he's so lovely

so, this is my third or fourth attempt at the first post. i wasn't sure how to begin. then it dawned on me, right, that all of you may want to know that i finally met Chad. as you can imagine, i felt like a thirteen year old meeting, i don't know, who's the most popular rock star these days? i'm too old to know.

and oh. he's so lovely.

as is his crew, who were hard at work when I arrived - Lori, swiftly and deftly shaping a forest of impressively hydrated loaves, Crystal ushering perfectly fermented mounds of dough into the maw of an enormous oven that hissed and steamed like some dark beast. with grace, these women worked, and seriousness. tartine bread is serious, one can be sure of that.

touring the tiny kitchen was like arriving at mecca. dewy and powerfully perfumed, one had the sense of being lacquered with something living, something sensational. i secretly hoped that i could later scrape some of the microbes from my coat sleeves and stir them into my starter. and the starter. a fawn-colored mere simmering in a bucket on a high shelf. when Chad thrust it under my nose, i knew exactly what that bread was going to taste like. the bread. that bread. when Chad gave me a loaf the size of one of the wheels on my '91 honda civic, its bark rugged and swarthy as roasted cocoa beans and festooned with shavings of goldish oat, i had forgotten what tartine bread was, i had forgotten the indescribable essence encapsulated in those holy loaves. though i was quickly reminded when i yanked off chunks and devoured handfuls as i later drove over the bay bridge. imagine: the crust, smoky, dark, chocolate, like some mayan aphrodisiac. and the crumb. oh, the crumb. a glossy, nacreous alveolation that begins with a bit of tang, moves into honey, and finishes long with vernal flora. if you think i'm being irrationally musical, you won't when i tell you that a tartine line begins at 8:30 a.m., and by 9:00 a.m. when they open their doors, the queue has extended up the block, and threatens to wrap itself round the next street over. and it's like this every day. Crystal cannot shove those loaves into her ovens fast enough.

and so this is tartine.

tartine's oat porridge bread

the thing about tartine is that despite its world-famous reputation, it remains humble. our guru was there with his crew - the two Jackie Browns of bread baking doing their thing, and then there were Nick and Richard alchemizing, fermenting. he was wearing a blue knit cap and ample beard, sleeves rolled up and plunged deeply in his work. there was not a lick of pretension about him, despite that together with his wife Elizabeth he owns two thriving restaurants, never mind the three books they've authored, all of which are a hefty force in the world of food writing. and still he took time out to meet an adherent crazy enough to take on two of his books.

which brings me to this really important bit. as soon as i got my copy of three, i immediately knew that i had the green light to get myself a komo mill. i had been wanting one since i began this whole affair, but my bread pursuit was still inchoate, and i could not justify it until i really understood what i was doing. the first few pages of three told me that i couldn't really move through the book without one. so i got a classic. much bigger and far more powerful than i could ever have imagined (plenty of power for what we are doing, you do not need the XL, trust me). i also got a sieve setup with 4 removable screens in 4 mesh sizes to sift the flour and control the amount of bran. as you can see, i already have the mill which i used today for the first time to mill dark rye berries to feed my starter, and all i can say is, damn. i am about to make some serious bread.

i will photograph the other toys when they arrive. but you have the links now so you can get yourself prepared for this part of the journey in the next week or two. i also have tons of information about sourcing whole grains which i will share in the next post. i have some things in the works that will be of interest to you all. i want to say, don't be dismayed by the prospect of sourcing grains. i have narrowed down a nice little list and will include links as well so you don't have to flounder about trying to figure out where to go. and of course, as we move through this part of the journey i will continue to include the source of the grains in a given bread. all of them are available online, which means that you can get them wherever you are in the world.

so lets get started. if we can make bread half as ambrosial as Chad's, then 2014 is going to be one hell of a sweet ride.

to the staff of life!

2014...

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Meet me back here in January. We have a lot of (fun) work to do!

