Need Help with Loaves Coming Out Too Flat, Tartine Recipe

I echo what AbeNW11 said. It's hard second-guessing what went wrong without being alongside you, but you made no mention of kneading and did mention 'turning every 30 minutes'. Does that mean you flipped the dough over? If so, wet doughs need to be stretched and folded, which is a different process from turning. A simple search on TFL will turn up lots of posts telling you how to do this. By my calculation you 'turned' the dough at least six times. Be careful with stretch and folding that you don't overdo it. Three times (once every hour) is usually enough to firm up the dough. However, for such a wet dough, might it also be worth giving it an initial knead until it starts turning shaggy? You need to get that gluten-formation going.

Finally, three and a half hours is extraordinarily long for a final proof (unless you are cold-retarding or baking in the Arctic). Were you doing the fingertip test? It's the only way to be sure you avoid over- or under-proofing. The tyranny of recipes is that they take no account of the conditions you are working in. So be flexible, keep checking, and bake as soon as the bread is proofed.

Apologies if you're already doing these things but there's no way to tell from the post.

Hi ohthepain,

As already said, overproofing is a logical candidate.  I think that maybe your bulk ferment was at too high a temperature.  I'm pretty sure that Chad's recipe (I don't have the book in front of me at the moment) calls for a bulk ferment at around 75˚F.  While it may not seem like much, at 80˚F the fermentation proceeds at a higher rate, maybe as much as 50% faster.  This would overferment your dough in a hurry if you kept to the same timetable.  The risk is that the enzymes (proteases) are more likely to break down the gluten structure, resulting in a flatter loaf when baked.  Also, Chad suggests you stretch & fold (he calls them turns but they are basically the same thing) at 30 min increments for the first 2 hrs only.  If you did it more than that you are at risk of overdeveloping the dough, which could also cause a flatter loaf.

With regards to hydration, I believe the original recipe calls for more whole wheat than what you used.  Since WW is more thirsty than white flour your version would essentially have the same effect as making it higher hydration.  You might want to cut back the hydration to 74-75% if you use mostly white flour.

I generally BF for around 4 hrs at 75˚F (watch the dough and not the clock), then shape and proof for an hour or two, then retard in the refrigerator for around 12 hrs.  I find that this dough is difficult to do a poke test on, but you can get the hang of it the more you do it.  Poking is unreliable, though, with cold retarded dough.

-Brad

checked your oven's temperature with a good thermometer? What temp is your bread coming out at?

...I had a similar problem and tried everything with relatively little success.  Look for a good quality flour with a high protein.  Once I sorted this, I never looked back.

Cheers

From your description I think you followed the Tartine procedure too literally. Like the others mentioned - everybody's kitchen environment and ambient temperatures are different, and not like the ideal bakery standard of Tartine. 

The fermenting times in a recipe are only a guideline, don't go by the kitchen timer, but by what you see and feel. The loaf is sufficiently proofed when an indentation made with your finger remains visible, but still has elasticity enough to come back a little. 

Happy Baking

Karin