Roasted Hamster

Tartine's Whole Wheat Bread Recipe in Brief

I have noted that this recipe is “in brief“ because, frankly, the excellent descriptions from the Tartine Bread book are entirely too long to copy for a blog entry and then there is, of course, the risk of plagiarism if one copies that much text.

First, you need a sourdough starter. If you don't have one made already, you will find instructions here, and it will take you around a week to have it ready.

For 2 loaves

Drop the sourdough into the water and, if it floats, you are ready to go. Stir the sourdough into the water to break it up. Next, add the remaining ingredients and mix them up either with a large spoon or your hand. You will find this recipe very wet. The recipe will continue wetter than you might think it should be but it will become less wet as whole wheat flour absorbs more water over time than white flour. Now, cover your bowl with a wet towel and let it sit for a half hour to 45 minutes. This allows the flour to absorb some of the water and to gain more structure. You will now begin the first rise, which is sometimes called the bulk fermentation.

The bulk fermentation stage will need about 4 hours and a relatively warm place (if your kitchen is cool, it will simply take more time). For the first 2 hours, you will need to fold the dough over on itself by lifting dough from the bottom of the bowl and stretching it up and over itself. Dip your hand in water first, as this helps it from being too sticky. Stretch the dough up and over itself two or three times from different sides of the dough (so rotate your bowl as you do this to make sure that you work all of the dough). After the first time, set your timer for a half hour and then do this again. Repeat a total of 4 times. For the last two hours, let the dough sit, covered by a damp towel. The dough should increase in volume 20 to 30%. If you put a piece of tape on the outside of the bowl about 20% higher than the original volume, you will be able to easily tell how much it has risen until you become good at eye-balling it.

Once the dough has risen the necessary amount, pour it out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut it into two pieces. Now comes the hard part to describe. You need to form the dough into a ball. This is a good video that shows how it is done. I suggest that you watch it before you make these balls because it is much more clear than any description I could write, especially as it would lack pictures. Cover the balls with a damp towel again (I suggest that you dust the tops with flour first to keep the towel from sticking. I have had that happen and it completely destroyed the lovely air bubbles my bread had formed when I, with difficulty, peeled it off). Let them sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Now form them again, into tight balls as shown in the video. The Tartine Bread recipe says to proof these balls in towel lined bowls (rub the towels with flour or you will have problems with sticking again). I don't. I have found that I lose too many air bubbles when turning them upside down to put into the oven if I do so I place the balls onto a flour dusted piece of parchment paper and simply put the entire piece of paper into the dutch oven when it comes time to bake them. If you don't want to do that, you can also bake it in two loaf pans. You will find a video for that here. The video is for yeasted bread so don't expect your bread to rise as much as the bread in the video. Sourdough breads never rise as high as those made with commercial bread. They will lift when they hit the heat. Regardless of what you do, make sure to cover them with a damp cloth while they raise.

Let the bread rise for 3 to 4 hours (the warmer your room, the less time needed). You can, if you don't have time to bake it immediately, put it into the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours but, if you do this, make sure that you take the first loaf you want to bake out at 20 minutes before you want to bake. Preheat the oven to 500 F, with the dutch oven in it (unless you plan to use loaf pans, in which case cover them with aluminum foil but make sure that it has an inch or two between the top of the bread and the aluminum foil to allow it to rise in the oven and to have a place for the steam to rise and be trapped). Do this between 30 and 45 minutes before you plan to put the bread in. Take the dutch oven out, take the lid off (Use an oven mitt!), if you have used bowls as bread forms, gently turn them onto a piece of floured parchment paper, slash the top of it with a sharp knife or, if you have one, a double-edged razor blade (and do be careful not to cut yourself!), lift the parchment paper gently into the dutch oven, throw a couple of ice cubes in (you don't really need to do this but I have found that the extra steam does a world of good), put the lid back on, and put the dutch oven back into the oven. Turn the oven down to 450 F, unless your oven runs cool, as ours does, in which case leave it as is. Bake it for 20 minutes. Then take the lid off and bake it another 25 minutes. You want the bread to be a very dark brown but not black when you take it out. If it isn't, give it another 5 minutes.

Using an oven mitt, immediately take the bread out of the dutch oven and remove the paper from the bottom of it and set it on a metal drying rack. If you don't do this immediately, condensation will form (as I learned to my sorrow), making that lovely crust you worked so hard for wet and soggy. Now, if you can resist temptation, let the bread sit for an hour to cool down. This allows the water in the bread to distribute evenly and leaves you with a perfectly lovely loaf. If you can't resist the temptation to cut into it immediately, you might find that the center is just a tad gooey. It won't hurt anything.

If you won't eat both loaves within 2 or 3 days, put one loaf into the freezer, either heavily wrapped in plastic wrap (you MUST allow it to cool completely before you do this or you will get condensation) or in a zip-topped bag. Take it out and let it thaw (this takes several hours), then put it into a 350 F oven for about 10 minutes. When you freeze bread, the water concentrates itself and putting it in the oven both redistributes it and also re-crisps the crust. The bread will taste fresh from the bakery (or from your oven) and no one will ever know it was in the freezer if you don't tell them.

Enjoy!