baking Tartine bread









I've been baking from the Tartine Bread cookbook.  It's an involved process, but the bread is the best I've ever made.  I've always wondered how artisan bread has the blistery, shiny crust and airy, holey interior, and this book has demystified that.  It explains creating your own starter (yeast culture), and fermenting and rising the dough, giving it "turns" every half an hour.  No kneading involved.  Baking is done in a cast iron dutch oven with a lid for the first half of the bake, which seals in the moisture.

My main difficulty is getting my loaf to rise high.  It usually deflates quite a bit when I drop it in the dutch over after the final rise.  It stuck to the towel the first time, which flattened it significantly as I pulled it off.  Since then I've made sure to heavily flour the towel.  The recipe makes two loaves, and I usually just leave then other other half of the dough in the frig for pizza crust or to bake a more sour loaf days later.  I also condensed the long master recipe onto a small sheet of paper that was much less annoying to reference during the process.   

Check out my friend Andrew's blog: Secret Restaurant Portland, who first showed me this book.


my most recent and best attempt!   making the two loves at once was interesting, as you can really get a sense of how the shaping and scoring affects the final loaf.  these two had the airiest texture of any i've made.







attempt #3-  this dough sat in the refrigorator for several days and was wetter and more sour