Less stretching & folding, less wet, less steps, but you do need a mixer for this one…
This method is easier, the recipe has less steps, the dough is less wet than our 80% hydration baguette recipe, and yet this one also yields wonderful baguettes. If you were to compare the two recipes you could say this easy version has a little less depth of flavor and the holes in the crumb are less impressive, but it is also less laborious and less sticky (saves you 2 hours on baking day). The flavors are actually very much comparable and eaten in combination with other foods like cheese it will be hard to notice much difference in taste.
We think this recipe offers a great place to start for the novice baguette baker. Still, it is not at all the easiest of bread recipes to master, but it is one every home baker wants to have as part of his baking repertoire. And we are confident this recipe will also give you very satisfying results.
So lets start baking! But before we do, you may want to check out our baguette video Watch it here…
And our tips for bread scoring with confidence and handling wet dough may also come in handy.
Last but not least do not forget to stop by our baguette log and follow our baguette baking progress and learn from our experiences and mistakes!
This is what the active poolish looks like
| Ingredients for the poolish | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 380 | g | wheat (bread) flour | ||
| 380 | g | cold water (straight from the tap) | ||
| 0.7 | g | instant yeast* (we use twice the amount in winter when temps are low!) | ||
| Ingredients for the baguettes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 batch makes 4 baguettes | ||||
| the poolish from step 1 | ||||
| 380 | g | wheat (bread) flour | ||
| 190 | g | water at room temperature | ||
| 12 | g | (sea) salt | ||
| 2 | g | instant yeast | ||
* In winter our bakery is between 16ºC / 61ºF and 18ºC / 65ºF, so we use more yeast to get the poolish going. In summer the average temperature is between 21ºC / 70ºF and 25ºC / 77 ºF so we can use less yeast to get the same result. So take the temperature of your surroundings into account to determine your amount of yeast.
Making the poolish
In a bowl stir together 380 grams of bread flour with 380 grams of cold water with the yeast (see above). Mix until you have a consistency that looks like dough-like batter. Cover the bowl and leave for 12 hours at room temperature. So if you want to begin your baguette baking in the morning, you can make your poolish the evening before.
Making the baguettes
In the bowl of your standing mixer, combine the poolish with the other ingredients and knead for 6 minutes. Cover and leave to rest for 40 minutes. Now turn out the mass onto your work surface and stretch and fold, doing two to three sets of letter folds (one set = right over left, left over right, bottom over top, top over bottom) depending on how well your dough cooperates. Stop if the dough is not willing to stretch anymore. Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover and again leave to rest for 40 minutes.
Turn out the dough and stretch and fold a second time, doing one to two sets of letter folds.
Directly after the stretch and fold, divide the dough in 4 equal parts. Now you are going to pre-shape the dough parts one by one by carefully stretching the corners, making a rectangle of each of the 4 pieces, and rolling them up. Try to make your rectangle and roll as even as possible without fussing too much with the dough. Use enough flour to handle the dough, but try to keep it to a minimum. Cover and leave to rest for 10 minutes so the gluten can relax.
Preheat your oven to 240ºC / 465ºF (at what stage you preheat your oven depends on how long it takes for your oven to heat through, some take 30 minutes, some, like ours, with stone floors take a lot longer, up to two hours.)
Take a roll of the pre-shaped dough and sprinkle it with a little flour and softly press it into a rectangle with a short and a long side. The more even the rectangle the nicer the baguette will look in the end. With a dough scraper make sure the dough is not stuck to your work surface with the help of a little bit of flour.
With a dough scraper, flip 1/3 of the long side onto itself and press down the seam, with the heel of your hand, to get some tension on the outside of the dough, now repeat it two more times until you have a roll shape. Make a rolling motion with your hands from the center to the sides with a soft touch to make the baguette longer and to try and make nice pointy ends on both sides of the baguette.
This baguette shaping video on the King Arthur Flour website by Jeffrey Hamelman is really worth a closer look if you are in need of more baguette shaping support.
Practice makes perfect, do not be hard on yourself, it is not an easy job, even with this slightly less sticky dough, compared to the 80% hydration we use for our other baguette recipe.
Place the baguettes in a couche / proofing cloth made of linen or in a baguette pan, or something of your own invention, but make sure the baguettes have enough side support to hold their shape. Cover them and leave to proof for 35 minutes.
Baguettes resting in their couches (beds) made of thick proofing linen
To check if the baguettes are ready, dip your finger in some flour and gently poke your dough.
- If the hole disappears completely: under-proofed
- If the hole dent pops half way back out: proofing is just right
- If the hole stays entirely dented in: over-proofed
Score the top of the baguettes with a lame/bread scoring tool. Cut as straight along the long axis of the loaf as possible. Mentally divide the baguette into lengthwise thirds, and keep the cuts within the middle third. Overlap the cuts by about one third of their length, while holding the knife at a 30 degree angle. Also check out this very useful video on proper baguette scoring.
Do not use this steam generating method with your normal household oven! Check our oven tips first
Bake in the preheated oven for 27 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
To get a nice crust, try to create some steam in your oven by putting a small metal baking tray on your oven floor when you preheat the oven and pouring in half a cup of hot water immediately after putting the bread in the oven. Release some steam by setting your oven door ajar 5 minutes before the bread is ready. If you are going to create steam with a baking tray, you maybe also want to turn your oven temperature a bit higher, because you are going to lose some heat in the process.
