Hi Gang,

I recently made the Tartine Country Bread and it was very fun to make and eat.  I'd like to do it again, but I need a little help.  In step 4 of my recipe, Chad says, "Save your leftover leaven; it is now the beginning of a new starter.  To keep it alive to make future loaves, continue to feed it as described in step 2."  Can I feed it once then start another loaf tomorrow?  or does he want me to feed it until it predicably rises and falls, perhaps another 15 days?

http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tartine-country-bread

(The steps I refer to are listed at Martha's website)

Thanks for all the help and a great website.

Frank

:)

It feels great to be back on the bike. Made my first loaf of a long-fermenting bread after more than a year away from real baking. I'm still getting my sea legs back, but there were glossy holes in the crumb and the crust sang when I pulled the loaves of Country Bread (Hamelman) from the oven.

Will post photos this evening.

Sylvia

I'm also one of the casual home bakers that are intrigued by the Tartine Bread, and when the book came out, I was not hesitated to try out the recipe.

I got so much information from this website and some other posts that led me to a successful first baking attempt. I also did my second attempt 3 weeks later and it definitely improved. I also wrote a blog about some of the challenges I went through so hopefully it will help out whoever is going to follow the same path

http://ibakeyourpardon.blogspot.com

One thing I noticed was even though the loafs came out beatifully with good air pocket and oven spring, it was still nowhere close to Tartine's. Tartine's loaf also stays fresh much longer and is less chewy.

I've read with great interest discussions of home milling flour since I first joined TFL, but not wanting to get into the more arcane techniques of grain tempering, multiple graduated sifters and the like put me off. My interest was boosted by MC's interviews with Gérard Rubaud, who uses fresh hand milled grains to build his levains. (See Building a levain "à la Gérard": step 1) My recent experience chopping rye berries by hand did it though. I ordered the grain mill attachment for my KitchenAid Accolade mixer.

I'd been looking at grain mills for some time. I considered the Nutrimill, but I don't need to grind pounds and pounds of flour, and, from what I've read, it does not grind as coarse as I'd like to make cracked and chopped grains. Hand-cranked mills look cool, but my tiled kitchen counters don't work with appliances attached by vises. So, the KitchenAid attachment was a nice solution. I used it today for the first time.

KitchenAid Grain Mill

Based on my reading of reviews of this device, I ground some hard red winter wheat and some spelt berries by putting each through three passes of increasing fineness. I just ground about 200 g of each. There was no indication that this strained my mixer motor in the least. Each pass took 30 seconds or less. The resulting flour was a tad coarser than what I buy already milled, but finer than, say, semolina.

Fresh ground spelt flour

Fresh ground hard red winter wheat flour

My formula and procedures take off from Chad Robertson's “Basic Country Bread” in Tartine Bread.

*Note: The small amount of WW and Dark Rye in the levain are not calculated separately in the Total Dough.

1. Dissolve the levain in the water. Add the flours and mix thoroughly.

2. Ferment at room temperature for 12 hours (overnight).

Procedures

1. In a large bowl, dissolve 200 g of the levain in 700 g of the water.

2. Add all the flours and mix to a shaggy mass. Cover tightly.

3. Autolyse for 25-30 minutes. (Longer would be okay.)

4. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add 50 g of water.

5. Knead in the bowl by squishing the dough between your fingers until all the water has been incorporated and the salt is well-distributed. Then, still in the bowl, fold the dough over itself a few times.

6. Transfer the dough to a large clean, lightly oiled bowl or other container, such as a rising bucket. Cover tightly. If possible, place the dough in an ambient temperature of 75-80ºF.

7. After 30 minutes, stretch and fold the dough in its container 15-20 times. (By the end of this, the dough should be smooth, and it should pull away from the container easily when you stretch it.) Re-cover the dough. Repeat this at 30 minute intervals for two hours, then one more time an hour later. (The dough should have expanded by 25-50% and be light and full of small bubbles which you can see if your container is transparent. If it has been fermented at a cooler temperature, give it another hour, or even 2 hours.)

