Current Tartine Bread Procedure

Merry Christmas!

This is my current bread protocol, and I’m tired of flipping through this raggedy notebook on a 3-week basis every time I reawaken Breado from his slumber.

For his tri-weekly feed, I usually take him out of the fridge in the morning, scrape off the oxidized layer on top, and give him a big 3x feed to reawaken him. 12 hours later, I give him another 3x feed and stick him straight in the fridge for 3 weeks and write down his next feed date on the board.

Out of paranoia that the scoop I choose to feed isn’t alive anymore, I end up taking using a larger than necessary dollop for the refresh. I’m not exactly sure starters even work like that, but either way my abundance of caution leaves me with way too much leftover to discard. I end up usually feed that part again, and make bread with it the next morning after a small refresher feed.

The timeline:

Day 0: Starter feed

1. 9AM - In a quart deli, let sit on counter:

   • 15g fridge starter

   • 45g water

   • 45g AP flour

2. 9PM - In an 8oz deli straight into the fridge:

   • 5g active starter

   • 15g AP flour

   • 15g water

3. 9PM - In a quart deli, let sit on the counter:

   • 30g starter

   • 60g flour

   • 60g water

It sounds like I’m still throwing away a lot of discard at 9pm, but with the scraping and container transfers I don’t end up wasting that huge of a dollop.

Day 1: Make Bread

1. 9AM (5 hrs before mixing) starter refresh:

   • 100g starter

   • 25g AP flour

   • 25g whole wheat flour

   • 50g water

2. Noon (2 hrs before mixing) autolyse:

   • 100g starter

   • 350g water

   • 450g bread flour

   • 50g whole wheat flour

3. 2PM Mix dough:

   • Combine

   • + 12g salt

4. Fold, proof, etc is similar to the other recipes. I might knead some by hand sometimes, or use the mixer for 2 min on med + 2 min on high others.

5. The rest is the same. It’s just this timeline & these numbers I keep looking up monthly, so I’m jotting it down here for my own references.

The morning refresh really sort of frees my sleep and life schedule from being planned around mixing the dough by the time it peaks the next morning. Even if it’s not 100% there on a cold day, or I’ve forgotten and slept in, I can go by when the refresher is ready to use since it’s easier to be more flexible on that front throughout the day.

OUr apartment has manual heaters that we turn off at night, so the living area gets very cold overnight and the starter sometimes takes 15-16 hours to peak. In the morning, after heating the living area, sometimes the refresher is ready to use by 4 hours.

I really enjoy just making a loaf every few weeks. I usually end up having the energy to do it and am not so obsessed with crumb that I’m burnt out by the process. This will also go perfectly with the season of soup I’m attempting to start today too.

First up this week, kalbi tang, Alison Roman’s “The Stew,” the classic chicken noods.

TIME TO DO AUTOLYSE!