Tartine Bread

by Chad Robertson, Eric Wolfinger (Photographer)

For the home or professional bread-maker, this is the book . It comes from a man many consider to be the best bread baker in the United States: Chad Robertson, co-owner of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, a city that knows its bread. To Chad, bread is the foundation of a meal, the center of daily life, and each loaf tells the story of the baker who shaped it. He developed his unique bread over two decades of apprenticeship with the finest artisan bakers in France and the United States, as well as experimentation in his own ovens. Readers will be astonished at how elemental it is. A hundred photographs from years of testing, teaching, and recipe development provide step-by-step inspiration, while additional recipes provide inspiration for using up every delicious morsel.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Culinary, Food and Drink

304 pages, ebook

First published September 29, 2010

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a LOT of bread books. This is the best. Not because it has hundreds of different recipes and fancy rolls and pastries- it doesn't. Not because it has breads from round the world- it doesn't. What it DOES have is the best sourdough bread you have ever tasted, with the simplest and most foolproof method ever. This bread beats anything you will buy, it has flavour, texture, colour and it keeps. The best toast in the known and unknown universes, and the recipe can be adjusted to your own circumstance and preference once you understand Chad's unique method and learn to 'feel' the development of your dough.

There are other no-knead recipe books out there. I have several. There are other great instructional books (Andrew Whitley's "Bread Matters" is actually the best one for understanding how to create and maintain your own sourdough starter) that you should have in your library, simply to understand bread and baking, if you are a true baker, but this particular method and ratio produces better bread than I have ever had before. My neighbour is a top chef, and we gave him a loaf- he rushed right over and wanted to know how I made it... I gave him some of my sourdough culture and the name of the book and he is now using this method at home... My kids think its the best bread ever.

[Steve Turtell · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is gorgeous but inadequate. The instructions are not clear and Robertson seems more interested in his image as a too-cool-for-you surfer dude baker than in creating a book that is what it should be: a fool-proof method for baking great bread at home. If that's what you want, I'd advise buying Jim Lahey's My Bread or Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, both of which I've used with zero problems ever--and Keller also gives expert foolproof instructions for making your own starter, so it's not as if the intention is any different than Roberston's. Tartine Bread excited me until I started using it. I had the same problems getting the results Robertson promised as did the many, many people who complain and ask questions on his blog. Don't believe me, go read them. And I worked as a professional baker for ten years and have made thousands of loaves of bread, so I didn't come at this like a complete amateur. Sorry, but I don't recommend this book unless you want to waste a lot of time and money on a trial and error approach that books like this are supposed to help you avoid.

[Mrs. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What this book is: a compilation of recipes from Tartine Bakery.
What it is not: a comprehensive bread baking book.

There really are only a few bread recipes in here, and the author goes into great, and I mean GREAT, lengthy detail about his breads, his philosophy, and how to make them. So, if you are not into creating and nursing sourdough starters, or don't need 20 pages of instructions to teach you how to make an artisan loaf of Tartine bread, this is not the book for you. There are plenty of other wonderful books on the market for that.

I would recommend this book for intermediate or advanced home bakers, or for professionals who are really looking to expand their bread baking repertoire.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

Baking has been keeping me entertained these days (! I know) and somehow the whole sourdough ‘thing’ got to me, as well as a couple of online friends. Down the rabbit hole we went LOL

Queue finding everything about how to create a ‘starter’, the joy when it becomes active (and of naming it - Tamagotchi), and finally trying to bake a loaf, which came out not bad at all. When I got to Chad Robertson’s book, I’d already learnt quite a bit and I think that helped a lot.

Tartine Bread is a brilliant book, which gives the reader tons of relevant information, such as how to tweak the taste of the bread you bake, from mild to fully sour (I prefer mild), or the differences between flours and how they react. I followed his Basic Sourdough loaf recipe and I must admit it worked better than the one I had done previously, and has become my ‘go to’ one. Once you’re ok with this, you can then go on to more challenging variants, which I shall be trying.

