Tartine Country Bread

Ingredients

Equipment

• Large mixing bowl
• Kitchen scale
• Dough scraper
• Two 10 to 12 inch proofing baskets or bowls lined with towels
• Dutch oven or lidded cast-iron pot
• Lame or razor blade
• Wire rack

Method

1. No starter yet?. Mix the two flours for the flour mix. Stir 100 g of the mix into 100 g of warm water (about 80°F, 27°C) in a jar, cover with a towel and leave at room temperature until it bubbles and puffs, 2 to 3 days. Then feed it at the same time every day: throw away 80% and stir in 50 g each of warm water and flour mix. It is ready when it rises and falls on a predictable schedule and smells slightly sour, about a week.
2. Make the leaven. The night before, throw away all but 1 tablespoon of the mature starter. Stir it into 200 g of warm water, then mix in 200 g of the flour mix. Cover and leave at room temperature for about 12 hours, until airy and puffed. Drop a spoonful in water: if it floats, it is ready; if not, give it longer.
3. Mix. In a large bowl, stir 200 g of the leaven into 700 g of warm water. Keep the rest of the leaven as your starter. Add the 900 g bread flour and 100 g whole-wheat flour and mix by hand until no dry flour is left. It will be sticky and ragged. Cover and rest 25 to 40 minutes.
4. Add the salt. Add the salt and the last 50 g of warm water and squeeze them through the dough with your hands. It will come apart, then come back together.
5. Bulk rise with folds. Cover and keep the dough somewhere warm, ideally 75 to 80°F (24 to 27°C): a sunny room or a turned-off oven. After 30 minutes, start folding: with a wet hand, lift one side of the dough up and over the rest, turn the bowl a quarter and repeat, four folds in all. Fold like this every half hour for 2½ hours more, 3 hours in total. It should be billowy and 20 to 30% bigger. If not, keep going for up to another hour.
6. Divide and rest. Tip the dough out, dust the top with flour, cut it in half and flip both pieces floured side down. Fold the cut side of each up onto itself so the flour stays on the outside, which becomes the crust, and work them into taut rounds. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
7. Prepare the baskets. Mix the 100 g whole-wheat flour and 100 g rice flour for dusting. Line two baskets or bowls with towels and flour them generously with some of the mix.
8. Shape. Dust the rounds with flour and flip them floured side down. For each, pull the two corners nearest you down and fold them into the middle, then do the same from the right, from the left, and finally from the top, like folding a sheet of paper in from all four sides. Roll it over so the folds are underneath and shape it into a smooth, taut ball.
9. Proof. Put the loaves in the baskets seam side up, cover and leave in the same 75 to 80°F (24 to 27°C) spot for 3 to 4 hours. Or proof them in the fridge for 10 to 12 hours and let them come back to room temperature before baking.
10. Heat the pot. About 30 minutes before baking, put the Dutch oven in the oven to heat. Oven: 500°F / 260°C (240°C fan)
11. Bake. Dust the tops with the flour mix. Carefully take out the hot pot, turn one loaf in seam side down, score the top a few times, cover and put it back. Turn the oven down and bake 20 minutes, then take off the lid (watch for steam) and bake 20 minutes more, until deep golden brown. Oven: 450°F / 230°C (210°C fan)
12. Second loaf. Cool the loaf on a rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing; the bottom should sound hollow when tapped. Turn the oven back up, wipe out the pot and bake the second loaf the same way. Oven: 500°F / 260°C (240°C fan)