Tartine Country Bread, My Way

I always like to tell people new to bread baking to choose something simple. Something that won't fail. There is nothing more fantastic than pulling that first perfect loaf of bread out of the oven. It's the one thing, the only thing that will keep you baking. My father used to say: 'You need some successes so you have a reason to keep moving forward'. Daddy was always right.

So, with this wisdom ringing in my ears, I decided to bake up two loaves, one done my old-school way with a higher levain percentage, for old time's sake, yeah, and because I think it works really well with new starters so it's easy for people new to baking. I call it my Tartine Country Bread with training wheels...

Tartine Country Bread with 250g levain (a.k.a. the 'Training Wheels' loaf)

People have difficulty with the basic Tartine bread because it's really high in hydration and uses a very small amount of starter. I am all about levain-driven bread, but the starter amount must be ample to make our loaves rise properly, so even my bread below using a smaller starter/levain amount is higher than Tartine's, and I think this is as low as I am willing to go. After, all, our starter is our bread, so it deserves a presence. As well, remember that large bakeries work with a different set of variables, so we must be vigilant in our efforts to adapt our breads to our environment. Tartine has their own method for producing high-hydration breads, so you may and should adjust your hydration to fit your environment. Even using this blog where loaves are tested several times before they make it to the page, one must be able to adapt one's hydration levels and one's fermentation times because my environment is different than yours. You can adapt hydration levels in any bread by first using a little less than what a formula calls for. Once you mix up the dough, you can add more if it feels like it needs it. You can also let it autolyse and add more water during the salt-addition stage. This double hydration method allows you to achieve proper hydration unfailingly. I constantly adapt my formulae to suit the weather or the type/age of my flour. Hone your skills of adaptation and you can make any bread you like, in any weather, at any time.

(FYI, bakeries use large mixers to make their breads, and this develops gluten much more successfully with high-hydration doughs than using the hand method. We will be experimenting with this in some near future posts, but you might try using a mixer to develop the gluten in your high-hydration doughs to see if you can create a Tartine country loaf that is closer in taste and texture to Chad's).

Given all that, next I baked one for when newbies have gathered more confidence, one with a smaller levain. And lo! She ended up looking like the most gorgeous moon.

Tartine Country Bread with 150g levain (a.k.a. 'La Bella Luna') 

Training Wheels grew fabulous ears, and La Bella Luna left my friends moonstruck by her beauty. Both were fabulous in flavor with a light crumb texture, and each yielded an uber shattery crust. Hooray!

Oh how we struggled at the start but today we can do this one with our eyes closed. Damn we're good.

P.S., you don't have to be a newbie to make these two loaves. They are equally as fabulous for bakers with lots of loaves under their belts.

Have a look.

Training Wheels Loaf

This formula makes one loaf

MAKE YOUR LEVAIN

You will need:

50g 100% hydration dark rye starter (mine is made with BRM home-milled dark rye flour)

50g Community Grains hard red winter wheat flour

50g KA all-purpose flour

100g room temperature water

Mix the levain ingredients together until you reach a paste. It will be thinnish, like this:

Mine fermented for 7 hours and 20 minutes. You will know when it's ready, because it will look like this:

DOUGH DAY

You will need:

All of the levain

450g KA Bread flour

50g Community Grains hard red winter wheat flour

330g h2o

12g Diamond kosher salt

When your levain is properly fermented, mix together the levain, the flours, and the h2o until you reach a shaggy mass. It will look like this:

Autolyse for 2 hours.

After the autolyse, the dough should have expanded and look smooth and elastic like this:

Squish the salt into the dough until it's fully incorporated work the dough into a smooth mass. Now it's time for the 4-hour bulk fermentation (I got a phone call toward the end of my bulk and mine fermented for 4 hours and 30 minutes! But it was fine. Yours will ferment for about 4 hours).

Every half hour, perform a series of turns throughout the entire bulk fermentation, taking care not to deflate the dough as you near the end of bulk.

