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How to get an “ear” on artisan style bread
An ear on bread is when the score or cut is wide open and one side is curled back and deeply toasted on the edge. Ears are neat and actually pretty easy to achieve if you’re using a stronger flour. That said, an ear is just one of many goals you might strive for in your bread baking, and some breads aren’t meant to have an ear at all e.g. most rye and sandwich breads, heavily seeded breads, porridge breads, high hydration breads like ciabatta and pan de cristal and, of course, flat breads. Moreover, even for a strong artisan-style dough, you might prefer a different score pattern, like this spread out grid.
A single cut for an ear is just one of many dough scoring options
Tips for getting an ear
Before diving in, it’s important to note that your dough doesn’t have to meet all of these criteria for the ear to be big. For example, a wetter dough or an overfermented dough can have an ear if most of the other criteria are met. Even a dough made with a very low-gluten flour can have an ear if it is handled just so, as with this Einkorn Sourdough Hearth Bread where the final proof is skipped altogether to optimize shape retention and score bloom.
The first four criteria for an ear are the most important and an in-depth explanation of the entire list follows.
A strong dough is more likely to have a enough oven spring to burst along the score line and open up into an ear. Dough strength is determined by the flour you use, the gluten development that you do on the dough, and how well you shape the dough, creating a “skin” with surface tension. You can learn more about these three variables in the articles below:
Photo credit: @homebreadbaker
This impressive ear in a 100% whole grain sourdough bread was made by @homebreadbaker using a gluten development process that combines time, the use of a stand mixer, some coil folding, and cool temperatures.
Another key to getting an ear is not overfermenting the dough. Air bubbles are produced in the dough during the fermentation process and the sweet spot of putting the dough in the oven is before the dough runs out of “food” for the microbes to consume. If the dough is allowed to ferment too much and consume most of the food, it will have no final burst of air production when it is heating up in the oven. This can be lovely from a flavor perspective, and it may even still produce an open crumb, but the height of the bread and the burst of the score is usually limited. And if fermentation is taken too far, the structure can collapse before the dough is baked, often when it is scored. Extending the final proof too far is also problematic for the reasons listed above and because the surface tension on the shaped dough gets weaker as more dough expansion occurs.
Below are photos of the same dough formula and process but with different degrees of bulk fermentation and final proofing. The recipe for these sprouted hard red spring wheat sourdough breads is outlined at the end of this article.
About 85% dough expansion during the bulk fermentation
Refrigerated final proof, modest expansion
Nice ear and crumb
Expanded by 115% during the bulk fermentation
Refrigerated final proof, more expansion and visible flattening
Less peeled back ear, still lovely wild crumb with some internal tearing
Score the dough with your blade at a 30-45° angle and about 1/2 inch deep to optimize the potential for an ear.
Image: hannazasimova, freepik
Baking the dough at high heat and having steam at the beginning of the bake optimize the ear. Ideally, the dough is expanding with vigor as the crust begins setting, which results in rupturing of the crust as it opens. Using a preheated enclosed baking vessel is the easiest way to achieve this heat and steam timing. Otherwise you need a steam injection oven or to create a setup that includes a baking stone or steel, along with a hot pan or hot lava rocks in a pan that you pour water onto at the beginning of the baking.
If your baking process fails to include steam, the crust will set too early and the dough may break along the score and elsewhere too. If your baking process includes too much steam or steam for too long, the crust will take longer to set and the score opening will be shiny and flat, rather than curled back and looking like dry threads.
A couple of additional tips for a big ear include lowering the hydration of the dough and chilling the dough before you score and bake it. Dryer dough is easier to shape with significant surface tension, though this choice can be a trade-off with crumb openness. Chilling dough makes it stiffer and less likely to begin spreading the moment it leaves the proofing basket.
Sharp ears and a tight crumb on two low hydration doughs
You might enjoy panzanella with the sprouted wheat sourdough bread described in the recipe below.
An open-crumb crusty bread works great in panzanella, a bread-and-tomato salad
Sprouted Hard Red Spring Wheat Sourdough
This sprouted wheat sourdough bread is tasty and has a bubbly, open interior due to its moderate hydration, active gluten development, vigorous fermentation, and long cold final proof. It's perfect for panzanella, an Italian bread salad with tomatoes, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.
Ingredients
Instructions
How to get an “ear” on artisan style bread