Homemade French Baguette
Learn how to make a classic French baguette with this simple recipe.
Equipment
- Large Bowl
- Clean cloth
- Baking tray
Ingredients
- 500 g flour
- 14 g yeast
- 350 ml water
- 2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Combine 250g flour, 10g yeast, and 350ml water in a large bowl and mix well. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let sit for four hours.
- Crumble the rest of the yeast (4g) into the bread dough and add another 250g of flour. Knead the dough thoroughly, place it on a well-floured work surface, and sprinkle the salt over the top. Knead the salt and form the dough into a ball. Cover the dough ball with a clean cloth and let it rest for one hour.
- Divide the dough into three equal portions. On a well-floured work surface, roll each portion of dough into a loaf.
- Place the baguettes on a floured baking tray, sprinkle the tops with flour, and make several incisions on the surface to allow the loaves of bread to break open in a controlled manner. Bake the baguettes at 220°C (430°F) for 20 minutes.
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Notes
Incidentally, as is often the case, there are several origin stories of how the baguette came to be. The most adventurous claims that the engineer responsible for the Paris metro invented them. Because portions of bread could easily be torn off the baguette, it was possible to ban the very spirited tunnel workers from bringing knives to work. Who knows: maybe they fought their fights with baguettes instead!