Baguette time table
Day 1
Make poolish
Day 2
00:00 Mix ingredients 6 minutes
40 minute rest
00:46 – 2-3 letter folds
40 minute rest
01:26 – 1-2 letter fold + divide + pre-shape
10 minute rest
01:41 – shape + proof
35 minutes final proofing
02:20 – into the oven
Baking time 27 minutes
02:47 – take out and leave to cool
The crumb: the holes are slightly less impressive compared to the 80% hydration recipe, but still very nice texture and taste!
If you are looking for couches / proofing linen for baguettes, we have really good ones made from 100% French bakers linen in our Weekend Bakery web shop!
Stan says
I’m trying out this recipe and after doing stretch and fold two times (with a 40 minute interval) my dough is actually too wet to handle. I’ve done some dlour on my hands and the deegschraper, but still I was unable to make nice rectangles. On Youtube I found your baguette baking video in which you stretch and fold for a much longer time than in this recipe. Should I also stretch and fold for 2 minutes and then try pre-shaping my baguette? Thanks in advance!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Stan,
That’s a very good suggestion and that would be our advice. So much is dependent on the flour you use and the amount and type of gluten in it. This determines how much liquid to use and the elasticity and extensibility of the dough. So, it could well be that just a few % less hydration and /or some more S&F would make the dough more ‘cooperative’. This is why we suggest the added ‘depending on how well your dough cooperates and Stop if the dough is not willing to stretch anymore’ to the instructions.
Also, try a different flour (with around 12% protein or a bit higher) if you still do not like your results.
Hope this helps and enjoy your baguette baking!
Philip says
Operation succeeded with in the end 66 % moisture. Large ‘alveolles’ as a french trad francaise baguette.
Super tasting baguette.
Used your 30° angle suggestion for scoring technique: i still need a lot of practicing after this batch but saw immediate difference from scoring straight 90° instead. Tx!!!
Weekend Bakers says
Glad to read your latest comment Philip and glad you persevered! Based on your earlier comment we were wondering if your mixing was the culprit, maybe somehow under-developing the dough, not getting enough gluten strength. But practice makes perfect. So glad you like our instructions and they help you perfect your baking and loaves.
Enjoy your baking and baguette making!
Ed & Marieke
Philip says
Hi,
First time i use this recipe. I do not understand why my dough always looks much stickier and lacks strength at the end of mixing. Even when reducing the water to total 66 %. I use 13/680 wheat flour. Package states a moisture perc at around 15 perc. I had this with your recipe but also with other recipes. When above 70 % water dough loses strenght. I had better experience when using 24 h 4 degr C ‘pointage retarde’ but even then when eg looking at french bakery instruction video on youtube they all show a much stronger dough at end of kneading. While all this is is a bit frustrating i manage to bake good tasty baguettes
Philip says
Wanted to add still. Your website instructions are really excellent! Thank you for this.
Benny says
Thanks so much for this recipe and the excellent instructions with videos and images. For me this produced a remarkable baguette, better than some I have had in New Orleans, and certainly good enough to wow my friends who come to dine.
The stretch and fold technique works so well that I have gained new confidence in working with high hydration dough and am going to move next to the 80%. Thanks Again!
Benny
Weekend Bakers says
Great work Benny, so glad it worked out well and you are enthusiastic about the recipe and techniques. Always great to learn something new, especially when it yields good results. With this experience the 80% recipe will be a good step to take. Enjoy the baguette baking!
Marieke & Ed
Bonnie says
This sounds really good…but do you have cup/teaspoon conversions for this recipe ? Anxious to try this…comments are so positive!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Bonnie,
We very much recommend weighing your ingredients. Professional bakers use scales (also in the US) and in Europe almost all home bakers do too. A scale will give you the exact same weight every time. Which is absolutely needed if you consistently want to make good bread, especially good baguettes and pastry. You can get a scale for the same price as a few sacks of good flour and less than a lot of baking tools.
But we understand not having scales at hand. We do have very handy baking conversion tools and a quick and easy to scan table for conversion of all staple baking ingredients.
www.weekendbakery.com/cooki…nversions/
Let us know if you need our help!
Happy baking
Emma says
I made this the other day, and used the slap and fold technique instead of a machine, and added 15 minutes of autolyse. Despite completely failing the shaping of the baguettes, they came out tasting great with an amazing holey crust. Thank you for this recipe! I will be attempting it again tomorrow.
Weekend Bakers says
Thanks for your comment Emma. The shaping takes some practice but you will get more comfortable with the stickiness of it when you do it more often!
And so great with baking bread, even though it is not yet 100% the way you want it, it can still taste absolutely great.
Happy baguette baking!
April J says
Best French bread recipe. Texture, and taste were fantastic. Great explanation, and the videos explaining technique were really good. This will be my go to French bread recipe. Thanks.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you so much for your kind comment April. So glad it worked out well and you are enjoying your own home baked French baguettes.
Happy baguette baking!
Marieke & Ed
juan servellon says
look easy
Antoine Hanna says
Did not get the nice holes that you got. What did I do wrong?
Antoine Hanna says
Did not get the nice large number of holes . What did I do wrong ?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Antoine,
It can be one of these things or a combination:
Fumbling too much with the dough, pressing on the dough too hard or adding too much flour during the process to compensate for the stickiness of the dough.
Some people oil their work surface and lightly oil their hands during kneading or folding. Some people lightly wet their hands. I prefer to use my hands dry, with maybe a bit of flour. Test different methods and see what works for you.
Also remember that different types of flour have different levels of moisture absorption. Make sure you have the right type of flour for the recipe or adjust your moisture levels accordingly.
Antoine Hanna says
Thanks.
Samy says
Really good explanation
Great website
Thank you
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Sammy for letting us know and happy baking weekend!