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Baguette

Bread
Prep 24 hr
Servings 2-3 baguettes

This is version 7 of our Baguette recipe!

Ingredients - 2 baguettes

  • 540 grams flour
  • 335 grams water
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (I use Fleischmann’s)
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients - 3 baguettes

  • 810 grams flour
  • 505 grams water
  • 3 teaspoons active dry yeast (I use Fleischmann’s)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt

Instructions

  1. Add flour and 395 grams warm water to mixing bowl. Mix until water is absorbed by flour.
  2. Proof yeast: Mix 110 grams warm water with yeast and 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar in a drinking glass. Let rest for 10 minutes. The proofed yeast will bubble and froth.
  3. Add salt and proofed yeast to mixer bowl with flour. Mix 10 minutes.
  4. Knead the dough a few times so it is a nice uniform blob. Place the dough in a large mixer bowl, cover, and allow to rise in the fridge for 24 hours. If not covered, the dough will dry out and the texture of the finished bread will have unpleasant tough spots.
  5. Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into three equal pieces. With palms of your hands, roll out each third to a rough oval shape, let warm up for five minutes, then roll into a long (16”) thin log.
  6. Place loaves in pan, cover, and let rise for 90 minutes. I cover mine with tin foil. If not covered, the dough will dry out and won’t be able to expand while baking.
  7. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 430°F.
  8. Just before putting the loaves in the oven, use a sharp knife to make 4 diagonal ⅓” deep slashes in each loaf.
  9. Place the baguette pans directly on the oven rack.
  10. Bake for 24 minutes. Loaves should be golden brown.
  11. Turn off heat, crack open oven door about 2 inches, let baguettes cool completely in oven.

Tips

  • You need unbleached ‘bread flour’ (higher protein by weight) for the right consistency and rise. I use King Arthur’s Bread Flour.
  • Getting the right flour/water mix by weight is essential to having dough that is easy to work with. Too little water and the dough will be flakey, too much water and it will be sticky, in either case the dough will be difficult/impossible to work with.
  • Allowing a slow rise in the fridge (24 hours) sweetens the dough and gives the baked bread excellent texture.
  • I find that a baguette pan was necessary to having my bread rise perfectly during baking. Something like this: https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/goldtouch-nonstick-french-bread-pan