How to Score Sourdough Bread: 4 Methods for Scoring Bread

Scoring with a lame (pronounced “lahm”), sharp blade, or kitchen scissors prevents your sourdough bread recipe from cracking, as it allows gases to escape while the loaf bakes. You can also score bread to create a decorative design.

Learn how to score bread so your sourdough properly bakes into a beautiful loaf. Follow these steps:

1. 1. Gather your tools. A bread lame or razor blade will work best for scoring, but you can also use a sharp knife or kitchen scissors.
2. 2. Place your bread on a flat surface. In bread-making, scoring comes last in the process. You score the bread after you knead and after proofing, right before you put your loaf into the oven. Place your sourdough on a flat surface, such as a cutting board, so it is secure.
3. 3. Sprinkle some flour on top. Place a quarter cup of flour into a sieve and dust it over your dough so it is lightly sprinkled with a fine layer of flour. When scoring, this allows the unsprinkled dough beneath to open up and stand out, giving a greater color and texture contrast to your score.
4. 4. Make a crescent-shaped score for an oval loaf. Different bread shapes may invite different scoring techniques. If your bread is a bâtard (more oval-shaped), the iconic crescent-shaped sourdough ear makes for an attractive loaf. Position the dough on your table or cutting board in a vertical orientation, so the longer side of the bread is away from you. Hold your lame or blade at a forty-five-degree angle. Then, take your blade and gently puncture a point near the top of your loaf at the center point, and swiftly curve your blade downward to make a wide C or crescent-moon shape in your dough. The score should go about an inch deep and end on the same line where your initial puncture began.
5. 5. Make a square score for circular loaves. You can also score by creating a square in your dough; this technique works nicely with a circular loaf or boule. Poke four small holes at the top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right on the surface of the dough. Together, these four indentations should connect to form a square. Then, hold your blade and swiftly score four straight lines to connect the dots, going in at least a half-inch deep. After baking, your square will pop out to give your boule a jaunty hat.
6. 6. Get creative with a wheat stalk score. After creating your primary score, you can add flair to your loaf with an aesthetic flourish. Add a wheat stalk to your bâtard by scoring your sourdough ear closer to the edge of your loaf to make more room for a central design. It can help if you take some string and place it on your loaf to act as the stem; then, to the left and right of that stalk, flick upward lines every inch or so to resemble leaves, scoring only a quarter of an inch deep. Remove the string and bake.
7. 7. Carve a snowflake shape. For a more intricate, wintry design, create one large or several little snowflakes. The smaller ones can be created by making multiple three-lined crisscrosses that are each an inch long. You can make a larger snowflake by drawing one long line down the middle of your dough with a crisscrossing X from the left and right. Then, off of each of those three lines, flick your blade outward to create smaller lines for a more detailed flake.

With sourdough, you can score your bread dough once or twice—once for a deeper primary cut, and again with a shallower and decorative secondary cut. Follow these instructions:

• Primary score: The first time you score, you’ll want to cut at least a half-inch in, but you can go as deep as an inch. This can be a single score with a curve on the bread, one of the more popular scoring patterns that resemble a crescent moon on the top of the bread. You can also make two straight lines that criss-cross to create ninety-degree angles. Some professional bakers use this technique to distinguish sourdough from rye breads, French baguettes, and other loaves.
• Secondary score: Bakers may choose to make a secondary score. This second cut is more aesthetic than practical, and bakers can use it to help brand or personalize the sourdough. This smaller, shallow cut could evoke a leaf, wheat stalks, or a star—however you customize it, this score should not exceed a half-inch deep.

We’ve got you covered. All you knead (see what we did there?) is The MasterClass Annual Membership, some water, flour, salt, and yeast, and our exclusive lessons from Apollonia Poilâne—Paris’s premier bread maker and one of the earliest architects of the artisanal bread movement. Roll up your sleeves and get baking.