French Baguettes
Crisp, chewy, flavorful french baguettes
Ingredients
For the pre-ferment:
- 1 1/4 cup AP flour 142g
- 1 1/4 cup bread flour 142g
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp water
For the baguettes:
- 3 cups pate fermentee all of the preferment
- 1 1/4 cups bread flour 142g
- 1 1/4 cups AP flour 142g
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp water
Instructions
For the pate fermentee:
- Add the ingredients to a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix until it comes together into a cohesive ball. Add a bit of flour or water until you have a soft, supple dough. It should not be too stiff.
- Knead for 5-6 minutes on medium low, or until it becomes a smooth ball. Transfer to a gallon ziploc sprayed with plenty of oil spray.
- Leave out on the counter for an hour, then place in the fridge overnight or up to 3 days. If you are short on time, let sit out at room temp for at least 2 hours and then proceed.
For the baguettes:
- Remove the pre-ferment from the oven an hour before you want to start so it can warm up.
- Place all of the pate fermentee and the other bread ingredients into the stand mixer with dough hook.
- Knead on medium low and until the dough forms a smooth ball. Adjust flour/water as needed to get a smooth, flexible dough. There is a fair amount of water in the dough, so the dough ball should spread out when you stop the mixer. If your ball holds its shape, add small amounts of water until it is a more loose dough.
- Continue kneading until it passes the windowpane test.
- Place the dough into a large bowl or dough rising bucket sprayed with oil spray. Cover with a cover or plastic wrap.
- After 30 minutes, stretch and fold the dough (google for videos on how to do this) and return to the bowl. Repeat this 30 min rest and stretch and fold cycle 3 more times.
- Allow the dough to rise for about an hour until doubled. Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place in pizza steel if using.
- Transfer dough to a floured countertop. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Shape each into a baguette shape (youtube or google is your friend here too). Place shaped loaves into a floured couche or onto a parchment lined back of a sheet pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap if using sheet pan.
- Allow to rise for 45 min to 1 hour until the dough only springs back slightly when you poke it and the loaves are about 1.5 times the size of the original. Score the tops of the loaves in 3 shallow lines long ways.
- Slide the baguettes onto the pizza steel and add 1/2 cup water to the water pan (do not use glass ever for the water pan, even oven safe glass). Spray them a few times with water in the first 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes lower the heat to 450 and bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the loaves. Continue baking until they are nicely darkened and 205 degrees internally. Cool on a cooling rack and serve as soon as possible.
- These can be frozen wrapped in plastic wrap and sealed in an airtight bag.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!