The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

First Attempt at Tartine

dosco's picture
dosco

First Attempt at Tartine

I thought it might be interesting to try The Weekend Bakery's version of tartine.

I deviated from the recipe in many ways. First, I mixed the "Water 1" with the flour and let it autolyse overnight while the poolish fermented (I did this on Monday night 12-9-2013). The second deviation was that I only performed 4 stretch and fold sessions. Third deviation was that I used my silicone spatula and stretch/folded the dough in the KA mixing bowl ... each S&F session included 100 folds. Fourth deviation was that I shaped the dough ball into a boule and let it rest for 15 minutes, then shaped it into a batard. Final deviation was that the final rise was 75 minutes and not 150.

When I shaped the dough into a boule, I floured my work surface with WW flour (cleans up more easily) and used my hands to work the dough. It did seem to tighten up a bit, but when I formed the dough into the final batard it flattened upon itself. I'm not sure how y'all are getting "surface tension" with these higher hydration doughs.

Got a nice oven spring, the crumb looks pretty good, and the taste is nice. Kid #1 had a piece with breakfast and thought it was good.

Seems to be a better result, but I am still puzzled as to how I can get surface tension, good oven spring, super open crumb, and a nice cut on the surface. Seems I can get some of these results but not all.

-Dave

 

Comments

Les Nightingill's picture
Les Nightingill

you get surface tension by not using flour on the counter, and "dragging" the dough so that the friction between the dough and the counter "tucks" the dough under. As you drag the dough ball towards you, the near side catches the counter and is pulled under the dough ball... rotate and repeat.

It's pretty hard to describe in words, but maybe you can find some clues in my description. 

I'm amazed you got such good results by using a mixer to do S&F. I would've expected all the gas to be beaten out! 3 or 4 S&F's per session is all that's required.

dosco's picture
dosco

Les:
I guess I was a bit vauge in my description. I did the S&F by hand, using a silicone spatula. The reference to the KA mixing bowl was confusing ... I did not remove the dough from the bowl, and I mixed by hand. Sorry for the lack of clarity.

If you take a look at the link I posted, the recipe calls for 6 S&F sessions, each separated by 30 minutes. I only did 4, however I was pretty vigorous and did 100 "strokes" with the spatula per session.

I understand exactly what you mean by "dragging" the dough. There is no way I would have been able to do that without a floured surface, though, since the dough was fairly high hydration. I was able to get some drag and fold, however.

My question about surface tension lies with the fact that the high hydration doughs are so slack ... in a prior life, long ago, I worked in a pizza shop - we made our own dough. I know all about surface tension from that experience, and it seems that while I'm handling these highly hydrated doughs I get tension, but as soon as they rest they go all limp and slack.

Thanks for the advice!

-Dave

Les Nightingill's picture
Les Nightingill

Dave, your description was clear, I didn't read it well!

If you think your shaping technique is OK, then the slackness of the dough is probably due to underproofing (or possibly, but not likely from your description, overproofing).

dosco's picture
dosco

Les:
So the slackness isn't a function of hydration? These wetter doughs seem very jiggly and don't seem to want to hold their shape. In another post (I forget which now) the poster indicated their dough was 75% hydration and the picture of the shaped loaf didn't look anything like my 75% hydration doughs - their dough looked "normal" and mine looks like 'the blob' ... what am I missing?

-Dave