Tarting or Tartine Revised?

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Annie on 10 Aug 2020 at 11:37

Hi...newbie baker, and I’m ready to buy some bread books.  Since I’m doing sourdough, Tartine really appealed to me.  But I see there is an updated version, written by his wife (who I know is a pastry chef). So which one  should I buy?

would also love to hear from folks who suggest a favorite bread book for me to consider

Many thx!

I may be in the minority here, but I am not a big fan of the Tartine bread books.  The pastry stuff is ok and unique - I've made some of her cookies.  I found the bread formulas and instructions to be terrible when I began baking.  Now that I have more experience, I find them to be a bit off.  You really have to know your flour, your starter, etc. and make adjustments based on experience.  The first book that led me to a successful (ie. not dense, actually had a decent open crumb) was Ken Forkish' Flour Water Salt Yeast.  It definitely gave me a foundation, although it's mostly different variations of one formula.  Being able to bake my first good loaf inspired me to keep learning.  Tartine also has one "master" formula and method, but I seem to always have problems with his stuff.  If I follow his directions, it fails.  If I go with my gut and experience and adjust, I do OK - but not as good as I do with Maurizio's "The Perfect Loaf."  I highly suggest that you visit his site and donate to his site.  It's fantastic for beginnings and beyond.  

Bread Baker's Apprentice is also nice for learning.  

 

 

 

Thx!  I’ve also been looking at FWSY. I think I’ll get that instead. I have discovered The Perfect Loaf site. Was overwhelming at first, but am getting more experience so it’s making more sense. There’s just so much out there!  Am really loving baking?

In baking bread. I love the book but there are a few thinks you take with a big grain of salt in that book. I’ll do point form to keep it simple. 

• 6 quart/litre bucket is plenty big. You don’t need the expensive 12 quart bucket

• his room temp is 70F during the day and 65F at night so his timings don’t work for most people. Worked for me but this is a huge complaint. Use the volume descriptions rather than the times. 

• when making a starter, please cut the amounts he uses way down. He is incredibly wasteful and you’ll be throwing out kilos and kilos of flour. Same thing when feeding your starter. 

Otherwise it’s a great book and his bread tastes fantastic!

Welcome to TFL.

"Tartine" and its 2nd edition, by Elizabeth and Chad, is pastries, sweets, desserts.

"Tartine All Day" by Elizabeth, is main dishes and meals.

"Tartine Bread", by Chad, is breads, with mostly white flour, some WW.

"Tartine Book No. 3", by Chad, is breads, with more WW, and with specialty grains.

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Perhaps the best living bread _teacher_ is Peter Reinhart.

If you want to do bread with less than 50% WW, then his Bread Baker's Apprentice and Artisan Breads Every Day are good. For breads of 50% and more WW, then his "Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads" is good.

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Amazon is not discounting bread cookbooks like they used to, due to the high demand of isolation bakers.  And the cheap used books are all gone, and the used prices are jacked up.

I would recommend browsing Chad Robertson's, Forkish's, and Reinhart's books at a library to see which one(s) best match your interest and learning style.  Half Price Books is another good source.

also see my list at: 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61370/my-breadpizza-library-kindle-and-hard-copy

and:  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61698/my-favorite-bread-pizza-authors

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Try to use those links to Amazon so that our webmaster here can get some referral fees to help pay for the web site hosting.

 Bon appétit !

I’m a huge fan of Reinhart and use his method in Artisan Breads Every Day with some modifications for my standard baking method.  It’s much simpler than starting out trying to master Tartines’ methods.  Always better to start with easier basic formulas no matter what before diving down the rabbit hole.

I have had Hamelman and Reinhart books for years and they're great.  I just got Tartine and really appreciate all the photos in there that lets me see at each stage how the dough should look. (wish i had that sooner).

I love all these books wholeheartedly and really appreciate all the formulas and history. Buy the books.  (not necessarily all at once).  I still open the books to the various pages I've put a sticky on to bookmark regularly to use the recipes.

But being a very visual person, I also really appreciate what YouTube has to offer. There are many baking channels out there and many of them focus on sourdough.  Some I appreciate more than others.  My favorites include FoodGeek , King Arthur Baking Company and Bake With Jack 

Happy baking!

James

 think I have learned more from this website and the people on it, along with theperfectloaf.com fullproofbaking IG feed and YouTube channel.  I have several books and do read them and have used some of their ideas.  As a beginner I started out with Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday.  I eventually wanted to start making sourdough and heard so much about Tartine, so purchased that.  I have since purchased FWSY when it went on sale, Trevor Wilson’s Open Crumb Mastery which as an intermediate sourdough baker I’m finding excellent and finally I recently purchased Bertinet’s Dough when it was on sale.