I had one of those weeks where my baking was going downhill. Gummy bread and other disasters. So I did what I do on those occasions – go back to FWSY. And I now have enough experience to appreciate how fantastic his approach is. A simple and robust process that does not require attending to the dough for hours, repeatedly producing great (and open crumb of course) bread. This one, based on the Saturday white formula:
250 gr bread flour
250 gr whole spelt
360 gr water @ 33C
10 gr salt
2 gr instant yeast
Autolise water and flours for 20 minutes
Use the pincer method to add salt and yeast, fold twice – after 10 minutes and after 30 minutes.
Bulk for 5 hours until tripled in size, pre-shape, shape and proof for about an hour
Bake
I feel like I should go back to a FWSY recipe too. Maybe this weekend!
I broke down and bought a 50lb bag of the flour he mentions, Shepherd's Grain. I got the hi protein version, and my Tartine bread was amazing. I never had a dough behave so well.
Alright, I'm getting the book and wrapping it up for myself. I eat Ken's bread often, it's incredible. Incidentally, a quarter of one of his miches sells for $6 at my local market. And worth every penny. But yikes.
As long as you're book-shopping, if you don't already have it, I recommend Reinhart's book "Whole Breads," which is currently on sale for only $2.99 in Kindle format.
https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Reinharts-Whole-Grain-Breads-ebook/dp/B004IK8PFU?tag=froglallabout-20
That's cheap enough, that even if you're not a fan of Reinhart, it's worth it just for use as a reference. If you're not already familiar with it, it is not totally 100% whole grains. There are plenty of partially-white-flour formulas.
I've baked from FWSY with great success; however, Ken Forkish by his own admission prefers a less sour sourdough bread and his recipes reflect that, but my wife and I much prefer sour sourdough bread, so I bake using methods from other bakers. This is a taste preference and not a criticism.
I started with Forkish's book FWSY and it is a great book to start as it clearly explains the bread making process with detailed instructions, timing and pictures.
However - it doesn't really or clearly explain why you are doing things and some of his methods are inefficient or makes the process harder and messier. Also his method of starting and maintaining a sourdough (levain) culture are extremely wasteful - no need to use such large amounts and discard so much. Also he uses too long a bulk ferment and too short a proofing. No need to double or triple volume in bulk ferment - most others (Hamelman, Chad Robertson) suggest you need a 30% increase in volume in the bulk ferment.
The bible of artisan bread making is Bread by Jeffery Hamelman. It is not necessarily easy to read as it does not give such a clear description of the bread making process but it gives a lot of information as to why you are doing things, how hydration will change with flour types and why, how to fold (more or less depending on flour types), how to mix...and there are great You Tube videos of Hamelman making bread that helps a lot.
Hamelman was really written mostly for professional bakers but does deal with home bakers as well. It is a little dense to read but well worth investing in.