Pascale's Kitchen: Decorating sourdough bread

Published date07 January 2021
Date07 January 2021
AuthorPASCALE PEREZ-RUBIN
Publication titleJerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)
Learn more about Pascale's Kitchen here

Savory pastries and breads are extremely versatile and can be served at any point during a meal. More than any other type of dish, making pastries is a great way for you to express your creativity through unique flavors, textures and tastes. It's amazing to see the magic that occurs as dough bakes and turns golden brown.

Over the years, I've prepared countless cakes, cookies and bread for my family members and friends, including challot, rolls and bread made with a variety of flours and topped with a variety of seeds.

I love hearing the sounds of enjoyment and seeing the big smiles on the faces of my friends and loved ones when they taste the treats I've prepared for them.

My latest quest has been to learn how to make sourdough bread, and now I always keep a bit of sourdough starter in my pantry.

Over the last year, as we've all been self-isolating at home due to the coronavirus, I've found myself numerous times in my kitchen experimenting with new techniques and recipes as I prepared dinner for my family.

I'm always thinking to myself, What new creation can I concoct that I can then tell my readers about in my weekly column? For years, I've been telling myself that I'll experiment with new ideas when I have the time. And, voila! This year I found myself with all the time in the world to try out recipes with ingredients I'd never used before.

One of my most successful experiments has been decorating and scoring sourdough bread.

I began by making one incision in the side of a loaf of dough. I was so surprised by the results that I couldn't wait to try making more marks on more loaves of bread, including diagonals cuts. This was enough to set me off in search of bread scoring and decorative sourdough tutorials. Each loaf I baked came out tastier and with more sophisticated designs.

It soon became clear to me that I would need to invest in a few utensils if I wanted to make more intricate designs. I went online and ordered a set of different-sized rattan dough baskets and sharp bread knives.

I thought finding a suitable knife would be a simple matter, but it turns out there is a large variety, and it took me months of experimenting until I found one that made perfect cuts in my sourdough. In the end, I found that a simple razor blade, which costs next to nothing, made the most precise cuts. However, it's awfully hard to hold this type of blade, so I began searching for a tool that can hold a razor blade, which, luckily...

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