Dough Slashing Blade – Paring knife

Dough Slashing Blade – Paring Knife

A very sharp blade is essential to mark or ‘slash’ the top of a risen loaf of bread just before it goes in the oven. The cuts enable a controlled ‘burst’ of the dough which has two main purposes: it increases the surface area of crust where much of the flavour comes from, and it looks attractive.

Time was when putting your own distinctive mark on the dough that you took along to the communal oven to be baked was an important insurance against being palmed off with someone else’s effort by an unscrupulous village baker.

This blue-handled paring knife has an extremely sharp scalloped blade which slices through doughs of many types very well, especially those with additions of seeds, flakes or nuts. Its sturdy handle gives you plenty to grip on as you slash the dough with rapid strokes and little downward pressure (to avoid collapsing the dough).

The blade is 86mm long and the total knife length is 175mm.