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Video: Baguette 80% hydration

123 Comments Bread movies

This movie shows me making baguettes with a 80% hydration dough without mixing and only using autolyse and the stretch and folds technique to strengthen the dough. The baguettes are baked in a Rofco hearth bread oven. The oven floor unfortunately caters for shorter baguettes (45cm /17.7 inches), but that will be the case with other home bakers’ ovens too I guess. Over the next months I hope to improve my baguette shaping techniques. I developed the shaping technique you see in the movie myself to best handle the very wet dough that comes with 80% hydration. There is a little time lapse video shot at the ‘end’ of the movie were you see the oven spring of the baguette and the browning of the baguette in high speed.

Check out my recipe for the 80% hydration dough French baguette.

Keep track of my baguette baking adventures through my home baker’s log.

 

BAKING BAGUETTES: THE MOVIE

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Comments

  2. I hate to bother you with something so trivial but would greatly appreciate knowing the song name/group regarding the French lyric song at the end.
    I hope all is well with you and yours.
    Respectfully,
    Mac Allen

    Reply

  3. Thank you for the recipe and the video. I’m making this recipe right now (one stretch and fold left) and at no point was my dough that loose, almost flowing as in the video. My poolish was tighter too as it looked here. I weighed every ingredient. Does the video really reflect the 380/304 recipe? I hope the end result will be good in any case.

    Reply

  5. I have a question. I live in St. Lucia where the humidity is always around 80% and air temp is around 30. The dough comes out too runny. Should I use less water? Or should I put dough into the fridge in between stretch and fold?

    Reply

    • Hello Tessa,
      Under these conditions you indeed need less water, maybe even 20 to 25% less, but always look at the dough, because the flour you use and other factors can also play a roll. Store your flour in the fridge to keep it cool. It could also be your baking time needs to be increased a bit.
      And yes, it could be a good idea to use the fridge (partly) for resting and easier handling of the dough.
      Hope you will be able to work it out and get a good result after a few turns.

      Happy baguette baking!

      Reply

  6. Tried the recipe to the letter only adding a half teaspoon of malt.
    I did the folds in a large tupperware lined with olive oil.
    it makes the process easier as the dough does not stick.
    I also cheated and shaped the dough into baguettes.
    What else can i say except the end result was tremendous
    Thank you for posting the recipes.
    Can not wait to try another recipe.

    Reply

    • Thank you Ramesh, that sounds excellent, great of you to share this with us and happy the recipe worked this well for you.
      Maybe you will also like the method we use for the Tartine style loaf:
      www.weekendbakery.com/posts…yle-bread/

      Enjoy your baking and sharing and be safe!
      Ed & Marieke

      Reply

  7. Hi, my poolish is also in the fridge preparing itself for my first ever homemade baguette experience. I can’t wait. Until tomorrow and the tricky, sticky dough 😊
    Best wishes Nicola

    Reply

    • Hi Nicola,
      Let us know how it turned out. Hope you will be happy with the result and will be able to enjoy the baguettes with your loved ones!

      Ed & Marieke

      Reply

  8. Hi.

    I’m making this recipe right now. I just made the poolish and it’s now resting for the 1 hour in a plastic wrap covered bowl, and I put it in the oven. House temp is about 69-70F.

    Quick note. In the video you don’t show what the poolish should look like. You show only what the poolish should look like the next day. However, I read the instructions a few times before starting and I noted that per your instructions, the poolish will look like a “thick dough”, not a thin watery dough. My poolish looks like a very moist thick dough, which I think is correct, yes?

    The poolish will go into the fridge at about 9:50pm after it sits for 1 hour in the oven or room temp. I will probably start the next day process around 10am. Which means my poolish will be in the fridge for about 12 hours.

    I will update after my first try at this recipe tomorrow afternoon.

    Thanks for the recipe and instructions.
    I hope I can get close to what your baguettes look like.
    I LOVE baguettes, but I haven’t succeeded in getting a true baguette with about 3 tries with different recipes. Former recipes resulted in good tasting bread, but they didn’t have that nice crisp crunchy crust with that beautiful chewy inside.
    I’m not expecting full success with my first try, but I’ll keep practicing.

    Reply

  10. Really excellent video and site!

    I wondered if you could tell me, could I use this exact recipe and instead of baguettes, make loaves? For me the shape of baguettes are impractical so I favor loaf type shapes. Will how one shapes the dough in this recipe affect the final results?