However amazing, I still fear that if you come to this book without any basic knowledge, it might overwhelm you. Therefore, I would recommend watching a series of YouTube videos introducing you to sourdough, such as Baker Bettie’s (https://bakerbettie.com/understanding...), and then try Robertson’s. If photographs/words don’t really work for you, another blogger/YouTuber, The Regular Chef, has filmed this very same recipe, showing you all the steps clearly (https://theregularchef.com/basic-sour...).



Happy baking :O)

[oks · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to understand the whole chemistry, the ins-and-outs of sourdough bread-baking from Tartine's perspective and with its history weaved in, then it's a beautiful, lengthy, well-illustrated read for that purpose.

But if you've read the whole book to the last page and all you want is to roll up your sleeves and make bread RIGHT NOW, then this book is a true nightmare to follow. I had to flip around 30 pages back and forth for a whole hour to reduce some resemblance of a recipe from it into my notebook - something I could look at while bread-making and to follow step by step.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the book does mention the importance of pre-planning and even how their colleague has created a lovely timechart for that purpose, as the dough will need attention at pretty strict times. BUT nowhere does it hand out instructions on how exactly to adapt the bread-making timeframe to your life (that exact chart would've been super helpful), and how much time to set aside for each step to understand when you should start the process to have fresh bread by time X - let's say, Saturday morning (I now know I have to feed the starter at 8am on Friday and make sure I set aside the whole Friday evening starting from 5-6pm for that purpose).

I had to deduce that all by myself and fail hard the first few times, as for example my first loaves got ready for baking around 3am, so by the time I actually got to baking them, they turned into a deflated mess.

I actually found Youtube videos much more helpful in understanding the timing and handling of the dough.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stars for the 10 pages of directions on how to make a perfect loaf - because I pretty much was able to make a perfect loaf.

I am also looking forward to potentially tackling english muffins and croissants!

There is a whole section about Robertson's path to breadmaking, and lots of artsy photos of food, and a bunch of recipes that use bread which seem overly complicated - so I'm not so into most of the book.

But, man! I made some GOOD LOAVES from Robertson's meticulous directions.

[Christine Sandquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

All you folks who are just discovering sourdough during quarantine: this is the book you've been looking for. This book is what helped me go from a good loaf to a *great* loaf of bread.

[Drew Rudman · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the bottom of my heart, thank you Chad Robertson.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Classic

This is the classic sourdough cookbook for home bakers. While it initially appears to be overly complicated and difficult, it teaches the basics and the science behind sourdough, i.e. natural leaven, baking. Once you understand the process explained in detail by Roberson, you can adjust to your style and preferences and enjoy.

[Benita · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a few reasons this book is so well regarded among home bread bakers. First, it's a gorgeous book. Second, it's not a recipe book or even a "cookbook." It has one master sourdough bread recipe, which can be adapted to create different types of loaves. It reads like an actual book and includes anecdotes, stories and gorgeous photos as well as a great section on test home bakers' thoughts and comments on how they made the base Tartine country bread recipe their own. Third, the Tartine method is simply fantastic.

I read this book cover to cover and then went back and re-read the actually recipe and variations and also the reasons behind the process before I actually baked my first loaf. It turned out even better than my expectations. Absolutely incredible sourdough bread.

One caveat: I used King Arthur Flour's step-by-step instructions on their site for creating and maintaining my starter. I found the starter creation section to be lacking and not as thorough as I would have liked as a sourdough beginner. KAF's starter instruction worked perfectly and I was able to develop a very active and flavorful starter for use to make the levain required for the Tartine bread.

The book does include a few recipes at the end for making use of all the bread you're sure to bake after learning the method. Some of these recipes are a bit fussy but some look pretty great. I appreciate that they were included.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had this book for a few years, but I just couldn't get myself to read it. I took the plunge this weekend.

Interesting book if you are into biographies. This is more a story of how Robertson became a famous Tartine baker (and surfer) than a recipe book - if you browse through you'll struggle to see the basic recipe in the midst of it all.

The process of describing how to make sourdough is long and waaay too complicated for a beginner and I'm speaking from experience, because I did not go into this as an amateur (I work as a bread baker). You can get a really good sourdough loaf without being as fussy as Robertson is (what he does is to be used when you are fine tweaking your variables). But hey... for SF, I'm not even surprised. Been there, done that. They make everything a religion.

