My Tartine Sourdough Bread Routine
Growing up in Germany, I have always had a good supply of hearty breads, especially dark ones. But I never liked white breads, until I tried the country bread at Tartine bakery in San Francisco. I enjoyed it so much that I bought Tartine’s Bread book by Chad Robertson and decided to try baking it on my own. It was a bit of a learning experience to adapt to flours available in Berlin, Germany, as well as my other activities during the day. After a couple of not-so-great loafs, I am now on a weekly routine to bake two consistently scrumptious country breads every Saturday morning.
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Here is what you need:
- Wholemeal flour (Vollkorn-Weizenmehl) — choose a nice one, this is where your natural yeasts and microbes are coming from
- Bread flour (Weizenmehl Type 550) — I go for the REWE Bio one
- Sea salt
- Rice flour (you can find this at organic super markets like Kiepert & Kutzner, you do not need much, it will last you months)
- Bench knife
- Cast-iron frying pan with lid
- Two bowls (20cm)
- Sourdough starter (from someone who is already baking bread, like me) — I am using a Rye-based starter which tends to keep longer between refreshs.
- The Bread book, otherwise you don’t know what to do in the steps below
I have slightly adapted Chad’s recipe: I use the whole leaven (for more flavour, and the starter is rye-based), add coarse sea salt to the bulk to skip a step, and most importantly, make the loafs smaller. Half of such a loaf is enough for a German-style breakfast with eggs for me and my wife. I also found that the smaller loafs allow for a more expansion in the pan. And ultimately, smaller loafs mean more crust!
Back to the important steps, if you want to bake on Saturday, the real works happens Friday:
- 9:00am Mix leaven: stir 2 teaspoons of starter into 160g lukewarm water, then add 80g wholemeal and 80g bread flour, then go to work
- 6:00pm Make bulk: Add 520g of water to the whole leaven, stir, add 80g wholemeal and 720g bread flour, mix with hand until smooth, then add 16g sea salt and mix some more, then every 30 minutes turn the dough
- 9:30pm Cut dough with bench knife, shape loafs, clean mixing bowl
- 10:00pm Grab two bowls, put tea towels in, powder with rice flour, then powder with bread flour. Fold the loafs and then place them fold down into the bowls. Put bowls on the window sill (mine are 16C, or into the fridge).
- 9am: Pre-heat oven to 250C with pan inside, then bake the bread with closed lid for 18 minutes, then lower the temperature to 220C, take the lid off, and bake for another 18 minutes.
Enjoy!
