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Country Sourdough- Tartine Bread Recipe

Once you embrace the style of the Tartine bread recipe, you'll never go back to the long fermentation process of other sourdough recipes. 

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Prep Time 8 hours
Cook Time 45 minutes
Serving Size 2 loaves

Ingredients

For the Leaven

  • 200 grams water
  • 200 grams all-purpose flour
  • 200 grams starter

For the Dough

  • 750 grams water
  • 200 grams leaven
  • 900 grams white all-purpose flour
  • 100 grams whole-wheat flour
  • 20 grams salt

Instructions

  • Step 1: The night before you plan to bake, feed your starter by adding 200 grams of lukewarm water and 200 grams of flour to 2 Tablespoons of starter. Stir vigorously, cover, and leave on your kitchen counter overnight. The temperature of your kitchen will affect the rise time, but by morning your starter should have doubled in size.
  • Step 2: Now that you have an active starter or leaven, you will use it to mix the dough. In a large bowl, combine 750 grams of water with 200 grams of leaven. Stir to disperse. Then add 900 grams of white flour and 100 grams of whole-wheat flour. Stir until there are no dry bits of flour. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
  • Step 3: Add 20 grams of salt (I prefer Redmond's) and just a little bit of water and fold the dough into itself to incorporate. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
  • Step 4: For this step, you will perform a series of "stretch and folds" instead of kneading the dough. Stretch and fold the dough every half hour for 2 1/2 hours. Be sure you have wet hands before folding to prevent sticking. After 2 1/2 hours, you should see about a 30% increase in volume. If not, give it another 30 minutes to an hour.
  • Step 5: Using your dough scraper, pull the dough from the bowl onto an un-floured surface and cut it into 2 pieces. Gently shape it into two rounds by gently cupping the dough, pulling and twisting it towards you while building surface tension. Cover each round with a glass bowl and rest for 20-30 minutes. This will keep the surface of the dough from getting hard.
  • Step 6: Place each round into a fabric-lined banneton basket sprinkled with rice flour. Cover and let rest for 3-4 hours.
  • Step 7: About half an hour before baking, place your empty dutch oven inside the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. At the end of the resting time, turn your rounds out onto a piece of parchment paper. Using a bread lame, razor blade, or sharp knife, make 2 deep diagonal slashes into the rounds. Transfer dough by the corners of the parchment paper like a sling and very carefully place it into the preheated Dutch oven.
  • Drop the oven temp to 450 and bake with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes until the outer surface is golden brown.
  • *Be sure to preheat again before baking your second loaf. If you prefer a dark brown crust, simply bake a little longer until you get the color you're looking for.
  • Allow the bread time to cool on a wire rack for 1-2 hours before slicing. If you cut into your loaves too early the dough will be gummy.