Tartine Bread, First Loaves

I got the Tartine Bread Book a while back, and got real excited about it. I was thinking this is the new No Knead Bread, the next new thing to come to bread baking. Buy Tartine Bread on Amazon Buy Tartine Bread on IndieBound

Tartine's method is based on starting your own 'starter' or leaven batch that sits on your counter, and you feed everyday to keep it viable. I tried to make a starter, and it didn't start. Then I got distracted for a few months.

Then I again picked up the Tartine Bread book. Its a beautiful book, clearly the authors and photographer worked hard on this. I decided to try once again to make the starter, which would allow me to make amazing bread.

This time I followed the instructions [ if all else fails, read directions ] and the starter started! So I read the first part of the book a bunch of times during the week, determined to bake Tartine Bread on the weekend.

The slow rise local leaven dough takes a while to become bread, there are two rises, the long one being either 3-4 hours in a warm place, or overnight in the fridge. The basic bread recipe makes two loaves, so for one loaf I did the 3 hour rise, and the second loaf i did the overnight fridge rise.

Constantly re-reading the directions, I actually baked bread, the first loaf was not bad, as shown in the photo, but the second loaf was pretty amazing.

We'll be posting more posts on making bread with the Tartine Bread Book, and eventually a video too. I have a bunch of photos of starting the starter for the next in our Tartine Bread posts here.

Do you use a starter for your breads, how does it work for you? Let us know below:

Buy on IndieBound