Food, Home & Lifestyle
Fresh Bread: Sourdough Wheat Tartines
Lesson time 05:33 min
Demonstrating an all-time favorite from Poilâne’s sister café, Apollonia shares the recipe for her open-faced ham-and-cheese sandwich and her hack for perfectly toasted slices of bread.
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Topics include: Sourdough Wheat Tartines
Teaches Bread Baking
Poilâne CEO Apollonia Poilâne teaches the renowned Parisian bakery’s philosophy and time-tested techniques for baking rustic French breads.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] APOLLONIA POILANE: Bread is not only a food. It's also an ingredient. That is what I call bread cooking. Using bread as an ingredient, whether it's in a full slice or into breadcrumb. A tartine is a slice of bread on which you're going to be able to slather a topping that's going to be thin enough for you to pick it up with your single hand. The word tartine comes from the French verb tartiner, which literally means to spread a topping. A tartine is a very typical French thing. You might find it in Paris at any little bistro, whether it's with roast beef, ham and cheese, or another seasonal ingredient. And one key element as you're making your tartines, whatever ingredients you decide to put it on, is to make sure that it's not too thick. The tartine we're going to make today has been my best seller at the cafe my father started next to our shop on Rue du Cherche-Midi. It's cheese that's been melted with some cured ham on top of it. So for this recipe you need bread, one big slice of the center parts, especially if you're hungry. You need cheese, one that will melt. I use the brie, but you can use a Camembert. Anything that melts in heat. Then a little bit of prosciutto. Any type of prosciutto will do, as long as it's not too salty. As you're cooking this tartine, the water content will evaporate. And the salts will concentrate. So try and choose one that's not too salty. The bread I'm using can be fresh. Not ultra-fresh, because it doesn't toast as well. This specific tartine calls for an oven. You need to boil the tartine. However, if you're using a topping that's raw or that doesn't need to be melted or cooked, then you can use a toaster. And here's the trick use one of those long slices. Cut it in two and put them side by side. And put two slices in one slot of the toaster. This way, you only toast one side of the bread. When you remove it, put the topping on the toasted side. It works the other way around, but that's my preference. Toasting two slices in one slot of a toaster is a Poilane bakery hack. We do this so that we can keep the two slices moist and warm, so that your toast can last for 15 minutes on a plate without going dry. So whether you have lots of friends over, and you only have a limited number of slots in your toaster, not only have you doubled the amount of toast you do at a time, but you also keep them fresher longer. Take a slice of bread. And then you simply cut large pieces of cheese, even if you don't do a very beautiful slice or layout. The main thing here is covering up the bulk of the tartine. I love using brie. But I can also use a crottin chavignol or another goat's cheese that tends to melt quite well. Both work. There's no right or wrong answer. This tartine will be rich. It'll be very gourmand, as the French would say. Then I just take the ham, lather it on the top. What's nice is actually to create a small little texture. It gives it a third dimension without brin...
About the Instructor
As a third-generation baker and CEO of the renowned Parisian bakery Poilâne, Apollonia Poilâne keeps time-honored traditions alive with every loaf. Now she’s sharing the joy of making bread from scratch with her recipes and hands-on demonstrations. Learn how to make your own starter and a variety of French breads, including rustic wheat, rye, and brioche. Taste, smell, and feel your way to fresh, warm bread at home.
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Apollonia Poilâne
Poilâne CEO Apollonia Poilâne teaches the renowned Parisian bakery’s philosophy and time-tested techniques for baking rustic French breads.
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