Tartine Country Loaf, Basic Recipe and Technique

Tartine Country Loaf

Introduction

After a few months of research on YouTube, books and the web, I’ve come up with this recipe and process for making a Tartine style loaf. This recipe makes two ~1kg loaves, cut everything in half for making a single loaf. Watch the embedded YouTube video to get a feel for the process and refer to it for critical steps like folding or final shaping. I've had best results mixing and kneading by hand, a stand mixture can also be used but the timing is shorter and not covered in this blogpost.

The Starter

The sourdough starter could use a post of its own but here is a quick summary for the care and feeding of your starter. Let's assume a friend has given you a healthy starter, a couple of tablespoons is all you need. Place the starter in a 16oz jar with lid which you can place on loosely (so it can breathe).

Food for the starter

Starter at an active and mature state ready for adding to the dough.

In a 32oz (or larger) plastic tub, mix 50% all purpose flour with 50% whole wheat flour; I make 500 grams total. You could measure this out each time but very convenient to have it premixed and ready to go.

Use bottled water to feed the starter and making bread. The chlorine in tap water is not great for the wild yeast and bacteria.

Feeding your starter 

To feed your starter, discard all but about 2 tablespoons. Place the jar on a scale, zero the scale and measure in 40 grams of the flour mixture and 40 grams of water. Mix vigorously to thoroughly mix and incorporate oxygen. Scrape down the sides of the jar using a tablespoon and slip on a rubber band at the starter's initial level (to help gauge the growth). If you bake once a week like me, store your starter in the fridge, and feed it once a week; set a calendar appointment until the baking habit takes hold!

To prepare for baking, it's helpful to explain with an example. I like to bake starting at 4pm on any given day. For this, feed the starter as described the previous night at 9pm and leave it on the counter. 

The next morning around 8 am, make your levain (this is just a large batch of starter or the pre-ferment for making bread) by discarding all but 50 grams/~2 heaping tablespoons. Add enough flour and water to make the levain needed. So if you need 200 grams of levain, add 100 grams of the flour mixture and 100 grams of water. The 50 gram of the initial starter will just be the extra you can feed and put back in the fridge after baking.

By 4pm, the levain should be quite active and ready to mix into the dough.

The Bread

Ingredients

• 200 g starter 100% hydration (50/50 water to flour ratio)
• 650 g distilled water heated to ~85F (has worked well for me)
• The temperature depends on initial flour temperature, according to the Ken Forkish book, Flour Water Salt Yeast, the goal is final dough temperature of 75-80F.
• 800 g AP flour or bread flour (bread flour has a higher/stronger gluten so better for handling, structure, not collapsing as the hydration goes up, etc.)
• 200 g whole wheat flour (this can be combination of whole wheat mixed with rye and/or spelt/Einkorn

Added after Autolyze step

• 20 g sea salt
• 50 g water

Optional add-ins

Mix the below add-ins into the dough at the 1st fold  which is after the initial kneading step. You don't want obstructions in the dough to develop the gluten.

Seeded Loaf (~200 g total is about right)

Here is an example but anything goes (pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, etc.)

• 70 g flaxseed
• 50 g toasted sesame seeds
• 50 g toasted black sesame seeds
• 150 g water for soaking seeds (done so seeds don't pull moisture from the dough)
• Set aside until ready to mix with the dough

Kalamata Olive Loaf

• One Trader Joe's 12oz jar
• Pour olives into a colander and rinse with water
• Pat dry and cut into quarters
• Set aside until ready to mix with the dough

Instructions

Autolyse: 40 minutes

• Using an 8 qt. mixing bowl (can be smaller for a single loaf, weigh and thoroughly mix all the flours with a bowl scraper or whisk. Set aside.
• Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil
• Prepare a kitchen thermometer
• Place another bowl on the scale and place the thermometer inside
• Weigh most of the water adding small amounts of boiling water until it reaches 85F. 
• Remove water if necessary to hit the target weight
• Zero out the scale and carefully add the starter into the water. 
• Thoroughly mix the starter into the water.
• Add the pre-weighed flour into the water/starter mixture
• Using a bowl scraper and/or hand, roughly mix the dough until you get a shaggy mass (no dry flour remaining) but not over-mixing either. Scrape down the side of the bowl and "stick" the tiny bits onto the dough mass in the middle. 
• Allow to rest 30 minutes

Final Mixing and Kneading: 15 minutes

• Start a timer for 10 minutes
• Sprinkle the salt evenly onto the dough
• Add the reserved water 
• **If using seeds, this is the time add them. Olives are added after kneading and resting for 30 minutes
• Mix and knead the dough by hand, using a combination of folds and the pincer method (outlined in Flour Water Salt Yeast book) to knead for about 10 minutes.
• The dough will eventually be wet but ultimately come together.
• A window pane test (stretching a small piece of dough into a thin sheet without tearing) to test gluten development.
• Cover the bowl with saran wrap (I like shower caps) and a tea towel to begin bulk fermentation. 
• A better approach is to transfer the dough to a dough bucket (I made one, see image below) with a volume graduations which is very helpful in estimating expansion during fermentation. For example, ferment until doubled in volume.

Bulk Fermentation: 4 to 6 hrs (temperature dependent)

• Turn (stretch and fold) the dough every 30 to 45 minutes especially in the early stages
• If possible, turn the dough at the same interval during the entire fermentation phase but this is not critical. 
• Use more care as the fermentation develops to avoid damaging air pockets.

Divide and Bench Rest: 45 minutes

• Turn the dough one last time and roll out onto a floured bench surface
• Use a dough knife, cut the dough into equal parts (i.e. to make two tartine loaves)
• Roughly shape into balls, dust with flour, cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes 

Shape and Proof: Overnight

• Shape the dough to generate tension in the outer skin using the method shown in the video. 
• Transfer to banneton dusted with flour 
• Cover with plastic wrap/shower cap and tea towel and place in fridge to retard the fermentation (cold proof). 
• A sample schedule is place in fridge at 10pm and bake before 8am the next morning (10 hour cold proof)

For reference, watch this video at the 2:50 min mark for shaping technique

Baking

• Preheat oven and ceramic dutch oven at 500F (measure oven temp)
• Remove proofed dough from refrigerator, and using parchment paper, flip over and remove from banneton. A pizza peel can now be used to slide the dough onto the preheated dutch oven.
• Scores the dough, scores should be ~6mm deep.
• Transfer dough and bake covered for 30 minutes 
• Optional: Spray with water and sprinkle with seeds at this point. Water helps the seeds to stick.
• Remove lid, REDUCE heat to ~450 to 475F and bake another 18-20 minutes (or less until brown crust forms)
• Remove from oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour before cutting

ENJOY your homemade sourdough bread.