When learning to bake bread, they will tell you to slice the top of the dough with a lame or knife for decoration (ears) or to create a weak spot. But they never quite explain what happens if you don’t slice the bread. I was making us sourdough and decided to skip a few steps. Such as dusting off excess flour and cutting the bread. I wanted to see what would happen.

Apparently, this is how turtles are born. In all seriousness, the structure of the dough itself wasn’t really affected as we cut into it. Rather, it was light and airy and still very moist. I did notice the pockets of air were larger and more pronounced where the bread decided to pop out on the side. This could be a coincidence, however.

This happens more frequently in lean doughs than enriched doughs. In general enriched doughs have a softer crust and are more forgiving by nature than lean dough. Doughs that are only flour, water, yeast and salt give you a nice crisp crust. So slice the top of that dough whenever you can remember so that you will have a more uniform appearance.

So what if you forget? Will it affect the quality of your bread? Overall, it’s just its appearance that changes, not the taste or texture. If you are making it for yourself, no one will ever have to know unless you post about it or share with others. If it’s for someone else, have a laugh with them. Life is too short to cry over misshapen loaves.

So now that you know why you should slice the top of dough, will you listen? Or will you be like me and see what shape it creates for you?