Tartine-Style
Sourdough Bread Recipe:
A Step-by-Step Guide

Yield: One large loaf, approximately 850–900 g after baking
Total dough weight: About 1,010 g
Hydration: Approximately 73%
Recommended dough temperature: 24–26°C (75–79°F)
Bulk fermentation: Approximately 4–5 hours
Cold proof: 8–14 hours
Baking temperature: 250°C (480°F), then 230°C (445°F)

Fermentation times are only a guide. The appearance and feel of the dough are more important than the clock.

• 450 g bread flour
• 50 g whole-wheat flour
• 350 g water
• 100 g active wheat sourdough starter at 100% hydration
• 10 g salt

The starter contains another 50 g of flour and 50 g of water. This brings the total flour in the dough to 550 g and the total water to 400 g, giving the bread an actual hydration of about 73%.
Use strong bread flour if possible. A weak flour may have difficulty holding this amount of water, especially during a long fermentation.

Use the starter when it is active, airy, and close to its peak.

A ready starter usually has increased noticeably in volume and is filled with small and medium bubbles. Its top may be domed or just beginning to flatten. The aroma should be pleasantly fermented, with a mild lactic acidity rather than a sharp smell of acetone.

Do not rely only on the float test. A starter can float and still be too young or already past its strongest point. Its rise, aroma, and internal structure tell you much more.

If the starter has already collapsed significantly, feed it again and wait for the next peak. Tartine-style bread needs enough fermentation power to lift a fairly wet dough.

Combine the bread flour, whole-wheat flour, and 330 g of the water. Reserve the remaining 20 g for adding the salt later.

Mix until no dry flour remains. The dough will look rough and may feel slightly stiff at this stage. Cover it and leave it to rest for 30–45 minutes.

This rest allows the flour to absorb the water and begins gluten development before the starter and salt are added. The dough usually becomes smoother and more extensible without intensive kneading.

If your flour absorbs water very well, you may use all the water immediately. If you are unsure about its strength, holding some water back gives you more control.

Add 100 g of active starter to the rested dough. Work it in by squeezing and folding the dough until the starter is evenly distributed.

Leave the dough for about 15–20 minutes, then add the salt and the reserved water. Add the water gradually rather than pouring it in all at once.

At first, the dough may separate and become slippery. Continue folding and squeezing gently. It will come back together as the salt and water are absorbed.

The finished dough should feel soft and slightly sticky but should not behave like batter. If it immediately flows across the bowl and cannot hold any structure, your flour may not be strong enough for the full amount of water.

Place the dough in a clean container and mark its starting level. Keep it at approximately 24–26°C (75–79°F).

Bulk fermentation begins when the starter is added, not after the last fold.
During the first two hours, perform three or four sets of stretch-and-folds or coil folds, approximately 30 minutes apart. Lift the dough gently, allow it to stretch, and fold it over itself without tearing it.

The first fold may feel loose and awkward. With each set, the dough should become smoother, stronger, and better able to hold its shape. It should begin lifting from the container as one connected mass.

If the dough already feels strong after three folds, leave it alone. More folds are not always better. Repeatedly handling a well-developed dough can squeeze out gas and damage its structure.

At 24–26°C, bulk fermentation may take around four to five hours from the time the starter is added. But this is not a fixed rule.

The dough does not have to double. For this recipe, an increase of approximately 40–60% is often enough, especially before a long cold proof.

Look at the dough rather than only the mark on the container. It should have:

• a slightly domed surface;
• bubbles visible along the sides and underneath;
• a light, elastic texture;
• gentle movement when the container is shaken;
• edges that look rounded rather than dense and sharply defined.

When lifted, properly fermented dough feels alive and aerated but still has strength. It stretches without immediately tearing and does not pour from the container like liquid.

Underfermented dough feels heavy, tight, and reluctant to stretch. It may have only a few bubbles and will often produce a dense crumb with large tunnels.

Overfermented dough feels excessively soft, sticky, and fragile. It may be full of bubbles but lose its shape as soon as it leaves the container.

In a warm kitchen, bulk fermentation can finish much earlier than expected. Waiting for the dough to double may push it too far.

Lightly flour the work surface and gently turn out the dough. Try not to press out all the gas created during fermentation.