In all honesty, I'm looking forward to reading his Tartine Book No. 3 more, becuase he has extra recipes there (actually outlined as recipes mind you) and uses other types of flours (mainly ancient grains). We'll see how that goes.

[Lauren Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book (along with some yeast, a bowl, and bread turning tool) as a gift for my wedding two years ago. I always wanted to make bread, but felt daunted by the task.

Then my good friend started making bread using the sourdough natural starter method (no yeast packets!) and I watched Michael Pollan's 4 part series on Netflix called "Cooked," of which one episode is dedicated to bread. I became motivated to make my own bread (finally) and this book called to me from the shelf.

Aside from being gorgeous, it is written at exactly my pace - he seems to really have zoned in on the spirit and purpose of breadmaking. I can't wait to hang out and make bread with my friend and begin a starter of my own.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really spent a long time with this one. I don't mean to be too big of a hater, because I did learn a lot from this book, but unless you are the world's most dedicated home baker, you're still going to find this process a bit arduous. The good: really sold me on the benefits of growing your own starter. The bad: kind of fussy, prissy process to getting to the end goal (especially *after* trying and succeeding with a no-kneed, Lahey-approved method).

On the plus side, the bread-based recipes (e.g., bahn mi, kale caesar) are delicious - even if the proportions are still more scaled towards serving a whole restaurant rather than 2 people having dinner at home.

[Jordan Carlson]

Such a beautiful book. I’ve been adoring sourdough and the whole process of making it, but wanting to understand the why’s of methodology more, and wanting to experiment with a new recipe…excited to try out some of what I learned. Gorgeous photography, good writing, and especially helpful section on test bakers. Did not care for Chapter 4 on days old bread…but maybe just because we never have extra bread to “use up” ;) …also, I just really enjoy reading stories about people doing what they love.

[Tiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baking bread is one of those things that just feels so soothing from start to finish, and Tartine does a wonderful job of getting you comfortable with a base go-to skill and then builds from there with more complex recipes and such. Loved this!

[Lindsay Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this is sacrilege but I found this book incredibly frustrating. I’ve been baking sourdough for years and actually learned the Tartine technique from a blog, so I thought I’d go to the source and read the book for myself.
If you are new to sourdough, you’d do (much) better to find a Tartine recipe online and watch an amateur baker demonstrate the steps on YouTube. The photos just aren’t helpful for something that involved simultaneous movement.
While the recipe I made turned out well the second time I tried it, the way the recipes are written is infuriating. Most bakers expect a list of ingredients (glad he does these using a scale and percentages; I expected no less), and then a list of steps with timing included. This is written in run-on paragraph form, making the baker have to do a bunch more “bakers math” to figure out the timing of it all. I would have happily read the long explanations, but they don’t belong as paragraphs in the set of recipe steps itself. The actual recipes and techniques may be great, but the writing of them was underwhelming.

[Dan Plonsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really going to read this entire book. It's basically designed as a coffee table book replete with beautiful pictures of details of bread-making. Robertson tells a bit about his history in baking, but without sufficient detail or drama to be really interesting. Then there are recipes. But the thing about learning to cook in the youtube era is this: a good book can't possibly compete with a halfway decent video, when one's hope is to learn new techniques. I learned to make a decent Tartine-style round loaf from "The Regular Chef," who credits and promotes this book:
easy sourdough bread recipe | tartine basic country.... Robertson describes, but this 15-minute video shows the techniques of folding, shaping, etc., which really need to be seen to be understood.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving instructions for sourdough in narrative form is asking a lot from readers, and the process is sometimes a little vague, assuming a knowledge that amateur sourdough bakers do not have. I mean, of course, it's a pretentious book. But I think it has earned the right to be. I learned a lot (am learning) and I am glad to use this book as a reference and have a single method to follow. Otherwise I'd get bogged down in the conflicting and varying instructions out there.

Will I make white gazpacho or chilled consomme with soldiers? Nope. But the pictures are pretty. I will make the pizza dough (tomorrow!) and the other bread variations though.

3.5 stars for information and aesthetics. Half a star dropped to account for all my eye rolls.

