Chronicle Books Tartine Bread

This book is good but has a confusing way especially for beginners. The photos are displayed first with the comments mentioned later without any numbering so you have to guess which comes first. It is written by a professional and the methods are nice but it took me a while to understand. The book table of content is very short and you have to go to index to find recipes. I really want to try some recipes as I feel it will let you bind with what you feel with your hands.

Baskı ve sunum muhteşem. İçerik beklentimin üstünde.

I am not formally trained, but I am a seasoned baker. I have made bread for years, but I have had THE WORST luck with making sourdough bread. I was on the verge of thinking there was no hope for me, until... THIS BOOK CAME ALONG!!!!! I was seriously on my last try before I labeled it as a hopeless cause. I made the best damned sourdough you could possibly imagine using the Tartine Bread book!!! Crackling crust, beautiful crumb, pronounced, but not overpowering tartness, incredible spring, bubbles throughout... I couldn't believe it! Now, I'm pretty sure I can make just about anything!!!! I have read many books on the subject, but none of them go into the depth that is required to actually teach a person how to make sourdough. The author describes each step in detail, including what to note in terms of smell, appearance, feel, etc. Detailed pictures supplement this instruction. Also, his back story detailing his journey in bread-making is truly inspiring! I really enjoyed reading it. There is something truly noble and humble about bringing bread to the masses. A fantastic read... I'd give this book a million stars if I could!

I am very glad that I bought it.

I wanted to start baking my own bread because of how difficult it is to get a decent loaf of bread that is not loaded with chemicals and preservatives. I started out with some King Arthur Flour recipes available online, and quickly decided I wanted to try my hand at sourdough breads. I followed the instructions over at King Arthur Flour to create a starter, received a little advice from The Fresh Loaf forum, and then decided to buy this book. As others have written, the book is not one that has hundreds of bread recipes in it, although there are actually quite a few. I have baked two loaves from the book -- the Basic Country Loaf, and the same bread with roasted walnuts. The breads have been amazing. And what is perhaps more exciting, the same dough makes fantastic pizza. Is it worth the price? Well, it was to me. It was nice to have a set of instructions to read over a bunch of times before taking the plunge into making my first Tartine loaf. Chad Robertson gives a lot of detail, and quite frankly, the instructions are a bit overwhelming and could do with some serious editing. Not because they are confusing, but because they are very lengthy. There is nothing wrong with lengthy; but I encourage anybody reading this book to sit down at their computer and type up those portions of the instructions that they need to bake the basic country loaf, and then print those out. Otherwise you will find yourself needing to turn pages with sticky hands to figure out what you are supposed to do since the recipe spans many pages, and the book is too beautiful and expensive to get dirty. If you are not familiar with bread baking, but you are willing to commit the time to learning and making this "no knead" bread, you won't be disappointed. But, I would do what I did first, and get a sourdough starter that is working nicely before buying the book. It will only be a huge frustration if you buy the book and never get the starter to work. While he gives instructions for creating a starter, I can't say with certainty that they will work for everybody. You can always try it after you've created your own following the advice from King Arther Flour or another source. The process for the basic loaf boils down to this: Take some of your starter (you can take it straight from the fridge, unfed), and build a levain with it. That just means adding water and flour to it, and letting it sit out on the counter for 12 hours or so. Once the levain is ready (a spoonful of it will float in a bowl of water), you mix the rest of the flour and water and make a very sticky dough, which you will "turn" 4-6 times over the the course of 4 hours. Then you can divide the dough and make pizzas with it, or divide it and shape into loaves which will then "proof" in a bowl or basket, overnight in your fridge. The next morning, you can fire up the oven, and get baking. He suggests the Lodge Combo Cooker, and that is what I purchased here on Amazon. It is basically two cast iron pans where one acts as a lid to the other, and traps the steam generated from the wet dough as it bakes. I have never had a problem with my breads burning on top or on bottom, however, if you bake too low on the stove you may find that the bottoms burn. Baking in the middle rack as suggested, has always given me beautiful loaves. I've "scored" my bread (cut it before baking) with a sharp knife or with kitchen shears. The breads make great grilled cheese, PB&J, toast and that is basically all I have done with them to date. They also taste great fresh out of the oven (well, after waiting a couple of hours). I've added a photo of one of my best tasting loaves yet. You will see that I baked it rather dark. It does not follow any formula in the book though it is based entirely on the book's process using the same ratio of levain to flour, etc. It is just that altered the percentage of All Purpose, Whole Wheat and Whole Rye flours to suit what I had on hand. Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast is also an excellent book with similar baking techniques (i.e., lodge combo cooker) but has both commercial yeast and sourdough recipes which also come out quite amazing.

If you really want to make amazing bread, Chad Robertson is your man. Unlike many English writers who put the emphasis on the 'sour' in Sourdough, Chad explains how to make beautiful bread with easy to make natural leaven (no yeast), without the need for the sour taste that many dislike. It has long been held that modern baking methods, using excessive yeast and energy are the cause of many people's intolerance to bread. Robertson helps to explain this, along with his well researched, long refined and detailed methodology for making outstanding bread. Stylish design with hundreds of outstanding photographs and a striking cover mean this will be a go-to book for many home bakers and a attractive addition to the coffee table for others. Stunning!