Use a bench scraper to bring the dough into a loose round. The purpose of pre-shaping is to organize the dough and create the first layer of surface tension, not to make the final loaf.

If the dough spreads slightly but still keeps a rounded form, that is normal. Leave it uncovered for approximately 15–25 minutes.

During the bench rest, the surface may become slightly dry while the gluten underneath relaxes. The dough is ready for final shaping when it no longer fights your hands but has not spread into a flat puddle.

If it spreads very quickly, the dough may be overfermented, too wet for the flour, or insufficiently developed.

Lightly flour the top of the dough and turn it over so the floured side is against the table.

Fold the lower part toward the center, bring the sides inward, and roll or fold the upper portion over the dough. Then use gentle pulling movements against a nearly clean part of the work surface to tighten the outer skin.

The goal is balanced surface tension. The loaf should feel supported and rounded, but the surface must not tear.

Too much flour on the table prevents the dough from gripping the surface, so it slides instead of tightening. Too much force can tear the outer skin and release the gas you worked to build.

Place the shaped dough seam-side up in a well-floured proofing basket.

Cover the basket and place it in the refrigerator for 8–14 hours.

Cold proofing develops flavor and makes the dough firmer and easier to score. However, the refrigerator does not stop fermentation immediately. A warm loaf continues fermenting while its center cools.

If the dough was already very aerated at the end of bulk fermentation, use a shorter cold proof. If it entered the refrigerator earlier and still had plenty of strength, it may tolerate a longer rest.

The ideal refrigerator temperature is approximately 3–5°C (37–41°F). In a warmer refrigerator, the dough will continue fermenting more quickly.

Place a Dutch oven, cast-iron pot, or baking stone in the oven and preheat to 250°C (480°F) for at least 40–50 minutes.

The baking surface must be thoroughly heated. A hot Dutch oven gives the loaf strong initial heat and traps steam released by the dough.

If you bake on a stone or steel, prepare a safe method for producing steam during the first part of baking.

Take the dough directly from the refrigerator. Turn it onto parchment paper or a baking peel.

Make one confident main score at a shallow angle, approximately 1–1.5 cm deep. A hesitant series of small cuts can drag the surface and prevent the score from opening cleanly.

Transfer the loaf to the hot Dutch oven. Cover and bake at 250°C (480°F) for approximately 20 minutes.

Remove the lid, reduce the temperature to 230°C (445°F), and continue baking for another 20–25 minutes, until the crust is deeply browned.

If baking with steam on a stone, release the steam after the first 18–20 minutes and finish baking in a dry oven.

Do not judge the bread only by a pale golden color. Tartine-style bread develops much of its flavor through a well-caramelized crust.

Place the baked loaf on a wire rack and allow it to cool for at least two hours.

The crumb continues setting after the loaf leaves the oven. Cutting too early releases steam, compresses the crumb, and can make it seem sticky even when the bread is fully baked.

A properly cooled loaf should have a crisp crust, a moist but elastic crumb, and an aroma that combines wheat, gentle acidity, and caramelized crust.

An open crumb does not come from water alone.

Adding more water to weak or poorly fermented dough usually produces a flatter loaf, not larger holes. An open crumb develops when several things work together: active starter, strong flour, sufficient gluten development, correct fermentation, careful handling, and good oven spring.

Do not chase the largest possible holes at the expense of the bread itself. A beautiful Tartine-style loaf can have an irregular, moderately open crumb that is light, moist, and comfortable to slice.

If the crumb is dense throughout, look first at starter strength and bulk fermentation. If it contains a few huge tunnels surrounded by dense dough, fermentation may have been incomplete or uneven. If the loaf spreads and the crumb looks weak and compressed, the dough may have fermented too long.

The most difficult part of Tartine-style bread is not mixing the ingredients. It is choosing the right moment to move from one stage to the next.

The dough should gradually become smoother during folding, lighter during bulk fermentation, relaxed but still supported during shaping, and firm enough to score after cold proofing.

Once you begin watching these changes instead of following the clock blindly, the recipe becomes far more predictable. Your flour, starter, kitchen, and hands will always make the loaf slightly different—and that is not a failure. It is part of learning to bake bread that is truly your own.