Save on airfare and make your baguettes at home.
Now I will say, these baguettes will not be *as* good as what you would find at a boulangerie in Paris. However, for only taking about 4 hours to put together, the effort to quality ratio is *quite* high.
While I do think this recipe isn’t particularly difficult to replicate, especially if you’re somewhat familiar with bread, there are a few key things you should note so you can avoid the mistakes I made along the way:
A few notes:
- Shaping the Baguette: Baguette dough is quite delicate. My first few baguette attempts resulted in ciabatta because I was being too rough when shaping and I essentially ripped apart the gluten strands. The end results were very flat loaves since there was no structure to hold them up. The shaping method I use in this recipe, inspired by Claire Saffitz, has you very gently stretch the dough by folding it over on top of itself in a few different ways. This gets you to the length you need without having to roll out the dough very much in the end and risk overworking it. See 1:53 to watch the process.
- Poor Man’s Couche: The point of using a couche when making baguettes is to force the dough to rise upwards instead of spreading out, resulting in the classic thin but round shape. If you think you’re going to make lots of baguettes, it’s probably worth it to invest in a real couche. If you don’t want to invest yet, my method seems to work perfectly well, at least for 2 baguettes. You can watch how I set it up at 2:37.
- Steam is Key: The key to a crispy exterior? Lots of steam. Spray down your baguettes with water before putting them in the oven and add a cup of boiling water to a preheated cast iron. But be careful! The steam will billow out when you start pouring the water. So be fast and keep your arms covered with baking mitts and your face out of the way.
- Other Equipment: You don’t need a baking steel or pizza stone to make baguettes. Just leave the shaped baguettes on the upside down baking tray and pop the whole thing into the oven. You’ll likely end up with a lighter crust on the bottom but that’s not the end of the world. However, if you’re serious about bread, go get yourself a kitchen scale. This ensures that your ingredient measurements are the same every time and will let you measure out equal weights of dough for even baguettes.
Beginner Baguettes
Save on airfare and make these delicious beginner baguettes in the comfort of your own home. The best part? They come together in about 4 hours, no multi-day processes needed.
Equipment
- Baking steel or pizza stone
- Bread lame or very sharp knife
- Sheet tray
- Kitchen Scale
- Spray bottle
Ingredients
Dough
- 225 g Water 90-100℉ (1 cup)
- 350 g Bread flour (2½ Cups)
- 9 g Salt (2 tsp)
Yeast Mixture
- 30 g Water 90-100℉ (2 Tbsp)
- 8 g Yeast active or instant (2 tsp)
Instructions
Make the Dough
- Add the water and bread flour to a large mixing bowl. Start off by mixing with a sturdy metal spoon. Once a shaggy dough has formed, switch to mixing with a soaking wet hand until the flour has fully hydrated and you have a cohesive dough ball.225 g Water, 350 g Bread flour
- Sprinkle the salt on top of the dough and set aside.9 g Salt
- Next, mix together the additional water and yeast in a small bowl. Set aside with the dough for 20 minutes.30 g Water, 8 g Yeast
- Pour the yeast mixture over the salted dough. Using a soaking wet hand, squeeze together until combined. This takes 3-4 minutes but will eventually come together into a cohesive dough.
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
Strength Building Folds
- Do the first set of strength building folds (see 1:00). With a wet hand, take a corner of the dough, pull back until you feel tension, and then fold it back onto itself. Repeat 4-5 more times, rotating the bowl as you go. Finish by tucking the dough underneath itself and rounding it off a few times.
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Repeat the folding instructions a second time and then cover and set aside for 1 hour.
Shaping the Baguettes
- After a total of 2 hours, the dough should have grown in size and will be quite buoyant and jiggly. Transfer to a floured work surface and dive into two equal pieces.
- Spread each piece into a square, about 6 inches x 6 inches, and then roll up into a cylinder (see 1:36).
- Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
- While the dough is resting, grab an upside down sheet tray, cover with parchment paper, and spray down with cooking oil. Set aside.
- For the final shaping, take one of the rested dough cylinders and press it out into a rectangle. Fold the top third over the middle third, leaving the bottom third still exposed. Then flip the dough around and fold the final third into the middle, using your thumb to press down and seal the seam. Then fold the dough in half at that middle seam you just created, again using your thumb to seal the new seam. Using gentle pressure, roll out the baguette until it's about 18 inches. Add a little extra pressure at the ends to get the classic baguette points. Transfer to the prepared sheet tray. (See 1:53)
- Repeat with the second dough cylinder.
- Create a "Poor Man's Couche." Place your shaped baguettes on the sheet tray with about 4-5 inches of space in between them. Fold up the parchment paper in between the baguettes, so they're supporting each other through the paper but not actually touching, and then also fold the parchment paper up around their exposed sides. Place some sort of cooking tool (I like to use microplanes because they're sturdy but won't roll all over the place) to hold the exterior folds in place. (See 2:37)
- Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.
Baking the Baguettes
- While the baguettes are baking, place your baking steel or pizza stone in the oven on the top rack as well as a cast iron pan on the bottom rack. Preheat to 500℉.
- Boil about a cup of water and set aside.
- After 45 minutes, the baguettes should have grown about 40-50% in size and will slowly bounce back when poked. Undo the couche and slash the top of each baguette 5 times each with a bread lame or very sharp knife. Try to do these quickly so they razor doesn't drag, keeping them long and mostly vertical.
- Spray down with water and bring over to the oven.
- Slide the parchment paper with the baguettes onto the baking steel or pizza stone. Very quickly and carefully, pour the cup of boiling water into the preheated cast iron. NOTE: This will steam up immediately so wear oven mitts and keep your face out of the steam blast.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Open the oven to release any remaining steam and lower the oven temp to 450℉ to finish baking for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- Shaping the Baguette: Baguette dough is quite delicate. My first few baguette attempts resulted in ciabatta because I was being too rough when shaping and I essentially ripped apart the gluten strands. The end results were very flat loaves since there was no structure to hold them up. The shaping method I use in this recipe, inspired by Claire Saffitz, has you very gently stretch the dough by folding it over on top of itself in a few different ways. This gets you to the length you need without having to roll out the dough very much in the end and risk overworking it. See 1:53 to watch the process.
- Poor Man’s Couche: The point of using a couche when making baguettes is to force the dough to rise upwards instead of spreading out, resulting in the classic thin but round shape. If you think you’re going to make lots of baguettes, it’s probably worth it to invest in a real couche. If you don’t want to invest yet, my method seems to work perfectly well, at least for 2 baguettes. You can watch how I set it up at 2:37.
- Steam is Key: The key to a crispy exterior? Lots of steam. Spray down your baguettes with water before putting them in the oven and add a cup of boiling water to a preheated cast iron. But be careful! The steam will billow out when you start pouring the water. So be fast and keep your arms covered with baking mitts and your face out of the way.
- Other Equipment: You don’t need a baking steel or pizza stone to make baguettes. Just leave the shaped baguettes on the upside down baking tray and pop the whole thing into the oven. You’ll likely end up with a lighter crust on the bottom but that’s not the end of the world. However, if you’re serious about bread, go get yourself a kitchen scale. This ensures that your ingredient measurements are the same every time and will let you measure out equal weights of dough for even baguettes.
