The Secret to Perfectly Sliced Homemade Bread
I have to apologize to you in advance: I’m sorry I haven’t shared this tip for perfectly sliced homemade bread before now. It is so easy and results in such nice cuts that I should have written this tip years ago. Better late than never, though, so I’m mending my non-sharing ways and fully disclosing my secret today.
For many years, this is how I sliced my homemade bread – with a serrated bread knife. I know what you’re thinking looking at this photo – what’s the big deal? Looks good to me! And it is fine – it’s just not theĀ best. The crumb is rough, an edge is torn, and I struggled to get evenly sliced pieces.
Then I helped in the kitchen at my kid’s summer camp one year and they used this to cut all their bread:
Black & Decker Electric Knife on Amazon
And not just any bread, but warm, crusty bread – the kind that usually collapses into a smooshed mess if you try to cut it warm. Can I just say revelation? Our bread world was transformed. Well, at least the cutting part.
I pulled out my cheap, basic electric knifeĀ that I used once or twice a year (and that I actually bought originally to cut foam with, ha!) and tried it. Yes, it made cutting crusty artisan bread a breeze – warm or cool – and created slices of sandwich bread like this:
Smooth crumb and perfect edges, and an electric knife goes a long way to helping me cut even slices (though a bread slicing guide should probably be on my wish-list). Just in case you think I’m overstating my case for perfection, here are the slices side by side:
Ahh, now you see it, don’t you? Electric knife + homemade bread = perfect slices.
Now go pull out your electric knife (or put it on your wish list – the cheapest one is fine), make some easy bread and give it a try. I don’t think you’ll go back to a plain serrated knife, except when you’re too lazy to plug in the electric knife. Not that I ever am lazy like that.
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Very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing the photos. I was considering buying an electric knife but the extra cost plus scare factor kinda put me off. But now that I know how much of an improvement it is, I’ll consider it once again!
The knife doesn’t scare me one bit, it’s the bread baking that does. My mom has an electric knife from what seems like the year they started making them. It’s a beautiful yellow knife, I’ll see if I can borrow hers and try it out. What’s really dumb of me is I have a brand spanking new bread maker I received for free and I’m still afraid of baking bread. No better time than the present than to learn.
What? I can’t believe it, Sakura! You can do it, it’s easy – really. š