8. When the dough is fully fermented, transfer it to a lightly floured board and divide it into two equal pieces.

9. Pre-shape the pieces as rounds. Cover with plastic or a towel and let them rest for 20-30 minutes.

10. Shape as boules or bâtards. Place in bannetons or en couche and cover.

11. Proof for about 90 to 120 minutes, depending on ambient temperature.

12. Pre-heat your oven to 500ºF. If not baking covered, pre-heat a baking stone and prepare your oven for steaming. (I baked these boules in Lodge Combo Cookers.)

13. If baking uncovered, bake at 460ºF with steam for about 40 minutes. Then turn off the oven and leave the door ajar for another 10 minutes to dry the crust. If baking covered , bake at 480ºF for 15 minutes, then at 450-460ºF uncovered for another 25-30 minutes.

14. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack.

15. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

Boules after baking 15 minutes, covered

Boule, cooling

Crumb

Chewy crust and tender crumb. Whole wheat dominates the aroma of the bread sliced still warm but the flavor is sweet and mellow without any perceptible sourness. I'm looking forward to tasting it toasted tomorrow morning.

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

In the UK there is a fantastic TV show called "Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets". It's a delightful program presented by the wonderfully enthusiastic Raymond Blanc. His passion with food is thoroughly addictive. In each of the series' eight episodes, Raymond Blanc concentrates on a topic and showcases several related recipes. Some are quite simple, some are exceedingly complex, and Raymond does them with such grace and ease it is a joy to watch. There's a genuine feeling of honesty throughout the series.

Last night's episode was about bread. Raymond began the episode by making a wonderful cream-filled brioche. He placed his ingredients in the mixer, then struggled trying to operate it, realizing that it wasn't plugged in (such is the joy of this show). Once that problem was solved, he mixed the dough, added the butter, and proved the dough. Then, he shaped it by hand to a perfect round, filled with a creme-fraiche custard, and baked this delicacy. The nice thing about this show, that they are not afraid of showing mistakes -- Raymond had shaped the dough too thinly, and there was a little hole in his round, so that some of the filling escaped. He shared the brioche with his two sons. 

Raymond moved on to make a versatile country bread dough, which he made into a plain loaf of bread, a fougasse topped with various tasty things, and beer-topped rolled that looked delicious. Watching Raymond talk about bread with such passion was a joy. 

Raymond then went to visit a miller in search of some flours to make a Gluten-free loaf. They made an attempt with some chestnut flour that wasn't a total success, but was quite tasty, according to them. 

Raymond's final project was an apple croustade, a yeast dough preparation I have never seen before. He made the strangest yeast dough, where the liquid was in the form of beaten egg white mixed with egg yolks, water, and some sugar. The dough is then stretched by two people to a paper-thin layer, not unlike a strudel, and brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar. This is cut into squares, and place in neat little nest-like parcels in small tart tins to dry overnight. Then, Raymond thinly sliced apples, arranged them in a beautiful rosette, and baked them with butter and sugar. The next day, the dough parcels are baked and the caramelized apple rosettes are warmed up. The dessert is plated: place the apple rosettes onto a plate, and top with a dough parcel. Pour some vanilla-pear sauce around this, top with ginger-vanilla ice cream, and finely diced stem ginger. Wow! They finished the program with with Raymond and one of his apprentices sharing one of these. 

I'll probably never make the croustade, but the cream filled brioche is on my "to bake very soon" list. 

I whole-heartedly recommend that you watch this program. If you live in the UK, you can catch the program (and past episodes; I recommend the chocolate episode) on the BBC iPlayer, here. If you live outside the UK, as do I, you should make the effort to get a copy of this episode, because it is well worth watching. 

Hello,

Has anyone here tried the recipe for "Pain de Campagne Poilane" from Bernard Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads"???

I made the starter last night, and followed the recipe exactly as it is in the book (page 226)

This morning I looked at the starter. It seems to be fermenting quite nicely, but hasn't risen even the slightest. And is this starter supposed to be

so watery? It just seems rather watery and thin for a starter. And the author makes no mention as to how it should be until after the "sponge" is

added.

So if anyone has any insights on this recipe, I'd really like to hear it. Thanks.

Tory 

I baked this very large, rustic Italian loaf (pagnotta) a couple weeks ago from Daniel Leader’s wonderful new book, Local Breads, page 197.  He states that it is to bake until almost black or charred for the most authentic loaf.  I didn’t go quite that far but you can see it developed a lot of color which I always prefer in my loaves.