Easy Homemade Baguette
This recipe is the easiest possible way to make fresh bread at home. This recipe makes 4 loaves. You can make all 4 loaves at once or one or two loaves - and then leave the remainder of the dough in the fridge until later in the week and have fresh baguettes whenever you like!
Equipment
- Parchment Paper
- Large Casserole Pan - will be used to provide steam in the oven
Ingredients
- 6½ C Flour - can use AP or Bread Flour or a combination
- 1½ Tbl Yeast
- 1½ Tbl Salt - Ideally Himalayan Salt
- 3 C Warm Water
- 2 tsp Diastatic Malt - Optional - but recommended
Instructions
Make the Dough - 1st Day
- Get your ingredients ready.
- Get out a large bowl. Add Flour, Salt, Yeast and Diastatic Malt.
- Get out a large measuring cup to microwave 3 C of Water. Otherwise heat or microwave 3 C of water. IMPORTANT the water needs to be the temperature of a nice warm bath. Stick your finger into the water. If you think the water is too warm, so will the yeast. If the water is TOO HOT - the yeast will die. You could always use a food temperature gauge - you want the water to be about 110℉.
- Mix the water into the other components - stirring until everything is well combined. You do not need to knead the dough.
- Cover the dough, let rise till doubled - two hours.
- Once the dough has risen - tightly cover the dough (plastic wrap?) and put it into the fridge for at least a day.
On First Baking Day I typically make 2 loaves at a time.
- Get out a large oven safe casserole pan and fill with HOT water and place in the oven - bottom rack. Putting in HOT water will make the oven work less hard - to bring the contents up to temperature.
- Heat the oven to 450℉.
- Remove the dough from the fridge. I release the edges of the dough by using my fingers and breaking the edge connection. This may not be needed, but it's what I do...
- Put a little bit of flour onto the counter and then dump the dough onto the counter.
- Get a smaller bowl, cut the dough in half as best as you can figure, and put the remaining dough back into the fridge, well covered, for another baking day.
- Split the 1/2 of the dough on the counter into 2 portions using a bench knife. Be gentle with the dough and form it into a mini log. As you work with the dough - try not to press down too hard and release all of the air bubbles. The most prized baguettes are those with plenty of air holes once baked.
- Put a slight bit more flour on the counter - and proceed to roll the mini log using your palms from the center of the dough to the outside of the dough - gently making the dough longer and thinner. Continue this gentle rolling / pulling motion until the dough is appx as long as the baker. Reminder - it doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be longer and thinner than when you started. See the pics.
- Get your baguette baker out - and cover with parchment. Crinkle the parchment and then un wrap and lay it flat over the baker.
- Place the formed log of dough onto the parchment.
- Roll the second dough similarly with your palms to the proper shape.
- Let the bread come to room temp while the oven is pre-heating. I typically find that my oven takes about 30 min to get warm - and by then the baguettes are sufficiently warm as well.
- Using a sharp serrated knife - or a bread lame - cut the loaves fairly deep (about half way through dough) - with 3 cuts each.
- Place the bread into the oven just above the 'boiling' water and bake for 25 -27 minutes. I most always take the bread out at 25 or 26 minutes. Your oven may vary...
- When the bread is brown and looking done... take it out of the oven and remove the bread from the pan and the parchment. I let my bread cool on my stove top. You can use a cooling rack if you like. (If you leave the bread on the tray / on the parchment as it cools it will release steam / heat that will condense on the parchment and make the bottom of your bread soggy. You don't want that!)
Second Baking Day
- Repeat usage of water bath.
- Repeat Oven Preheat.
- Repeat flour counter / shape dough / parchment / baguette baker
- Rest 30 + min till oven is ready. Slash bread. Bake. Cool.
Notes
The calories are per loaf. That means 1/4 of a loaf is about 190 calories.
You really ought to show restraint and wait for the bread to cool before serving. It will release the heat of the bread through the crust and make the crust ultra crunchy like the original french baguettes. Slice the bread with a sharp serrated bread knife. Thinner slices are preferred in our house - for appetizers: cheese, charcuterie, tomatoes etc.
The older the dough is - the more days in the fridge - two things happen. First, the top of the dough forms a slight crust - with that portion drying out a bit. The dough under this crust becomes more hydrated / wet even. At this point, the dough needs more flour on the counter. When I get the dough out of the fridge and dump it - there is a healthy spread of flour on the counter. Not a pile, not a slight (normal) dusting. A healthy dusting... I typically fold the dough so that the wet part (which is generally facing up after dumping the dough on the counter) is together and ends up on the inside of the baguette. You could sprinkle a light bit of flour over the wet part too, to help you along.
All in all - having fresh bread ready at nearly a moments notice is amazing, right ?
Didn't I tell you - it was super easy?
Nutrition
Calories: 757kcalCarbohydrates: 157gProtein: 23gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0.4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gSodium: 2155mgPotassium: 271mgFiber: 7gSugar: 1gVitamin C: 0.02mgCalcium: 33mgIron: 10mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!