There are many ways of making bread look pro! fessional. Some finishes are applied before bread is baked, others when bread comes out of the oven.
Soft crust: Use for white tin loaves, cobs or rolls.
Using a flour dredger, dust bread with flour F before baking.
For brown bread and rolls dust with bran sifted from wholemeal flour, especially nice on cob loaves.
Rolls or baps can be brushed with milk and then dusted with flour.
Cover plain rolls with a cloth when hot from the oven.
A buttered paper or melted butter can be rubbed or brushed over white, currant or milk / bread loaves or enriched buns when hot from the oven.
Crisp crust: Only plain white loaves or rolls will achieve a really crisp crust.
These can be brushed over with salt water (1teaspoon salt dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water) before baking.
Use a starch glaze to paint over loaves or rolls before baking.
Use 1 egg white lightly mixed with 1 tablespoon water and a pinch of salt to paint white bread and rolls before baking.
Shiny crust: Use for milk breads and all enriched rolls and buns.
Lightly mix 1 egg with a pinch of salt and paint over tops before baking to make extra golden crust.
Seed crust: Any loaves or rolls brushed with salt water, starch glaze or egg can be sprinkled with poppy seeds or toasted sesame seeds for an attractive finish. Seeds need a wet surface to stick on bread or rolls.
Slashed crust: The tops of white bread loaves can be cut decoratively. Slashes extend the crust area and make loaves look pretty. Make sure you use a very sharp knife or razor blade and slash bread just before baking. Wholemeal or wheatmeal breads are never slashed because the dough is too fragile it would just collapse.