“As a baker, I was always ingredient- and flavor-driven, so I never spent a lot of time decorating. It’s not in my skill set as it is with others, which I’ll leave to them.”
I fully agree with David Lebovitz, American pastry chef and author based in France, who writes hilariously about his “Sweet Life” in Paris, while tempting his fans to try his appetizing recipes.
For others, wedding cakes are elaborate pieces of sugary art, aspiring to evoke the notion of eternal bliss in the eye of the awed beholder, but my own wedding torte only aimed at pleasing the taste buds. No cute figurines, hearts, garlands or flowers.
And I am definitely not an artist, like my daughter (chef) Valerie, whose festive cakes don’t only look gorgeous, but taste good as well!
Many of my bread baking buddies are able to embellish their breads with amazing arrays of slashes (that always open beautifully – not like some of my runtier cuts!) I am humbly satisfied when my breads are crusty and flavorful.
Of course I want them to look nice, since I sell them in my micro-bakery. But for more intricate patterns I have neither the passion nor the patience.
When I transitioned from kitchen knife to a scoring tool for more ambitious hobby bakers, I bought an inexpensive little plastic lame from “Rooster Brother”, my favorite (home-away-from-home) kitchen store. It worked quite well for a couple of years, but finally bit the dust, breaking clean off where the razor blade attaches to the handle.
I didn’t want to go back to the kitchen knife era, so I researched scoring blades at Amazon. One stainless steel lame (Baker of Seville) caught my eye. Its design,”shaped like a surgical instrument”, easily convinced me, a retired physician, of a superior slashing performance.
But, alas, I found this solid metal blade much heavier than I liked. And its sleek, rounded handle made my scoring motion somewhat awkward, and less comfortable, than with my old plastic lame.
Worse, the shallow scoring edge of the blade tended to snag the dough. If I tried to prevent this by tilting it a bit more, the result was a furrow, parallel to my slash, because the large, protruding screw hit the dough.
Therefore I welcomed the offer of Mure & Peyrot, a French manufacturer of industrial knives and bread baking tools, to try some of their lames.
I was looking for a solid scoring blade – but not too heavy. With an easy-to-hold handle, neither too thin, nor too thick in diameter (like most wooden ones). No weak spot or “predetermined breaking point”, but not too massive, either.
Not every lame fits every hand – my hands are long and slender, therefore it was convenient to try different ones in action, not just viewing them in a catalog or online.
From the four blades Mure & Peyrot sent me, two hit the sweet spot: one straight, and one curved. Both have thin, but solid, plastic handles, their exchangeable razor blades are safely attached, but no oversized screws screw snag the dough.
With the straight blade I make straight, deep cuts, like for my German Bauernbrötchen (rustic rolls made with old dough).
The other lame – with curved blade and curved handle – I use for slashing breads, like my rustic rye baguettes, at a 45 degree angle. Those breads are made with a highly hydrated dough, therefore scoring, without dragging, is not that easy.
Though I usually don’t promote any products on my blog, I am grateful to Mure & Peyrot for the opportunity to test a tool I really needed – and, in this case, even closely look in the mouth of a gift horse!
Brot & Bread 
Interesting. I had tried a Lame and was not happy with it. Then I found a box of 100 straight razors from Stanley Tools, #9 at a garage sale and they work a treat! They do not get dull like the scalpels I had been using…no comment 🙂
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Haha, Susan, that’s a lot of breads that you can score with 100 razors! I usually try to make to with what I have, too, but a handle for the blades is really helpful.
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Hi there,
I too have tried different lames with varying degrees of success. I just bought a beautiful one on Etsy that operates differently than others. The shop is Wire Monkey and I bought the Anna Gabur design, yes THAT Gabur who scores gorgeous patterns. I might not end up with paaterns like hers but everytime I use my lame, I am happily inspired. The lame is a round disc that holds the blade, no handle. It is easier for me to control. Of course also putting my risen dough in the freezer for 15 minutes also makes it infinitely easier to score with no drag.
Hope your future scoring adventures are rewarding.
Cheers
Anne
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Interesting, Anne, I’ve never seen those.
I score my Pain à l’Ancienne type baguettes, when the dough is cold from its overnight rise in the fridge. When it has warmed to room temperature it would be quite difficult to do it without snagging.
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Yes, without chilling dough it is nigh impossible to get a clean score but I own a zillion and a half bread baking books and you would be surprised to find out how many never share this tip.
Here is a link to the wheel lame. Very different concept. I do have various traditional lames with handles but prefer this. It even comes with one blade of the brand of Japanese razor blades I prefer.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/643616306/ufo-bread-journey-lame-anna-gabur-design
I am not affiliated in any way. Think I read about it first on a Fresh Loaf website post.
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Thanks, I agree (owning more-than—my-husband-thinks-necessary) bread baking books, too. I found that out by trial and error, not in a book.
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Very interesting lame……those patterns are to strive for 🙂
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auch nicht meine starke Seite- bislang behelfe ich mir mit Skalpellen; die schneiden allerdings oft nicht tief genug.
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Ich bewundere zwar die Brotkünstler, deren Werke ich bei Facebook sehe, aber meine Brote sollen hauptsächlich gut schmecken.
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That all looks very tasty.
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Danke, liebe Ab-nach-Hause-Leute! Tut mir leid, dass ich erst so spät antworte – wir sind umgezogen, und ich hab euren Kommentar erst heute gesehen.
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Your bread looks amazing!
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Thanks, Diane!
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I too have a curved and a straight lame. I tend to use the curved one only for baguettes and use the straight one for everything else. I like using a scissor to make some fun patterns sometimes as well. That could be worth a try to do something fancy that’s actually very easy to do.
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I have used scissors for epis and hedgehog buns 😊
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Hi Karin, I’ve enjoyed my first read at your site and plan to return regularly. Although not near the baker as you are, I too progressed from kitchen knife to plastic lame and now have a Mure & Peyrot Bordelaise I love and have used for some time. But, mine is yellow and green, I guess they change the color from time to time.
Your Bauernbrötchen looks amazing.
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Thanks, Ron, I’m glad you like my blog. Yes, the blade selection I received were all in blue only. Do try the Bauernbrötchen, and don’t hesitate to ask, if you have questions.
Next week the first snow is forecasted, and what can be more comforting than some nice warm Swedish Kanelbullar 🙂 I will let you know how they turn out!
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I’m guessing those are a landaise and the ardour? This is so helpful!
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Yes, you’re right. They work really well.
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