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to the staff of life!

i can't believe that i'm actually saying goodbye. it's not forever, i mean, i will leave this blog up for posterity, but i will no longer be contributing new posts. every fine experiment must come to an end, you know. think of this blog as a book. i refer to it as often as you when i've forgotten a detail, and even chad's book has a final page, as does proust's 'in search of lost time', and we all know how long that book is. in fact, i think that he actually died with a pen in his hand (i'm talking proust here) so, if he was immortal, perhaps 'in search of lost time' would still be in the process of being penned: and furthermore!

parmesan & lucques olive: the farewell boule

in keeping with my nature in never lingering over a farewell, i give you my final post. thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for joining me on this road. thank you for all of the comments and emails about how my blog has helped you overcome your bread fears. this is why i began the blog to begin with, and so, i have accomplished my goal.

i want to thank susan at wild yeast blog who helped me on my bread path from the start, and who gave me a place to share my discovery with you. if not for susan, there would be no tartine bread experiment, because i would never have gotten a starter off the ground (for reals). i also wanted to thank all of the people who have installed my blog on their blog lists, i can't tell you what an honor that is.

they say that 'you are only as good as your last _____', and i am happy to say that not a single person has ever written to me to tell me that their starter or bread did not turn out when using this blog. in fact, every comment has detailed the contrary. we have overcome some mysteries together, we've worked some things out, we have held one another's hand. you, dear reader, have educated me along the way. et, voila! by now i think that we are all chad-worthy bakers.

so this is the moment when the tartine bread experiment is no longer an experiment, but an homage to chad robertson who has opened up the sexy world of bread to people like you and me who never thought making something so divine in our very own kitchens was remotely possible. thank you chad (even though you don't know who the hell i am), and THANK YOU ALL!

francis-olive

ADIEU!

the final formula:

LEVAIN DAY:

the night before you plan to make the dough, make your levain:

50g 100% hydration whole rye starter

100g to your health sprouted spelt flour

100g cold filtered h2o

mix this all up to a paste, and ferment overnight. mine fermented for 8 hours.

DOUGH DAY

all of the levain
360g cold filtered h2o
555g KA bread flour
147g lucques olives*
120g parmigiano-reggiano cheese, chopped into bits
26g good fruity olive oil
11g salt

*the olives weighed 219g before i pitted them. the weight above is the pitted weight.

dissolve the levain in the h2o. mix the flour in until you reach a shaggy mass. autolyse this for one hour.

shaggy mass.

after 1-hour autolyse

after the autolyse, squish the salt and olive oil into the dough with your fingers. now begins the 4-hour bulk fermentation, the first 2 hours of which you will perform a series of turns every half hour; this is done at room temp. during the first turn, fold in the cheese and olives. try to keep the cheese and olives encased in the dough while you are doing your turns.

after the first 2 hours with turns, pop in the fridge for the final 2 hours. after the bulk fermentation, turn the dough out onto a rice-floured work surface, gather it up into a loose round, and rest for 15 minutes. after the 15-minute bench rest, work the dough into a tight boule.

pop the dough into a bowl that has been lined with a rice flour-dusted linen, cover with a dampened square of cheesecloth, and cover with a bowl or a plate. pop in the fridge for 18 hours.

BAKE DAY

an hour before you plan to bake, pop your combo cooker into the oven (your stone should be in there. always, right?) and preheat to 550. when the oven is good and hot, pull the dough out of the fridge.

unearth the dough and score it DEEPLY; slide it into the oven and pop the lid on. turn the heat down to 475 and steam for 30 minutes.

after the 30 minute steam, remove the lid. turn the oven down to 450 for 15 minutes, then down to 425 and bake till golden, maybe another 15 minutes. watch it. the cheese will burn if its baked too long.

verdict: the crust turned out brittle and light, the crumb uber tender and open, and of course, i don't have to tell you how good it is. the 18 hour final fermentation, and the addition of cheese and olive oil make this boule as decadent as it looks. this is the perfect denouement to a wonderful journey.

THE CURTAIN CALL

TO THE STAFF OF LIFE!