Description
Classic French baguette crafts a crusty, golden masterpiece of traditional bakery art. Crisp exterior and tender crumb invite home bakers to savor authentic Parisian bread with simple ingredients and passionate technique.
Ingredients
Scale
- 710 ml/3 cups lukewarm water
- 750 g/6 cups all-purpose flour
- 8 g/2 tsps yeast
- 12 g/2 tsps salt
Instructions
- Overnight Fermentation: Whisk dry ingredients and gradually add water to create a sticky dough mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 12-20 hours to develop complex flavors and activate wild yeasts.
- Dough Preparation: Generously flour the work surface and hands. Gently transfer the bubbly, fermented dough and perform delicate stretching and folding techniques to shape elongated baguettes. Arrange loaves on a floured baking sheet with ample spacing.
- Proofing and Scoring: Carefully score diagonal cuts across the loaf surface using a sharp blade. Drape a clean kitchen towel over the loaves and allow a secondary proofing in a warm, draft-free area for 1-2 hours until visibly expanded.
- Oven Preparation: Configure oven racks with a lower rack for a water pan and middle rack for bread. Preheat to 450°F (230°C). Simultaneously prepare a deep pan with hot water to generate steam and create optimal baking conditions.
- Baking Process: Slide the baguette-laden baking sheet onto the middle rack. Place the water-filled pan on the lower rack to introduce moisture. After 10 minutes, remove the water pan to enable crust development and browning.
- Finishing: Continue baking for 30 minutes, monitoring until baguettes transform into a rich golden-brown with a crackling exterior. Immediately transfer to a cooling rack to prevent moisture retention and maintain crisp texture.
Notes
- Master Fermentation Timing: Overnight resting between 12-20 hours allows deep flavor development and complex gluten structure, transforming simple ingredients into extraordinary bread.
- Handle Dough with Gentleness: Use extremely light touches when stretching and folding to preserve delicate air bubbles created during fermentation, ensuring a light, airy interior texture.
- Create Perfect Steam Environment: Introducing water pan during initial baking stages produces professional-grade crispy crust and enables controlled bread expansion, mimicking commercial bakery techniques.
- Scoring Technique Matters: Diagonal cuts across loaf surface are crucial for controlling bread’s expansion and creating signature baguette appearance, allowing beautiful visual and textural results.
- Category: Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 5
- Calories: 202
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 240 mg
- Fat: 1 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 42 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg