I love a good baguette – crisp outside and a soft inside – just perfect! While I typically tend to bake sweet things, I do love to bake savory as well, and I wanted to delve into something a bit more technical. Making and baking French bread, a baguette, is relatively easy. The basics include making a poolish (starter), letting it rest for 14 hours, mixing the dough, letting it rise, forming the dough into baguettes, letting it rise again, then baking the baguettes. Easy, right? While it’s a bit more complicated than that, anyone can make baguettes at home with flour, salt, dry yeast, water, a scale and stand mixer – no fancy ingredients, equipment or specialty pan needed!
NOTES/TIPS: These definitely taste best fresh/day of, so plan ahead. Once the poolish has sat (14 hours/overnight), the dough takes about 3 ½ hours start to finish. There’s lots of downtime in there, waiting for the dough to rise, rest, and bake, so plan accordingly and have some quick tasks you can perform during those breaks. I’ve tried a few rising and steaming methods and found that a couche (cloth and flour) works very well with rising the dough and that the cast iron skillet with boiling water works best for steam – see pictures below. Read over the directions a few times and time out when you’re going to start (or when you want to be finished by), so you don’t let the dough OVER rise. Yes, that’s a thing and results in a flatter loaf! While it still tastes good, it doesn’t look right. Last note – all the measurements are weighed for maximum accuracy.
French Baguette
3-16″ loaves or 6-8″ demi-loaves
Ingredients
Poolish (Starter)
113 g cool water
1/16 teaspoon active dry yeast
120 g flour
Dough
All of the Poolish (Starter)
1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
255 g lukewarm water
418 g flour, plus extra for the couche
2 teaspoons salt
Directions
- Poolish (Starter): Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl to make a very soft, wet dough. Cover and let sit at room temperature for about 14 hours – overnight works well. It will become expanded (about double) and bubbly.
- Dough: Mix and knead all 5 ingredients together in a stand mixer with the dough hook for about 4-6 minutes on medium-low speed (Speed 2 on a KitchenAid). The dough will be somewhat smooth, cohesive, however the surface may still look a bit rough. The dough will stick a bit to the bottom of the bowl when done, however, if it’s too sticky, add up to ¼ cup (~37 g) flour to make it easier to handle – it will still be a little sticky which is okay.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased medium sized bowl and the let it rise for 30-45 minutes. Fold the edges into the middle, turn over and let rise again for 30-45 minutes, until almost double in size.
- Grease a work surface and turn out the dough, gently deflating it. Divide it into three equal pieces, round each ball by pulling the edges into the center and roll it into a ball. Place the ball on a greased surface. Cover with cooking-sprayed plastic wrap and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes; they will have expanded slightly.
- While the balls of dough are resting, prepare your couche. Take a clean kitchen towel and lightly dust with flour. See photo below.
- Working with one piece at a time, gently flatten the dough into a long, rounded rectangle. Fold it nearly in half, sealing the edges with your fingers. Turn the dough around and fold over again (not quite in half). Repeat, fold, then flatten one more time. With the seam-side down, roll the dough to round it into the baguette shape, tapering the ends, and it’s 16″ long. Repeat with remaining two pieces of dough. Watch this video for great directions on how to shape the loaves – HERE!
- Place the shaped logs seam-side down into the folds of the couche. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and leave them to rise until slightly puffy, marshmallow-y. The loaves will look lighter and less dense, but will not be doubled in size. This should take about 45 minutes at room temperature (~68 F).
- When there’s about 10 minutes of rising time left, preheat the oven to 450 F with a cast iron pan on the floor of the oven (or lowest rack). Leave a good amount of space between the top rack and the bottom of the oven for pouring hot water. Start heating 2 cups of water to boiling.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and, one at a time, gently roll all three risen baguettes from the cloth couche onto the parchment lined pan, evenly spaced.
- Using a very sharp knife (or scalpel) held at a 45 degree angle, make 5 long lengthwise slashes in each baguette. Watch this video for great directions on how to score the bread – HERE! The baguettes will look slightly deflated once cut.
- Place the baking sheet with baguettes into the preheated oven. Carefully pour the boiling water into the cast iron pan and quickly shut the door. NOTE: The billowing steam from the boiling water will help the baguettes rise and give them their crispy crust.
- Bake the baguettes for 24-28 minutes or until they’re a deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven and cool them on a rack. If you want a super crispy crust, turn off the oven, crack the door 2″ and let the baguettes cool completely in the oven.
- Store any leftovers in a paper bag overnight, or freeze for longer storage. Thaw and reheat before serving.
