Classic Baguettes and Stuffed Baguettes
Listen closely -- you can hear this crackly-crisp bread "sing" as it cools! Step-by-step photos illustrating how to make these baguettes are available at Bakers’ Banter, our King Arthur blog.
Starter
1/2 cup (4 ounces) cool water
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Unbleached Bread Flour
1/16 teaspoon instant yeast
Dough
All of the starter
1 teaspoon instant yeast or 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water*
3 1/2 cups (14 3/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Unbleached Bread Flour*
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
*If you use bread flour, increase the water to 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (9 ounces).
The Starter: Mix the starter ingredients together till smooth, cover, and let rest at room temperature for about 14 hours; overnight is good.
Preparing the Dough: If you're using active dry yeast (rather than instant), mix it with the lukewarm water; if you're using instant yeast, there's no need to do this. Combine the starter, yeast, water, flour, and salt, and mix and knead them together -- by hand, mixer or bread machine -- till you've made a soft, somewhat smooth dough; it should be cohesive, but the surface should still be a bit rough. Allow the dough to rise, covered with lightly greased plastic wrap, for 3 hours, gently deflating it and turning it over after 1 hour, and then again after 2 hours.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased or floured work surface. Divide the dough into three pieces. Shape each piece into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.
Working with one piece of dough at a time, fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel or edge of your hand. Flatten it slightly, and fold and seal again. With the seam-side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the dough into a 15" log . Place the logs in the folds of a floured couche or floured cotton dish towel, which you've set onto a sheet pan or pans. Or place them directly onto the pan (lightly greased or parchment-lined). Cover them with a proof cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise till they have become quite puffy, but haven't doubled in size; this will take about 60 to 90 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 450°F; if you're using a baking stone, place it on the lowest shelf. Roll the risen baguettes from the couche onto the lightly greased or parchment-lined pan of your choice -- or onto a peel, if you're baking directly on the stone. Spritz the baguettes heavily with warm water; this will help them develop a crackly-crisp crust. Using a very sharp knife held at about a 45° angle, make three 8” vertical slashes in each baguette. Place the baguettes in the oven.
Bake the baguettes for about 25 minutes, until they're a deep, golden brown. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack. Or, for the very crispiest baguettes, turn off the oven, crack it open about 2 inches, and allow the baguettes to cool in the oven. Yield: Three 16” baguettes.
To make stuffed baguettes: Divide the dough into six pieces. Flatten each piece into a 5" square. Layer with the stuffing of your choice—a slice or two of ham or salami, some cheese, mustard—and roll up like a jelly roll, pinching the ends and the side seam closed. Finish as directed above, letting them rise, then baking in a 425°F oven for about 25 minutes, until they're golden brown. Yield: six stuffed baguettes.
This recipe reprinted from The Baker's Catalogue, Spring through Summer 2001.
Reviews
07/25/2010
Once again, KAF, you ROCK! I tried this recipe for the first time, today, with amazing results! I had ordered the triple baguette pan and, when it arrived last week, I knew I wanted to try it out. I followed this recipe "to a T" with outstanding results. I made no modifications. I used my bread machine for the initial kneading phase; setting the timer, I removed it from the bread machine bucket after ten minutes. When it came time to form the loaves, I pulled out my brand new KAF pastry rolling mat. I LOVE that product! It is the perfect surface for shaping the loaves and the measurements printed on the mat are so handy! (I can't wait to use it for a pie crust!) On to baking; I spritzed the loaves generously with warm water prior to putting in the oven, I also spritzed the oven. Fifteen minutes into baking, I opened the oven door and generously spritzed the loaves and inside of the oven again. The loaves came out perfect! I could hardly wait until they were cool enough to slice! Crusty outside, warm, soft, inside. I'm thrilled with this recipe and the results I achieved today!
06/30/2010
04/21/2010
Good, holey bread!
03/29/2010
I made these for my family at Christmas. They were ADORED! I still can't believe I made them and they turned out so perfectly. I've only been baking on my own for a couple years -- so great recipe!!! I stuffed them with lots of cheese, pepperoni, turkey, ham, and salami in different combos (my favorite were all combined!) and made them ahead of time before we left for our trip up North so I could just bake them after we got up there. Super easy, I just froze them instead of baking. Then we just stuck them in a cooler with lots of ice before driving 8 hours to NC. When it was my day to do lunch, I thawed the baguettes and baked them. Simple! And everyone was impressed. I will say though -- these things took me a lot of prep work but they are worth the time commitment. DH keeps asking me to make them again, but being PG and having a 1 year old, I don't quite have the energy to tackle them again soon -- but I really hope someone makes them for me! Yum.
03/13/2010
I will be forever grateful to King Arthur for this recipe and for making good ingredients readily available. After a very long search for a way to make baguettes like I had them in Southern France as a child, the solution began with this recipe and their flour. I have modified the technique a bit from what I've learned over the years, but that is simply mechanical things such as how to stretch and turn the dough as it rises. The SAF yeast the their bread flour have remained along with the proportions recommended by KA. I recommend learning how to adapt the recipe to what you want out of the bread and to your local conditions. The oven, humidity, etc.
02/14/2010
This recipe is easy and oh so good!! The preferment makes all the difference in the world! Thank you KA!
01/31/2010
What an awesome recipe! You feel like a baking super star with this on your cooling rack!
01/16/2010
First attempt at baking a baguette, the result was perfection! My bread was as good, if not better than my step mother's, who has baked bread for 40 years. My father bragged on and on over my bread that I felt a little sorry for my SM. Oh well, she'll have to switch her recipe to this one!
08/15/2009
Thanks so much for publishing this recipe! My family and I have just wiped out one of the baguettes in the first batch as an afternoon snack - formidable! I believed it was impossible to bake bread this light or with this thin, flaky, authentic French baguette crust. I varied the method slightly: starting temp 550 deg, creating steam by pouring a cup of boiling-hot water into a skillet on the top rack and spraying the bread and oven sides every 30 seconds for the first minute and a half. Then reduced heat to 475. I did not have to bake to such a dark brown crust as shown in the picture. The result looks and tastes like it came from our favorite boulangerie on Ile St. Louis...
08/04/2009
My husband (born in France) and I really like this bread. I make two recipes (and freeze the bread) about every two weeks. We also enjoy it shaped as epis (which I learned to cut on the KAF website!!) because we get more crust. Super recipe!!
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