Baguettes

recipes / baguette

This is a fairly hydration recipe so the dough will be fairly wet and sticky. Mixing in a mixer will transform it to a stretchy and silky form that is much easier to work with. This recipe calls for very little yeast and a long cool rise to build flavour. The whole process takes approximately 24hours, but most of that time is waiting. Start in the morning for fresh baguettes the following lunchtime.

Ingredients

I have listed the exact flour I use for all my bread recipes, but it's not essential. Any good strong white bread flour should still give good results. The small quantity of instant yeast can be hard to measure by weight but it's not essential to get it dead-on, a level teaspoon is about right.

Ingredient		Bakers Percentage
550g	French Type 55 White Bread Flour	100 %
375g	Water, luke warm	68.2 %
10g	Salt	1.8 %
2-3g	Instant yeast

Method

07:00, Day 1. Mix all ingredients in a mixer with a dough hook until a smooth, elastic dough forms. Tip: put the water in the mixer bowl first, followed by flour, yeast, salt, to avoid clumps of dry flour remaining at the bottom of the bowl.
Put in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and place in the fridge for 24hrs.

07:00 Day 2 Remove from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature. Perform 1 stretch-and-fold about 30mins after taking the dough out of the fridge.

08:30 Day 2 Divide the dough into 4 equal weights and pre-shape with a dough scraper into rounds. Lightly flour and leave to rest for 10mins. Pre-heat the oven to 270°C (not fan) with a large, flat, heavy baking sheet, and a second smaller baking tray at the bottom of the oven.¹
Shape the baguettes. This YouTube video shows the technique for stretching a surface tension and rolling out the baguettes. Look for 30-40cm long baguettes. Place each in a fold in the floured couche, seam-side up, cover and leave for 30mins while the oven comes to temperature.

09:15 Day 2 Prepare a piece of baking parchment big enough for all baguettes side-by-side. Carefully transfer the rising dough to the parchment so that the baguettes finish seam-side down.
Score the baguettes with a lame. Quickly and gently open the oven and transfer the baking parchment onto the hot baking sheet. Add approx 100ml boiling water to the bottom baking tray and bake at high temp for 10mins. Reduce the temperature to 200°C and cook for another 16mins. Allow to cool (mostly) before eating!

This recipe produces 4 baguettes, ideal size for a jambon beurre sandwich.

The final product — This recipe produces 4 baguettes, ideal size for a jambon beurre sandwich.

This second tray will be used to produce steam. The steam prevents a hard crust from forming on the bread too quickly and so allows it time to "spring" and expand before the crust is formed. ↩︎