I've baked a version of Tartine basic country bread

I don't think there is any bread head out there that hasn't heard of Tartine Bakery or his co-founder Chad Robertson.

If you love bread and you have no idea what I am talking about, leave, now! And never come back!  Seriously? Just search for it, go, go, go! Read all about it! Worship the work, the craftsmanship, worship the surf haired baker. I do! ;)

Back to bread, I have baked Chad's tartine basic country bread for a few times now, but I have to be honest: I've never done it properly. Yes, I know! I should be ashamed of myself! Really ashamed! And I am really, but for some reason I never got to build his young levain. Truth is I was lazy! I've just used some of his method with my old trusted starter.

Tartine style country bread (makes 1 loaf)

Similarly to my version of the Pain au Levain, I have used my 100% whole wheat starter to make this bread, as opposed to Chad's young starter. I will definitely have to try the proper method as well!

Day of the levain - I usually start in the morning the day before the bake.
Start by building your levain using the ingredients in the next table.

Ingredients for levain

Levain ingredients	Quantity (grams)	Baker’s percentage
White flour	25 grams	50%
Whole wheat flour	25 grams	50%
Water 25.5°C (78F)	50 grams	100%
Whole wheat starter (100% hydration)	1 tablespoon	na

To create the levain dissolve the starter in the water, then add the flours. Leave the levain to mature in a covered bowl for 8-10 hours. Tip: I always cover my bowl with a shower cap, I find it works just fine.

Same evening - build the bread dough

Ingredients for the bread

Bread ingredients	Quantity (grams)	Baker’s percentage
White flour	450 grams	90%
Whole wheat flour	50 grams	10%
Water 25.5°C (78F)	375 grams	75%
Levain	125 grams aprox	25%
Salt	10 grams	2%

Overall bread formula - the water and flour in the starter are not accounted for the baker's percentage

Bread ingredients	Quantity (grams)	Baker’s percentage
White flour	475 grams	86.36%
Whole wheat flour	75 grams	13.64%
Water 25.5°C (78F)	425 grams	77.27%
Starter	1 tablespoon	na
Salt	10 grams	1.82%

The autolysis - 30 minutes

Once the 8-10hrs are up and your levain floats in water (just transfer a bit of it in a bowl of water - if it floats it's ready, if not give it a bit more time), you are ready to mix the bread. Dissolve the levain in the water, add the flours and mix until all the flour is hydrated. It will be a shaggy mess but that's ok. DO NOT add the salt at this stage. Cover your bowl and leave the mix to rest for 30 minutes. This stage will help build the gluten, which will end up helping us achieve a nice crumb structure.

The mix - around 10 minutes

Once the autolysis is done, you can add the salt. Because I only bake one bread at a time, I just sprinkle the salt as is on the top, before mixing, but if you prefer you could reserve some water from the dough mixing stage, to just dissolve the salt in. In any case, add the salt and start pinching the dough so that you get all that salt incorporated. I use table salt, as sea salt tends to have bigger crystals that are not so easily absorbed.

After the salt is incorporated, just give your dough about 10-12 stretch and folds until it becomes more pliable about 2-3 minutes. If you are not familiar with the stretch and fold method, have a look at this clip, I find it's very good.

Transfer your dough to a clean bowl, cover it and leave it to rest.

The bulk fermentation stage - around 150 minutes (2 hours and a half)

Leave your dough to rest for 30 minutes after the mix. When the 30 minutes are up give it a series of stretch and fold and leave it covered for another 30 minutes. Just so you know, I usually perform the stretch and fold directly in the bowl, without removing the dough. Perform 3 series of stretch and folds and then leave the dough to proof for the last hour.

The pre-shaping and rest stage - around 25 minutes

After the bulk fermentation is over, you are now ready to pre-shape. I always tend to pre-shape my dough as a boule (round), in this case not a tight one and then leave it to rest, smooth side up, covered with a clean towl. Leave it to rest for 20 minutes.

The shaping stage - around 5 minutes

Flour your banneton, or basket. I have started, recently, to use rice flour instead of wheat, just because my bread used to get stuck to the banneton during the long retarding in the fridge. It works quite well now :). Uncover and shape your bread. I usually shape the Pain au Levain as a batard (oblong shape). Place the loaf seam side up in your proofing basket, cover it, or slide the basket in a plastic bag and close it tighlty.

If you need help with shaping, I have found this clip to be amazing!

I usually dust the banneton with rice flour for this bread as the hydration is quite high and for the first couple of times my bread got stuck on the basket :(. Since I took the advice of fellow bakers about using rice flour, I had less sticking incidents!

The overnight proof (retarding in the fridge) stage - 10 hours

Slide yous basket in the fridge and leave it there for the next 10 hours. This should allow your bread to rise very slowly building up the flavour. In my case also helps time wise, as it allows me to start the whole process the morning of day 1, before going to work on a Friday and baking the bread on a Saturday morning.

I usually bake this bread straight from the fridge as I find it doesn't really need more proofing after the overnight stay in the fridge.

Heat your oven - 90 minutes

It takes around 90 minutes for my oven to heat up, together with my baking stone and a tray that I use to create the steam at the baking stage. I heat it up to 250C, which is the maximum for my domestic oven :).

The baking - 50 minutes

 Dust your peel (in my case an old plastic chopping board) with semolina, transfer the loaf to the peel and score it. I am by no means an expect on scoring, but here is the loaf we are talking about and the lousy job I did on scoring, it still came out with a nice ear ;).

Transfer the scored loaf to the heated stone and immediately add hot water to the pre-heated tray in the oven. Shut the door and bake the bread at 250C for the first 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 230C.

20 minutes into the baking remove the tray from the oven to complete the baking without the steam.

Leave to bake for another 25 minutes, so a total of 45 minutes.

When the 45 minutes are up, turn the oven off and leave the loaf inside for another 5 minutes with the oven door ajar.

You have now baked a Tartine style bread! I love the dark crust I always get on this loaf and the amazing custard like crumb!

Both sets of images are of a Tartine country loaf, baked at different times. As you can see I am not there yet in terms of consistency. This might also be because the white flour I've used for each of them was different. I will start documenting the types of flour used as well, but forgot to do it for these two.

xoxo bread addicts!