    Thanks all, for creating a great website and sharing what you know. I’m really thankful for your tutorials. 🙂

    Logan

    Reply

  11. Hai I have a question after seeing the video and the stretch and fold method.

    I see a very wet dough and I tried it but to me it looked runny but wit the stretching it became more firm. Then after some stretching it became runny again. Is it possible to over stretch and make it runny again?? Thanks Ronald

    Reply

    • Hello Ronald, it is very hard to over-stretch the dough by hand this way. The cause could be your dough was somehow over-fermented / over-proofed and the gluten chains are broken down too much by the fermentation process and the yeast. Also, if you were not able to weigh the yeast properly, maybe you used a bit more and this could be part of the reason for over-proofing.
      The last suggestion we want to make is the use of the right type of flour with enough protein content (use flour with at least 12% protein and maybe try a different one if you do not like your result).

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

  12. Please can you explain more about polish because I made it but it doesn’t delute in water. Can you tell me how you made it and I have to mix it well.
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Hello Maha,
      Making poolish is very simple. You usually just combine equal parts of water and flour and stir it well for a minute with a spoon or dough whisk. The 80% baguette recipe has a stiffer ‘poolish’ with less water so the stirring requires some more hard work. If you have a hard time combing the two, you can also do this with a (hand) mixer.
      Good luck with it!

      Reply

  13. I very much enjoyed your movie. I don’t really mind getting some dough on my hands, so for convenience I raise my poolish in a nalgene tub, then add all the ingredients, and stretch and fold in the tub. In my hands, less mess up to about 3 loaves worth

    Reply

  14. Thank you for great help and recipe calculator on the site. I’ve followed your recipe exactly as stated. No extra flour and I use King Arthur bread flour. My bread comes out very tasty however the crumb is not as pictured here. I have very few air pockets. The only thing I know for sure is my oven looses 80 degrees temp no matter how fast I can get the dough and water in. From this point it struggles to get back up to temp before the bread is done. I’m not sure if this is 100 percent of the reason for the difference in the crumb. Any help would be much appreciated.

    Reply

    • Hello John,
      We understand. Try starting at a higher temperature to compensate and see how that goes. The steam also cannot do its work properly this way probably. Next to this the shaping and especially the proofing can play a part in the structure. So make sure you proof well and your dough has the right temperature while proofing.

      Hope this will help you to improve.

      Reply

    • HI John.

      I have a suggestion for your oven’s temp lose, and then time to get back up to temp. Perhaps you could try timing when you open the door to get the baguettes into the oven, right when the oven’s burner cycle starts. That way you are opening the door at the same time the the burner/s are ignited and heating.

      This recipe calls for a 465F preheat. Most home ovens will go to 500F. When you are ready to put the bread in the oven, crank the heat to 500F, wait for the burner to ignite, and then open the door and put the bread in. After a minute or so, then return the oven temp back down to where it needs to be. This procedure might help your oven to retain the high heat during the open door period.

      And thanks for this question as it gave me something to consider and think about. I’m going to do my suggestion as well.

      Reply

  16. I liked the video very much, but can you tell me about how long or how many stretch and fols there are for each 45 min scession?

    Reply

  17. omg, you are a life saver. I could not figure out for the life of me how to fold really sticky dough….your video totally made me “get it”……Thank you so very much.
    CC

    Reply

  18. Hi
    Your bread taste and Look great; ))
    I am trying yo make light and airy pizza dough gór neapolitan pizza.
    Using caputo blue pizzeria or passini verde stronger flour,
    But cant get good dough; (
    Fo You have recepie for that or some tips?
    Best wishies
    Tomasz

    Reply

    • Hi Tomasz,
      We do not have any experience with these flour types. Our pizza dough recipe is very simple. You can find it here:
      www.weekendbakery.com/posts…gh-recipe/
      But we would suggest trying our other recipe with a preferment:
      www.weekendbakery.com/posts…a-poolish/
      We have heard the caputo should be good for pizza. It should be no problem to get good dough with that but we do not know what your process is for developing the dough.
      You could also think about a 24 hour dough development with retarding in the fridge.

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

    • Hi John,
      It is an oven with ‘chamotte’ stones (three tiers) made in Belgium by a small company named Rofco. We have had it for quite some years now and always get good baking results. You can check them out at rofco.be
      If you ever buy a similar oven we already have some tips for you:
      www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ven-users/

      Greetings,

      Ed & Marieke

      Reply

  20. I love this recipe! I love these baguettes! Enjoy making them and enjoy eating them! 🙂 Recently bought the linen cloth from you! Happy days:) Practicing making baguettes and give them away! People love them:) Thank you a lot!

