Homemade baguettes on a poolish: crackling crust, open crumb, baked with steam
A baguette is four ingredients and a lot of time: flour, water, yeast, salt. The flavour comes from a poolish, a loose pre-ferment set the evening before; the open crumb comes from a wet dough that is folded rather than kneaded. Shaping and scoring take practice, which is why this recipe is marked as demanding, but even a crooked first baguette from this batch tastes better than most from a shop. Three loaves of 40 cm.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Poolish ripening 720 min
- Mixing 20 min
- Rising and folding 150 min
- Shaping 20 min
- Proofing on the cloth 60 min
- Baking 25 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneEvening: set the poolish
In a bowl mix 150 g flour, 150 ml water and the crumb of yeast into a smooth, loose paste. Cover with film and leave at room temperature 12 hours. In the morning it should be full of bubbles, slightly sunken in the middle and smell tangy, like an apple.
Ingredients: 150 g strong bread flour · 150 ml water · 1 g fresh yeast
TipA poolish is half the flour fermenting all night with a minimum of yeast. It gives the baguette a flavour and aroma you cannot get in 3 hours, and a creamy-coloured crumb.
Morning: bubbles, slightly sunken, smells tangyMorning: mix the dough
Add the rest of the flour, the water and the crumbled yeast to the poolish. Mix with a scraper or your hand just until combined, cover for 20 minutes (autolyse: the flour hydrates and gluten starts forming on its own). Then sprinkle on the salt and work it in with a wet hand for 2 minutes. The dough is slack and sticky; that is right, it is 70 % hydration.
Ingredients: 350 g strong bread flour · 200 ml water · 7 g fresh yeast · 10 g salt
Slack, sticky, salt after the autolyseFold instead of kneading
During the first 90 minutes of rising do 3 sets of folds every 30 minutes: with a wet hand grab the dough at one side of the bowl, stretch it up and fold it over the centre; turn the bowl a quarter and repeat 4 times. After each set the dough is visibly smoother and springier. Then leave it alone for another 60 minutes, until grown by half and full of bubbles.
TipFolding builds gluten in a wet dough without knocking the air out, which is why the crumb stays open and irregular. Machine kneading would give a fine, even crumb like a roll.
Stretch, fold, turn; three setsDivide and pre-shape
Turn the dough onto a floured counter and divide with a scraper into 3 pieces (about 280 g). Fold each loosely into a rectangle and leave 15 minutes under a cloth: the gluten relaxes before the final shaping.
Three rectangles resting a quarter hourShape the baguettes
Fold the top third of the rectangle to the middle and press, then the bottom over it and press with the heel of your hand, making a taut log with a seam. Pinch the seam, turn it down and roll the log under your palms from the centre outwards until it is 35–40 cm long with slightly tapered ends. Lay seam up in the folds of a heavily floured cloth (each baguette in its own fold), cover and leave 60 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 240 °C with a tray or stone inside and an empty tray on the floor.
TipThe surface tension from shaping holds the form and opens the scores in the oven. The folded cloth stands in for a tin: the baguettes rise up, not out.
Seam up, in the folds of the cloth, an hourScore
Transfer the baguettes seam down onto a sheet of baking paper on a board or an upturned tray. With a razor blade held almost flat (30°) make 4–5 cuts on each along the length, overlapping by a third, 5 mm deep. Fast and decisive: a slow cut drags the dough.
Blade at an angle, cuts along the length, not acrossBake with steam
Slide the baguettes with the paper onto the hot tray, pour a cup of boiling water onto the bottom tray and shut the door at once. Bake 10 minutes with steam, then open the door for 10 seconds to let the steam out and bake another 12–15 minutes, until deep golden and hollow-sounding underneath.
TipSteam for the first 10 minutes keeps the crust soft so the baguette can rise and open its scores; releasing it afterwards lets the crust dry, crisp and shine.
Ten minutes with steam, then withoutCool and listen
Cool on a rack 20 minutes. The crust crackles as it cools: the sign that it is thin and dry. Best within 6 hours; freeze any you will not eat and refresh them for 6 minutes at 200 °C before serving.
Open crumb, thin crust, crackling
Before you start
No poolish, cold rise
Mix the whole dough with 4 g fresh yeast (any more and it over-proves in the fridge), fold twice 30 minutes apart and refrigerate 12–18 hours. Shape straight from the fridge and extend the final proof to about 90 minutes. Similar flavour, less planning.
Flat, wide baguettes
Shaped too loosely or proofed too long on the cloth. Tighten the log more, shorten the second rise to 45 minutes and bake when grown by half, not doubled.
The scores didn't open
Too little steam, or cuts too deep and too perpendicular. Blade flat, 5 mm, along the axis, and a full cup of boiling water the moment they go in.
