How to Make French Baguettes

I always thought you can’t make real French baguettes at home, but once I tried it I realized I was wrong. Again. You’re going to be fairly shocked when you realize just how simple this is. The only way to make bread this any more French is to put some butter on it!

Step: 1

Place yeast into the bottom of a large mixing bowl and stir with water; mix in salt. Beat flour into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon until dough is thick and sticky and pulls flour from the side of the bowl, 5 to 10 minutes.

Step: 2

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a turned-off oven until doubled in size, 12 to 14 hours. Dough will be bubbly and very sticky.

Step: 3

Place a silicone baking mat onto a baking sheet and dust generously with cornmeal.

Step: 4

Use a floured spatula to scrape dough out onto a well-floured work surface and dust dough with flour. With well-floured hands, pat dough into a rectangle and cut into 4 equal-size pieces.

Step: 5

Dust a piece of dough with flour and use your floured fingers to gently roll and stretch it out into a log about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches around. Gently transfer to prepared baking sheet. If desired, wipe off excess cornmeal with a damp paper towel. Repeat with another piece of dough. (Reserve remaining dough to bake later or prepare 2 baking sheets to bake all 4 at once). Dust loaves lightly with flour. Dust a large piece of plastic wrap with flour and drape plastic lightly over the baking sheet with floured side down.

Step: 6

Let loaves rise, covered, until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hour.

Step: 7

Move oven racks to the bottom and middle positions. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C) or as high as your oven will go. Place an oven-safe baking dish full of water into bottom rack of the oven.

Step: 8

Use a sharp kitchen shears to cut 4 or 5 angled slashes into the top of each loaf. Poke down the little sharp tips of dough left by the scissors. Spray loaves with water, using a spray bottle.

Step: 9

Bake in the preheated oven until baguettes are browned, about 15 minutes, spraying loaves with water after 5 minutes and 10 minutes. Turn the pan around on the second spraying.

Step: 10

Transfer baguettes to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before slicing with a serrated knife.

Per Serving: 305 calories; protein 8.7g; carbohydrates 63.8g; fat 0.8g; sodium 681.8mg.

The best flavour of the flour can make a real difference to your bread. Different makers do vary. Extra-strong or Canadian flours, which are bet higher in gluten, may give you a best rise than standard dough flours – especially if you’re make wholemeal bread , which doesn’t always getting bigger as well as white bread.

To made this in a dough , add all the menus to your breadmaker and follow the makers instructions.

A dough’s first rising can be done in the fridge 24 hours . This slows down the time it takes to rise to double its size, giving it a deeper flavour. It’s also a great timesaver , as you can start it yesterday , then clear it off the next day.