Tartine

How to Make Sourdough Bread: Video of Chad Robertson's Tartine Sourdough

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• published: 29 May 2016
• views: 9493

Sourdough bread, at its best, is one of the most satisfying things I can think of. When it’s made with a passion for the craft at home — as our family friend Tom makes it — it’s an art form of utter deliciousness. It’s a relatively long process to make it at home, but with this video I’m attempting to give you a comprehensive look at the entire process, from beginning to end. This is not a typical, short QKatie video, but I decided to do a slightly longer video to actually help and inform those of you who want to try it! As a newcomer to the sourdough process, it seems complicated — but I promise, once you give it a try step-by-step, you’ll see that it’s more simple that it appears at first glance. A huge thanks to Tom, who is a literature professor by day but moonlights as the best bread baker in all of Ohio. Below I’ve written out all of the steps for you so you can try this at home, while using the video as a visual reference for the various steps. Tom’s go-to resource is Chad Roberston’s “Tartine Bread” — which Tom highly recommends purchasing if you’re serious about getting into this. HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH BREAD: First, you need starter. This is a dough that already has those natural yeasts in it. It’s possible to make your own starter, but that’s a video in and of itself. If you know anyone who makes sourdough (a friend or a neighborhood restaurant), just ask them for some of their extra starter. Next, make your Levain. 80 grams of white flour and 80 grams of whole wheat flour. Then add 160 grams of water. So equal parts your and water — Levain is a 50/50 mix. Add a generous tablespoon of starter and mix it in. Let sit for 8 hours. Measure 1050 grams of water and add it to a large container. Measure 300 grams of your Levain and add it to the water. Mix with your hands. Measure 1350 grams of white bread flour (he uses King Arthur). This recipe calls for 150 grams of whole wheat flour. Mix gently with your hands until the flour is well incorporated with the Levain/water mixture. Let sit for 25-40 minutes. Then add 30 grams of salt and an additional 75 grams of water. Get the water and salt mixed in with the dough, using your hands — which you’ve damped beforehand to prevent the dough from sticky to them. He scrapes the dough away from the sides then begins stretching. Stretch from 12 o’clock and pull it down to 6 o’clock (rotate a quarter and repeat, until you’ve stretched the dough 4 rotations), repeat for a total of 4 times every 30 minutes. Then put onto a floured tabled and cut in half. He weighs each half to make sure they’re the same weight. Cover and keep in the fridge overnight. The next morning take it out of the fridge about a half hour before you want to work with it. The dough will have some air bubbles in it, but don’t expect it to have risen double it’s size — that’s typical of other bread recipes, but not of sourdough. Now you’ll cut that in half and weigh it to make sure both halves are even. Get ready for the dough to be quite sticky here, which is why you want to cover your hands with flour, then gently shape each half into a circle/disk. Put it on the counter in a warm, draft-free place and cover with a cloth. Let rest for 25 minutes. Then it’s time for bread baskets and final shaping. Sprinkle flour over the bread baskets — 1 part rice flour and 1 part bread flour. Flour your hands and stretch the dough. Stretch each 4 sides out then over, and then one final fifth time. Add to the bread baskets you’ve prepared and place in the same draft-free spot it was in, and cover. Let rest for an hour to two hours — depending on temperature. It’s ideal if the area is 85 degrees. (Should be no less than 80 degrees, no warmer than 90 degrees). Now Tom heats up his cast iron holders in the oven at 550 degrees, or as hot as your oven will go. He adds some of the rice flour/white flour combo on top of the bread so his finger doesn’t stick when he does this test: he pokes the dough and if the indentation stays, it’s ready. If it bounces back, it’s not ready. Then he adds a layer of the rice flour/white flour mixture on top. Invert the dough onto a pie or tart pan’s circular bottom and he brushes off the excess flour with his handy invention of a razor blade on a coffee stirrer (you’ve gotta check out this part of the video, if you haven’t yet!) He uses that same tool to create the design on top of the bread. Turn the oven down to 450. Then he adds it to the cast iron pan and covers it. Bake for 20 minutes. At that point you’ll want to remove the lids, and bake for another 20 minutes. Remove the beautiful bread you just baked, and let cool on a wire rack. Then, ENJOY! You should pat yourself on the back — YOU DID IT!!! :) Produced, filmed, edited and hosted by Katie Quinn