The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

A bit of bread porn, courtesy of Tartine Bakery

yy's picture
yy

A bit of bread porn, courtesy of Tartine Bakery

Finally got a chance to visit Tartine yesterday, and I got my hands on a loaf of their country bread. It definitely does not disappoint. Here are some photos, uploaded for your viewing pleasure. Can't wait to get my copy of Tartine Bread :-)

3 Olives's picture
3 Olives

That's gorgeous! Give me what's left of that loaf, some cheese, and deli meats and I'll be set...

Matt H's picture
Matt H

Tartine is indeed very good. Pity it's all white flour though. Their walnut levain has some whole grain, and is also lovely.

Jaydot's picture
Jaydot

Oooh, fabulous photo's! Love the one with the backlight - if this were Flickr, I'd fave it :).

houstonwong's picture
houstonwong

Love the shot that's backlit as well. Looks yummy *jealous*

longhorn's picture
longhorn

Thanks for sharing! Having only been to Tartine once as the 2000 mile trip hinders familiarity, it is always useful to see MORE loaves. Yours is very similar to what I received - but a hair lighter, particularly on the sides (closer to other loaves?). 

I think I am going to make a batch tomorrow!

 

intelplatoon's picture
intelplatoon

somone correct me if i am wrong. but what i have been told by a lady who has done a short pastry stint at tartine, is that only one dough is mixed there. his signature country levain sourdough, and then other ingredients are mixed in to small portions of that dough, sometimes walnuts/sesame seeds/etc.

longhorn's picture
longhorn

I am pretty sure you are right for his bread. Looking at the pastries I am confident they are a different dough.

 

louie brown's picture
louie brown

This makes an interesting comparison with, say, Silverton, who makes the point in her book that in some cases she wants different doughs for her variations, as opposed to simply adding ingredients to one master dough.Undoubtedly, from a production point of view, there are advantages to the Tartine approach.

Matt H's picture
Matt H

Some of their breads have some whole grain, although they could just be mising in a few tablespoons of bran to the master. I kind of doubt it though.

yy's picture
yy

I have no idea what they do. In terms of production, they supposedly only make enough to sell around 175 loaves per day. Here's what their menu says

breads  7 plain / 7.25 all othersOur breads are made with locally milled organic flours and sea salt. Baked on a radiant stone hearth. Loaves are out of the oven after 5:00 pm Wednesday through Sunday. Available in plain country or with walnuts, sesame seeds, olives.

The wording seems to imply a single dough, with add-ins. Perhaps we can find a confidential informant here on TFL that may have some inside info?

 

 

intelplatoon's picture
intelplatoon

one of my future goals is to work there.....hah not sure how i will get it done but when i do, ill let ya all know..........(wishful thinking)

rhomp2002's picture
rhomp2002

I prefer bread with a mix of flours to bread that is all white flour.  When I made the Tartine Country loaf I noticed that they use 900g white and 100 g wheat.  I changed it just a bit to 750g white, 150g wheat and 100g rye and then cut back just a bit on the water and the bread came out just great with a nice crust and a wonderful taste.  The only tricky part is to get the wetness of the dough right and then it will all work just about as well as the original recipe does.   Now I want to try  adding some seeds to it to see how that works.

I did try one time using Caputo 0 flour for the white and that was a disaster because of the totally different water absorption.  Never could get that one to come together the way it should.   When I got the dough to feel right the bread had none of the good holes it should and was almost a brick, something I never got from the other loaves I made from the recipes.

 

yy's picture
yy

i wonder what type of "bread flour" tartine uses. There's a photo in the book that shows 50 lb bags of "giusto's ultimate performer". However, this doesn't seem to make sense, as the protein content of that particular type of flour is something like 13-14%. Isn't that too high?