    Reply

    • Thanks again Lidia. Baking is a joy and sharing sometimes brings even more pleasure, knowing people appreciate and love what you make. Very rewarding!

      Reply

  22. Thanks a lot! I really like this website, and particularly this video has provided me with the courage to work with wetter doughs. I have not yet made these baguettes, but it helped me a lot making Ciabattas, where 5/6 of the flour is used for a dry biga which the next day is blown up by adding water salt and the rest of the flour, and barley malt I got donated by Brouwerij het IJ. It allso complicates the choice of the working space for my citchen after renovation, I like steel, but the steel option is not just flat steel, it has a profile which is actually great for making italian pasta like tagliatelle etc but not the most practical for sticky dough, but maybe i will find a solution like something flat I will place upon my working space.

    Reply

    • Thank you for your comment Escafon. Hope you will give the baguettes a few tries. Congrats on the new kitchen. Hope you will find a good solution for the bread dough making. We like our flat steel surface too, but some people also like a wooden work top or maybe a piece of granite would work for you. Another thing you can try with very wet dough is keeping it in a food safe container and do the stretching and folding in there. Check out our Tartine recipe for this: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…yle-bread/

      Reply

  23. I enjoyed the video, and made the baguette using pizza granite stone. The first batch didn’t turned well, but the second one great. Thank you for the instructions. Next week I will try using white spelt flour, and also other varieties.

    Reply

    • Thank you Raj, that is great, trying out the recipe, making it your own and enjoying the process!

      Happy baguette baking,
      Ed & Marieke

      Reply

  24. hi, im a beginner in bread making and im wondering what kind of stone can i place in my oven to get that beautiful crust from baguette without having to spend a lot in custom design my oven?

    Reply

    • Hi Shindy,
      You should always look for a stone that has good heat retention and dissipation and is suited for use in an oven. Our stone oven has three layers of ‘chamotte’ stone and lots of pizza stones are made of similar material. So do make sure the stone is suited to use in an oven and has the right properties for the best results.

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

      • I use terracotta tiles originally meant for a floor, and for pizza, where I want a lot of heat, I use ordinary bricks I found in my garden, my oven is a very old gas oven.

        Reply

  25. Since I made baguette today, I will make this recipe on Thursday. You make it look so easy. I feel beaten up after I made mine. Great video, fun to watch.

    Reply

  26. Zero 7 and Flight of the Conchords! Helpful video and wonderful music I enjoyed very much. Thanks!
    Ako

    Reply

  28. Hello!!

    Thanks so much for the video, it was both entertaining and very informative.
    I’ve been trying to tackle this holes for baguettes (and ciabatta) and this totally makes me super excited for going back to make one again and hopefully getting it semi-right (I own a small bakery in Indonesia, and mistakenly purchase a deck oven with no steam, but been spraying mists of water)

    But I’m wondering if you can help me with room temperature and room hydration level? Our kitchen gets really warm up to 31-32 degrees in the afternoon. I am trying to get the room to be as low as 26-27 degrees but still tackling it. We do have sheeting room which is better, but it is high traffic so the room’s temperature is quite unstable. HELP?!

    Thanks a lot!

    Reply

    • Hi Dita,
      Our advice would be to lower the amount of yeast to compensate for the room temperature. Just give it a few trial runs and see what works best. Try to bake when the temp is not at a peak of course. Make use of a fridge of possible and if you want to slow down the process.

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

    • Hi Sonya,
      The oven we use is one made by Rofco in Belgium (see rofco.be for further information). We own a B40 and a B20 model. Our breads are baked on the three tiers of chamotte stone in the oven. If you ever decide to buy one or some other stone oven you can look at our tips here: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ven-users/

      Good luck with it!

      Reply

  30. I love to cook but don’t bake. I’ve always been frustrated with not being able to get a really good baguette outside of France, and have been on a quest to create one at home. After studying and trying every method I could find, I began to get a good concept as to what was necessary, but never had the quality result I was looking for. Thank you for showing me the answer to a truly flavorful, chewy, airy, authentic baguette that would please even the most picky Frenchman! The starter and high hydration are obviously imperative to the wonderful results I achieve using your method. However I believe your not overworking the dough, allowing the yeasts and flour to remain distributed unevenly, and simply allowing it to do what it wants to do naturally, is the true secret you have brought my efforts. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I now bake, quite simply, the best baguette money can’t buy!

    Reply

    • Hello Donald,
      Thank you so much for your wonderful comment. Excellent description of the recipe and results and so glad you found our recipe of so much help to you.

      Happy baguette baking!

      Ed & Marieke

      Reply

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