stint learning German bread baking at the Akademie Deutsches Bäckerhandwerk in Weinheim, Germany. To my surprise, we didn’t score many of our loaves — and those became my favorites. Our sourdough-laden rye loaves opened up with a deeply craggy and gorgeously random pattern on top, and wheat boules similarly burst with an enticingly organic explosion. This made me wonder: when do we need to score our loaves, and why? 

How to make bread without scoring it

Is it even possible to make a beautiful loaf without scoring, you ask? I offer this method, which works best with a round boule. Use a bit more flour than usual on your work surface and do not seal the seams tightly. 

Typically, bread recipes will call for you to proof your loaf seam-side up, then flip it over just before baking so the seam is down. Instead, I proof the dough seam side-down, and when it’s time to bake, I flip it so that the seam is facing upwards. I even like to let the dough sit for a few minutes with the seam facing up so that it can start to open up slightly. Then I load it into my cast-iron bread pan or combo cooker (a combined skillet and Dutch oven) and bake. The seam will open up at random places, giving you a wonderfully chaotic loaf.

When you absolutely must score your bread

A couple of caveats: First, this method of no-score crusty bread does not work well for loaves that proof overnight in the refrigerator. The long, cold rise causes the seams to seal up, and the chilled loaf will not emerge with an eye-catching pattern of random bursts. Second, you need a steamy environment to encourage your loaves to open up. This method works well with a bread pan, combo cooker, or large Dutch oven. If possible, I add an ice cube or two to the edge of my bread pan to create more steam when I load my loaf. You can also steam your oven to replicate a professional steam-injected oven.

When, after years of making sourdough, I returned to my old standby no-knead bread recipe from Jim Lahey, I realized his technique uses the same no-score method to achieve a beautiful, crusty, rustic loaf. I ended up where I started.