Tartine Bread!

Well, the winter academic quarter is over, and I am now on spring break! This quarter was a doozy, so Mae and I are both glad to have some time to rest and catch up with each other. A month ago, we had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant called Bar Tartine up in the Mission in SF. This restaurant is very well known for its artisan bread, which we really enjoyed. Since they have a book available that guides newbies like Mae and me through the process of baking bread from scratch, we decided to give it a shot! 

We have been training a starter (yeast culture made with water and a 50/50 mix of white and wheat flour) for several weeks and it was finally ready to use last weekend. Here are some photos of the day-long process of making our first two loaves! 

Chris mixes salt and water into our newly prepared dough.

Transferring the dough to a container so it can rise and ferment for 3-4 hours.

During the "bulk fermentation," Chris had to turn the dough every 30 minutes, folding it over onto itself several times.

After the initial 3-4 hour rise, we split the dough into two clumps and shaped them into loaves.

Mae is folding the dough into a neat little package, sealing air inside, and keeping the flour on the outside.

Cute little loaf!

After getting the loaves ready, they need to rise for another 3-4 hours at a cool temperature.

Fast forward!  Chris is pulling out our first loaf of homemade, artisan bread!

Lookin' good!!!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...