Makes: 4 small baguettes

Make fresh, French bread at home with this simple recipe!


Ingredients

  • 4 cups + 2 tbsp (1 lb. 2 oz./500 g) bread flour (T65)
  • Scant 1½ cups (12.5 oz./350 g) water + 2 tsp (0.35 oz./10 g) for dissolving salt
  • 1.75 oz. (50 g) refreshed levain
  • 0.05 oz. (1 g) fresh yeast
  • Scant 1½ tsp (0.25 oz./7 g) salt

Directions

1A day before baking, place the flour and scant 1½ cups (12.5 oz./350 g) of water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix for 1 minute on speed 1 (frasage*). Cover the bowl and let the mixture rest for 3 hours (autolyse*).

2Add the levain and crumble in the fresh yeast. Combine the salt and 2 tsp (0.35 oz./10 g) water in a bowl and stir or swish to dissolve, then add to the dough. Knead for 8 minutes on speed 1.

3Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 1½ hours. Fold the dough three times during the rise time: once after 30 minutes, once after 1 hour, and once after 1½ hours. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 15 hours (bulk fermentation*).

4The next day, dust a work surface and the dough with flour. Turn the dough out onto the work surface, floured side down. With a bench scraper, divide dough into four equal pieces. Shape each piece into a rough oval and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes (resting*).

5Shape each piece of dough into an approximately 10-in. (25-cm) baguette, ensuring it will fit in your oven lengthwise (the baguettes will be easier to transfer to the oven if they’re shorter). Place the shaped baguettes between the folds of a floured couche, or flour a towel and pleat it like an accordion around the baguettes. Let rest for 30 minutes (proofing*).

6Meanwhile, place a rack at the lowest oven position and place another rack directly above it. Place an empty heavy-duty baking sheet, oven-safe skillet, or drip pan on the lower rack, and a baking stone or heavy-duty baking sheet on the upper rack, and preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C/Gas Mark 10). Bring 1 cup (250 ml) of water to a simmer.

7When the dough passes the poke test*(SEE BELOW), using a lame, slash each baguette diagonally in two places. Roll the baguettes one at a time onto the paline and carefully transfer to the baking stone or sheet in the oven.

8Carefully pour the simmering water into the baking sheet, skillet, or drip pan to create steam and quickly close the oven door.

9Bake for 18 minutes, lowering the oven temperature to 450°F (240°C/Gas Mark 8) halfway through the baking time.

10Remove the baguettes from the oven and place on a rack to cool.

POKE TEST

  • If the proofing time is too short, the dough won’t build up enough CO2 to rise correctly during baking. Conversely, if the proofing time is too long, the gluten network weakens and the bread may fall during baking. Even professional bakers use the poke test to evaluate the dough’s resistance and determine when it is ready for the oven. Gently press your finger about ½ in. (1 cm) into the dough. If the dough is ready to bake, it will spring back slowly but retain a small indentation where you poked it. If no indentation forms, the dough is not ready; leave it to proof a little longer. If the indentation doesn’t spring back at all, it’s too late—the dough is over-proofed.

Extracted from Upper Crust: Homemade Bread the French Way by Marie-Laure Fréchet (Flammarion, 2021).

Photography © Valérie Lhomme.

1 COMMENT

  1. This recipe creates, by far, the best baguette I have ever tasted, let alone created in my kitchen. Thank you for this.

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