How To Make Baguettes - My First Tutorial!!

Ok, so I have tried these about 3 or 4 times now and they have always turned out really good. It takes a really long time to make but most of that time you are just waiting for the bread to rise so you can do other things. But if you can make baguettes, I pretty much figure you make any type of bread so why not try a harder one first and others will be easy! =) So here goes my first tutorial, I hope it helps.

 What you will need

* All Purpose Flour  3.5 cups + 1 cup for starter
* Salt (not pictured, I apologize!)  1 teaspoon
* Dry Active Yeast - 1 teaspoon + 1 pinch
*Water  -  1 cup + half cup
easy huh?


Step 1 - The afternoon before you want to break the bread, you have to create a starter. I usually make mine at about 4 or 5 pm the previous day. To create a starter,

mix 1/16th of a teaspoon (or just a pinch) of dry active yeast to half a cup or warm water. Stir it.

 Then add the mixture to 1 cup of all purpose flour.

Mix well until it looks like this.

Step 2- Get a damp kitchen towel and cover the bowl. Put it somewhen dark and dry for 14 hours. One good place I find is inside of a turned off oven or a pantry.





*** Next Day!!!

Ok so after 14 hours this is what the starter should look like. Many air bubbles, kind of like a pancake before it has been flipped.

Step 3 -

Alright now the real bread process begins. add 3.5 cups of flour and a teaspoon of salt to the top of the starter. In a separate little bowl mix 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast to 1 cup warm water. Stir the yeast mixture and add it to the flour and starter.






Step 4 -

Time to get some exercise. Knead everything together until it become a dough. Make sure to scrape up as much of the starter at the bottom of the bowl as you can into the dough so that it rises properly. What is really great about baguettes is you don't have to knead the dough until it is completely smooth, in fact you shouldn't. With baguettes you should knead the dough just enough so that all the ingredient are properly mixed but the dough is somewhat lumpy like this. Once it looks like this put some saran wrap over the bowl and put it in a dark place to rise for 1 hour.


Step 5-

Ok so after an hour this is what the dough should look like. See how the rising is smoothing out the dough?

Now what you are going to do is deflate the dough put the saran wrap back on the bowl  and let it rise again. After that you'll do that one more time for a total of three times.





Step 6-

Yay! you are on the homestretch of the rising journey. Once you let it rise and deflate 3 times, you are going to put the dough on a floured surface ( I just put flour on my clean counters) and you are going to take a serrated knife and cut the dough into 3 pieces as equally as you can. (Sorry my picture is not a great example of equal cutting) and let the dough rest for 15 minutes.


Step 7 -

Ok, now its time for some shaping. Take one of the three section and flatten it out into the shape of a rectangle.

Now take the top part and fold it almost in half just leaving about a half inch uncovered.

and push down on the dough again to make another rectangle.

Fold the top part one more time.

Roll the dough up so that the seam is now on the bottom of the loaf and shape the dough to look like a baguette.
Repeat step 7 two more times for the other sections.

Step 8 -

Ok so close now, don't give up! For one final quick rest (it is the last one I promise) you are going to create sort of a flour cradle for your loaves. Get a tea towel and a baking sheet. What you do is shape the towel so that it has 3 big spaces for the loaves to fit in. In those spaces before you put the bread in, sprinkle a good amount of flour in the bottom. (This will create that fancy artisan looking crust on the bottom after you bake.)

Now put the bread in the spaces and cover them very lightly with saran wrap and let them rise one last time for about 30 minutes.

Here is what the loaves should look like now just a little bit fluffier.   







Step 9 -

So now the loaves are nice and fluffed, it is time to prepare them for baking. First of all preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Now gently put the loaves on a baking sheet and what you are going to do is sprinkle or spray (if you have a spritzer around) water onto the bread. This will create that nice crunchy crust. Put just enough water on them so that they look glossy.

After watering them all that is left is to get a serrated knife and create diagonal cuts in the bread. Not very deep ones just about a quarter of the way through the dough, Make 3 or 4 of these cuts depending on how long the bread is. Now just put the bread in the oven for 25 minutes. I know it is tempting but try not to open the oven door while it is baking since it will let a lot of that heat escape.




Step 10 -

Bask in your baking glory and eat.

 If all went well (which it should have) you will have 3 delicious, crunchy, fresh baguettes that you made with your own hands with just 4 simple ingredients. I know it all seems like a lot at first but after a few times you will be able to make these with your eyes closed and will probably never buy baguettes again. Enjoy!