[Martin Smrek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd give 5 stars for the couple of actual bread recipes. And 1 star for the rest of the book covering recipes for what to do with an old bread and what to put on a bread, including a mind-blowing recipe for a bread with a butter and a slice of ham (who would have thought if that, right?). If you want to learn more about baking bread and how to control the process, don't waste your money on this book.

[Jodie Esler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bread glorious bread

Excellent book with really great, easily to understand information.
I’m definitely going to try some of the techniques and hope to get some real improvements in my results.

[C.X. Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was good. It was pleasant to read and it improved my bread and the fun I have making it.

[Trent Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book yields some very scrummy loaves of sourdough.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went to the bookstore to get some kind of bread cookbook. I found the Tartine Bread book a little daunting when I'd leafed through it before, but I bought it anyway because it was basically the only one they had. It turns out it's really straightforward and practical. The first loaf I baked was great, every one since has been better. The recipe is precise, but mostly of the text is devoted to how to adjust it based on your environmental and time constraints. It's perfect.

I've only really read the first half of the book, discussing how to make various breads. The second half is what to do with day-old bread - a huge collection of beautiful looking recipes. I've just been eating my bread with butter and occasionally honey or jam so I haven't needed to venture back there.

I've just made the basic country loaf and pizza, but I want to experiment with the baguette recipe next - mixing starter with yeast for a lighter recipe. Also rye breads and heartier whole wheat breads.

[Darius · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book and a fabulous method for making the best bread you have ever tasted. Certainly better than you can buy in the grocery store. It'll take time and practice, but the result is amazing.

Chad's descriptions make this possible. He lays out all the steps and describes well how the starter and dough should look and smell at every stage. I've made dozens of loaves over the last year and while I'm still not perfectly consistent, the bread is almost always superb.

But be warned. This is old-fashioned bread baking from natural starter using long rise times. Although it's not a lot of work through the day, it does take a whole day from start to finish.

[Dustin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is broken into three main parts:
1) A detailed guide for a basic sourdough bread.
2) Recipes for different types of bread (whole wheat, rye, olive, baguettes, etc). These are mostly variations on the basic loaf.
3) Recipes for using any bread you bake (pizzas, sandwiches, pan con tomate, bruscetta).

So far I have made the basic loaf a handful of times and part 1 is worth the price of admission. I expect I'll use many of the other types of bread in part 2, too. I like the idea of including a bunch of bread-based recipes in part 3, but I probably won't actually make them.

[Foxthyme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, gorgeous book. If you are a real bread lover, the kind of bread where you hunker in to chomp the crust and then chew the inner goodness--not that that supposed bread stuff that dissolves in water and smell like chemicals, well then this bread book is for you. The process may take a bit of coordinating at first, but when you have it down, you will be able to make the kind of bread people fly across the country to certain bakeries for.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back in 2008, this book set all of the standards for those looking to improve their bread backing. Since then most of the ideas championed here (relaxed schedules, high hydrating, little kneading, or manipulation of the dough) have been taken up by other bakers who have produced bread-making reference books which lack the deep background given here, but make up the difference with high quality color photographs, shorter and clearer instructions, and more recipes.

[Allie Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

God i love bread

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does one do when you are stuck in the Great Stay at Home Pandemic of 2020... why you try to grow a Sourdough Starter! (Key word...**try**).

This book came highly recommended by a friend, and so I got it and began reading. This is truly user friendly. It explains clearly what to do to get your starter going, how to maintain your starter, and then how to bake bread (and dozens of other things) using your starter. I have several Peter Reinhart baking books, but they seem complicated where as this book is truly streamlined and tested! (With test bakers that were not all bakers!!) If your goal is to bake sourdough bread, look no further! Get this book and get going!

I highly recommend!

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an abundance of exquisitely written chapters, and while I purchased it for the recipes, it was a delightful book to hold, to enjoy the photos, and to prepare for a style of bread making that is beyond the average bread instructional manual. In fact, when I consider James Beard’s Bread Book, Tartine has written new rules that Beard had not imagined. The encouraging text is inspiring for this long time bread maker to learn new rules!