When bulk fermentation is accomplished, turn the dough out onto a workspace dusted with brown rice flour, and shape into a loose round. Let it rest. Drape with a damp paper towel to keep it from forming a skin. Mine rested for 10 minutes. 

After the bench, shape the dough into a taut boule and pop into a banneton or a bowl lined with linen that you have dusted with brown rice flour.

Pop in the fridge and ferment. Mine fermented for 16 hour and 23 minutes.

BAKE DAY

Preheat the oven to 500 with a dutch oven and baking stone inside.

Dust the dough lightly with brown rice flour then unearth by placing a sheet of parchment over the mouth of the dough bowl, then place a peel over this and quickly invert the bowl so that the dough ends up sitting on the paper and the peel, seam side down.

Slash the dough in some divine manner, then slide it into the shallow half of the hot dutchie. Cover with the fat half, slide it into the oven, and steam for 15 minutes at this temp, then turn the oven down to 475 and steam for another 15 minutes.

After the steam, remove the fat end of the dutchie, then stack the pan over its mouth to create a buffer between the hot stone and the bread. This will help keep the bottom of your bread from blackening.

Toggle the oven between 460 and 475 until the boule is baked to desired darkness. I find that it's almost impossible to go as dark as Chad's without drying out the loaf in a home oven. So I aim for chestnut-colored.

Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

Training Wheels (are hot)

La Bella Luna

This formula makes one loaf

MAKE YOUR LEVAIN

You will need:

10g 100% hydration dark rye starter (mine is made with BRM home-milled dark rye flour)

75g BRM home-milled hard red spring flour (**you can use hard red winter wheat flour here too)

75g room temperature h2o, mine was 71 degrees

Mix the levain ingredients together until you reach a paste. Mine fermented for 6 hours 30 minutes. 

DOUGH DAY

You will need:

All of the levain

450g KA Bread flour

50g BRM home-milled hard red spring flour (**you can use hard red winter wheat flour here too)

377g h2o, mine was 72 degrees

12g Diamond kosher salt

When your levain is properly fermented, mix together the levain, the flours, and the h2o until you reach a shaggy mass.

Autolyse for 1 hour 15 minutes.

After autolyse, squish the salt into the dough until it's fully incorporated work the dough into a smooth mass. Now it's time for the 4-hour bulk fermentation (mine actually fermented for 4 hours 23 minutes because the dough was a little on the small side. It needed a little more time).

Every half hour, perform a series of turns throughout the entire bulk fermentation, taking care not to deflate the dough as you near the end of bulk.

When bulk fermentation is accomplished, turn the dough out onto a workspace dusted with brown rice flour, and shape into a loose round. Let it rest. Drape with a damp paper towel to keep it from forming a skin. Mine rested for 25 minutes. 

After the bench, shape the dough into a taut boule and pop into a banneton or a bowl lined with linen that you have dusted with brown rice flour.

Pop in the fridge and ferment. Mine fermented for 20 hours.

BAKE DAY

Preheat the oven to 500 with a dutch oven and baking stone inside.

Dust the dough lightly with brown rice flour then unearth by placing a sheet of parchment over the mouth of the dough bowl, then place a peel over this and quickly invert the bowl so that the dough ends up sitting on the paper and the peel, seam side down.

Slash the dough in some divine manner, then slide it into the shallow half of the hot dutchie. Cover with the fat half, slide it into the oven, and steam for 15 minutes at this temp, then turn the oven down to 475 and steam for another 15 minutes.

After the steam, remove the fat end of the dutchie, then stack the pan over its mouth to create a buffer between the hot stone and the bread. This will help keep the bottom of your bread from blackening.

Toggle the oven between 460 and 475 until the boule is baked to desired darkness. I find that it's almost impossible to go as dark as Chad's without drying out the loaf in a home oven. So I aim for chestnut-colored.

Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

La Bella Luna!

To the staff of life!