Making a baguette

28 Mar 2024

If you don't live in a mainland European town, you're less likely to have a local baker. Baguettes can be expensive and disappointingly tough if not fresh.

Here's a delightful, simple recipe that involves around 5 minutes of active work, but offers so much more. There's no knead to work hard here. Original recipe found from @kepano.

No knead baguette recipe

• 475g bread flour
• 1 packet active dry yeast (7g)
• 1 tsp salt
• 365g filtered water

1. mix all ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon until it just comes together (2 min)
2. let rise overnight (8-10h)
3. move dough to a heavily floured surface, scrape from the edges of the bowl to avoid collapsing the air bubbles
4. form into a one big rough oblong shape
5. cut dough in half lengthwise
6. transfer each half directly onto a baking rack, pull ends to stretch into a rough baguette shape
7. bake at highest temp (500F or 260C, crank it up!) for 25 minutes on lowest rack in the oven with convection for big air pockets avoid pressing down on the dough at any stage

Making bread can be a grounding moment in a world full of ready-made, abstracted products. Now that you know how, you too can share this moment of joy.