July 19, 2016 - 4:44pm
Tartine Bread attempt number...
Tartine Bread - After several pounds of failed dough, I finally was able to produce a loaf of Tartine Bread.
What finally helped me was Lewis' YouTube video: Gluten Gone Wild: Tartine for Dummies. Lewis described Chad Robertson's method with some explanations that just helped me to understand the process a little more. He used 5 Stretch & Fold every 10 minutes followed by refrigerating both the bulk fermentation and the final proofing. Cold dough is so very much easier to work with. Anyway, I am very pleased with the results. https://youtu.be/sPzpU1clHaA
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It look like a Gluten Gone Wild bread and a pretty good one too!
Happy baking
Which Tartine recipe is this? Is it all white flour?
Your loaf looks great :)
Thank you!
This is Tartine Country Bread - its a combination of whole wheat flour and All-purpose flour.
Leaven: one table spoon starter, 200g water, 100g whole wheat flour, 100g white flour
Dough: 700g water, 900g white flour, 100g whole wheat flour
Final addition: 20g salt, 50g water
This formula produces 2 loaves of bread.
can be difficut for newbies. They don't know that these breads are very difficult to make on the scale of bread difficult and both have newbies making tons of levain for no reason - a real waste. At least Chad has you throw only half away instead of nearly all of it.
Lewis must be a clone of Lucy. Rye starter with much less maintenance where the starter doesn't run your life, and using the fridge where ever necessary to make bread on his schedule. Much better tasting bread than Tartine too. Easier and better makes the bread experience so much better for the newbie. We love easy and better - both and is always better than either or.
Happy baking
Yes, I agree - I was not exaggerating when I posted I was trashing pounds of dough. Hahaha
And this video was my break through.
Also, thank you for all your advice I've been reading your postings and this site in general, for a few months now.
Lots of great advice!
Thank you!
I know this post is like 5 years old, but I am hoping someone will read this. Is anyone actually following the levain preparation method Chad Robertson describes in his book for the Tartine Country Bread? His instructions have always puzzled me as he says to feed a tablespoon of mature starter with 200g flour and 200g water, which is basically about a 1:10:10 feeding ratio. Then he says to let it ripen overnight and by the morning it will have risen about 20 percent at which point it is ready. 20 percent??? I always thought a levain should at least double in order to be strong enough to rise a dough. To me a levain that rises only 20% seems weak. Has anyone had experience with this?
Have you listened to the Chad & Jennifer Latham audiobook "Getting started with sourdough" published last year? I think their procedure is somewhat updated, with a "booster levain" made in the morning of breadmaking day.
Lance
Thank you Lance for the answer. No, I have not listened to the audiobook, but I will definitely check it out! I actually just found Jennifer Latham on Instagram, and she shows the entire process of making the Tartine Country Bread from start to finish! She says she fed the levain twice in the morning, at 9 am, and at 11 am, before making the bread. This levain preparation is very different from the one described in the book, I guess it results in a more active levain due to the two feedings within such a short amount of time.
Another useful thing I picked up from the audiobook was what to feed my wheat starter. Jennifer uses a high extraction flour, so I made some from Mockmilled wheat grain and a #40 sieve. In the end I found this produced a bit too much acid, so I've settling on a 50/50 mix of this and organic roller milled bread flour, which works very well for me.
Lance
I actually bought the audiobook this afternoon and listened to the whole thing. I enjoyed it and learned a lot, thanks for suggesting it. Interesting development on the booster levain, he uses only 40 percent seed for the first feed, and two hours later again only 40 percent seed for the second feeding, then 2-3 hours later it's ready. He probably has a very active starter, I am not sure if mine would be ready using the same method and same timings.
Youre welcome! I haven't listened to it lately, but I seem to recall they wind up the temperature considerably for the morning feeds - which will help, of course. I guess in the more usual parlance of ratios, 40% is 1:1.5?
But, yes, still a bit fast for my starter. Usually if I was taking starter out of fridge, I would do something like 1:2 at 5pm, 25C,1:6 at 10pm, 24C, 1:1 at 8am, 29C and use about 11am.
Lance
Yes, Chad says that they keep the levain at around 85 degrees, which is indeed quite high temperature. In fact, they mention in the audiobook that they try to keep the final dough at that temperature for the whole bulk fermentation phase and bench rest. No wonder they can finish the bulk in 3-4 hours. As for the ratios, they use 80 g of seed for 200 g flour, and 80 is 40 percent of 200. With the more common ratios, I think it would be 1:2.5. Still, quite fast to me, but it probably works at 85 degrees. Your levain feeding method looks very good. I have been trying to find out how to produce a very active and yet very mild tasting levain, as I don't like sour sourdough. Contrary to the popular belief that a liquid starter produces a milder loaf than a stiff starter, I have experienced actually the opposite, so lately I have been keeping my starter stiff. When I think of panettone, bakers use lievito madre, which is also stiff, and acidic taste is not desirable in panettone, so I guess stiff should work well for mild-tasting loafs.
I agree with you about using a stiff starter for milder bread, even though some bakers think the opposite, but that's the wonder of breadmaking!
On the other hand, I find the constant feeding of a stiff starter (and making stiff levains to match) to be a chore, especially as I currently have a rye and a wheat starter. So I stick to 100%!
Unfortunately, Chad does a poor job of explaining many things in his books. I found it to be quite frustrating. For example, the bulk ferment should result in a 20% increase in volume. What? Why? Many people still errroneously or not use 100%. Took a Blogger over ten years later to explain it to me. When you'r bulk proofing at like 80-82 degres F, the fermentation is so fervent the carry over fermentation from the time you preshape, shape and proof, cold or room temp, your dough will be or could be over fermented by then. Chad says nothing about this. He also inexplicably changes salt ratios from Tartine 1 to Tartine 3, still a mystery.