This XTREME sesame loaf from Tartine Book No. 3 has whopping 250g of toasted sesame seeds added to 1000g of flour. I loved the nutty earthly sesame flavor blast, but my loaves came out a bit dense.

Recipe

This recipe is from Tartine Book No. 3.

Ingredients Weight Baker’s Percentage
High-extraction wheat flour (50/50 Whole Wheat/All-Purpose) 500g 50%
Medium-strong wheat flour (King Arthur All-Purpose) 300g 30%
Whole-grain wheat flour (King Arthur Whole Wheat) 200g 20%
Wheat germ 70g 7%
Water 850g 85%
Leaven 150g 15%
Fine sea salt 25g 2.5%
Unhulled sesame seeds, toasted 250g 25%

Number of Loaves: 2
Hydration Percentage: 85%
Slap and Fold (Yes/No): Yes (5 min)
Autolyse (Time/No): 1 hours
Extra Notes: Toasted sesame seeds myself. Withheld optional sesame seed outer coating. Used the high-extraction flour shortcut of 50% wheat / 50% all-purpose.

Hot Takes + Notes

These loaves are dense. I did not get good rise. I think sometimes denser loaves are an acceptable tradeoff that comes with a more “healthful”, whole wheat loaf. But in this case I think it inhibits the binge potential of the final product. And I am a volume eater!

I constantly have poor results baking Tartine sourdough recipes. i don’t know what it is. I always feel like I’m fighting the loaves to get a good bake.

SOME QUALMS:

  1. All of the recipes reference a “Master Method” to follow for steps like bulk fermentation and mixing. But this leaves ambiguity on the finer details like autolyse time and mixing differences based on additives. I think the intention is to encourage a style of instinctual baking where you adjust on the fly based on how the dough feels. But in practice I just find the experience to feel bad, simply second guessing everything.
  2. Recipes aren’t well explained. For example almost every recipe in Tartine Book No. 3 contains “Wheat Germ”. But why? As far I can tell there’s no explanation on the benefits of including it, or how it changes the nature of the dough or flavor of resulting loaf.
  3. Every loaf has pretty much the same prescription for turn and folds during bulk fermentation to build dough strength. But dough strength requirements can change so vastly depending on flour, hydration percentage, additives, and more. Building dough strength to get a good rise is so critical and deserves more context.

Taste

When it comes to taste these sesame wheat loaves are a toasty treat. The hardiness provided by the high whole wheat content allows a slice to endure a prolonged toaster oven ride. Then slathered with some butter the bite is chewy, umami, and satisfying. The sesame flavor is nutty and blends beautifully. It is reminiscent of the bread you might get as you take your seat at an elegant steakhouse.

Next Time

How can I execute this loaf so that it is less dense?

  1. Leave out the wheat germ. When I googled how wheat germ impacts sourdough loaves of course the first result was from the bread guru himself.

The Perfect Loaf:

Nice rise and great interior movement, but not quite open enough. It’s a bit dense, as you can see— where are the irregular open holes for these loaves? Something to work on.

Well, they taste excellent! The wheat germ seems to add a touch of “nuttiness” to the bread and a bit of texture to the crumb as well.

After reading this I felt a bit validated. Every loaf I’ve baked with wheat germ has had good flavor but been denser than I wanted. But I usually attributed to not kneading properly. Speaking of kneading properly…

  1. Less rigorous slap and fold. Less intensity and less duration. I could tell I went past the point of smoothness of my dough and probably did some damage to the gluten protein structure.

  2. Don’t get fancy with the scoring. I tried to do something other than a box score on one of the loaves. It didn’t go well.

Pictures

Sesame Wheat Loaf
Sesame Wheat Loaf
Loaf Scoring
Tried something different with the scoring, not as forgiving.
Crumb Cross Section
Dense as a Smørrebrød!