Without scoring, the steam will find its own weak point and burst through the crust as it hardens, this creates unwanted bulges and blowouts in your bread. The goal of scoring is to guide the way dough rises in the oven in a way that helps it maintain its shape and allows it to take full advantage of oven spring.
If you don't score your loaf, it will still expand, but in a jagged pattern. Or it will find a less desirable weak point: This crack along the side of my loaf is common in breads baked in a bread pan BECAUSE the dough exploits a weak point along the side created by the shaping process.
Scoring your sourdough bread with a bread lame is essential to the baking process. Slashing the dough with a sharp razor after the final proof and before baking allows the dough to expand in the oven and let the gasses release.
For breads done in a loaf pan–the pan prevents the really unpredictable results; you can usually skip the slash. Another thing that can help–a longer resting time, like 90 minutes. In free-form breads, the slash lets oven spring expand and crack the loaf in a controlled way!
Most bread bakers score the dough with a blade (or lame) to create a weak point and direct the rapid expansion. Without this step, dough can open in unexpected areas and in a rather chaotic manner.
Poor Shaping Technique
The shaping technique you use is important to the success of your sourdough scoring because if the dough is too slack and has no surface tension, your lame or blade will catch. The trick here is to make sure that your shaping is tight enough to create the surface tension needed for good scoring.
Stretching and folding is what replaces kneading in many sourdough recipes. Stretching and folding helps activate the gluten in wheat flour, making it easier to work with and shape. If you skip stretching and folding, chances are you will end up with soggy dough that doesn't hold its shape before or during baking.
If the dough is not knocked back the fermentation rate slows down as time goes by. Of course, there are only so many times that you can knock it back and expect it to rise again. But in most cases, we don't have to worry about it as there is no good reason to degas the dough multiple times during bulk fermentation.
Because the yeast has already exhausted some of the dough's food supply, it won't be as energetic and will create much smaller air bubbles. Those smaller bubbles will allow for a texture more suited to sandwich bread, however, and will result in hardier bread.
Beyond a chef's knife, as far as basics go, most chefs recommend a small paring knife, great for shaving, peeling, and cutting anything small, and a serrated knife, like a bread knife. This is your go-to for cutting through anything with a hard edge and a softer interior.
Too little folding can result in weak dough. But too much folding can produce excessive tension and compressive forces. An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.
You can over fold sourdough. Whatever folding technique you choose should gently build up the gluten network. What is this? Once the gluten network has formed, over handling the dough can cause this network to break down.
If: The dough pops back out quickly – This means its under-proofed. The dough stays where it is – This means its over-proofed. The dough pops back out slowly and leaves a slight indentation – Perfect, your dough is ready!
If you don't have a lame, just check your kitchen drawers or knife block for these alternatives. All will work as long as the blade is very sharp. Kitchen scissors: Simply snipping the dough surface at an angle with kitchen scissors ($20, Bed Bath & Beyond) will create deep enough cuts.
Scoring bread is easiest with a sharp implement. You can use a sharp paring knife or kitchen scissors to snip lines into the top of the unbaked bread boule. Or you can use a tool that professional bakers use to score, called a bread lame. It's essentially a razor blade affixed to a handle for easy maneuvering.
If you have over fermented your dough, or it's over proofed in the fridge, it's best not to score it before placing it in the oven. When you score over proofed dough, it will deflate like a balloon. What is this? Not scoring it will allow the dough to retain the gas bubbles that have formed.
YES! You most definitely can bulk ferment sourdough too long. If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, it will become "over fermented". Over fermented dough will lose its structure and become a soupy, sloppy mess that you will not be able to shape.
After the first rise, it's important to punch down the dough to prevent it from over-proofing. Overproofed bread is dense and unable to retain the gas bubbles necessary for the structure of the bread loaf. Let the dough rise to double its original size before punching it down.
A 24-hour rise time will produce much more sour bread than a 4-hour rise time. If using a shorter rise period, 4-12 hours, a second rise is optional. If desired, punch dough down, reshape, and proof a second time.
To fix dough that won't rise, try placing the dough on the lowest rack in your oven along with a baking pan filled with boiling water. Close the oven door and let the dough rise. Increasing the temperature and moisture can help activate the yeast in the dough so it rises. You can also try adding more yeast.
Look: Your dough should be about double the size it was when it started. If it's in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, then use a marker to trace an outline of the dough on the plastic — the dough is done rising/proofing when it stretches beyond that mark by about double.
Knead it two to three times before forming your desired shape or placing it into a bread pan.
If your sourdough is not rising during bulk fermentation at all, you might need to strengthen your sourdough starter. If you notice the dough is under proofed during preshaping or shaping, simply give it a longer bench rest.
Dough appearance should no longer be rough after sourdough bulk fermentation. It should be smooth looking and even a bit shiny. If you lift up a section, it should move together. You should see the formation of lines of gluten strands and/or webs of gluten that have formed.
When the bulk fermentation goes too long — often when the dough more than doubles or triples in volume — the dough can over ferment. You know the dough has over fermented if, when you turn it out to shape it, it is very slack — if it's like a wet puddle — and very sticky and lacking any strength and elasticity.