Slashing

Slashing is mainly for appearance, but it changes the texture and even the quality of the

bread slightly. When bread goes through a final quick rise in the oven (the oven spring), the rising

dough will extrude along the slashes forming ridges or lips along each slash. These thicken while

baking, giving even more crust. Bread bakers call these blooms. They make the finished loaf

professional-looking and give an outline of rugged, irregular, appetizing shape to each slice.

To slash the dough you need a very sharp, thin-bladed knife or a blade. The knife must be

sharp so it does not drag the dough but make single, well-defined surgical cuts. The cuts should be

at least an inches deep. Always slash after glazing and just before you put the dough in the oven.

On a standard French bread, tradition calls for 4 or 5 cuts, each one oriented nearly parallel

to the long axis of the bread and off-set by a couple of fingers’ widths from each other. For an oval-

shaped Italian or Vienna bread, make 2 parallel cuts along the loaf that divide the bread into thirds.

These are shallow slashes sloping outward, not inward. Round breads have a distinctive slash

pattern. The slashes are vertical and at right angles, giving you a checkerboard effect with either

small or large squares.

Braiding

For a truly elegant and exquisite presentation, deck out your bread with braiding.

Traditionally, braided breads are the richer egg breads and Jewish challah breads. You cannot easily

braid heavier breads, such as whole wheat, rye and sourdough or any bread from stiff dough like

French bread—the dough has well-developed gluten that resists all your braiding effort. Light

dough, particularly those that include lubricating oil, butter or egg are easy to manipulate. You can

braid 3, 4, 5 or 6 ropes. Braiding is just a little extra work and it is worth the effort for a festive look.

Here is the way to braid. First divide your dough with a knife or dough cutter into as many

pieces as the number of ropes you want to make. Let the gluten relax in the covered dough for 10

minutes for easier handling. With your hands, roll each piece into a long rope, just a bit longer than

the length of the bread you intend to make. Lay them out parallel next to each other on a lightly

flour-dusted surface and start braiding by first pinching one ends of the ropes together. Proceed with

a braiding pattern (see sidebar) until you finish the full lengths of the ropes. Pinch the finished ends

together and tuck slightly under the loaf.

TASTINGS Braiding patterns

Here are the patterns for braids, the ropes numbered from left to right:

3-rope

4-rope

5-rope

6-rope

over 2

1 over 4

3 over 1

4 over 3

2 over 4

1 over 2

2 over 3

5 over 2

1 over 3

2 over 3

5 over 2

2 over 6

1 over 3

5 over 1

6 over 4

2 over 6

An interesting braiding variation is the double three-rope braid. It sounds complicated, but it

is really not. To make the double 3-rope braid, also called top challah in Jewish bakeries, you first

divide the dough into two unequal parts, three-quarters and one-quarter. Make the usual 3-rope

braids from each, then stick the small braid on top of the slightly moistened large braid, building a

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