This recipe is straight from the Dawg House Bakery blog, which is a great resource! Check out my video on Youtube (also copied below) to get an idea of dough texture and shaping methods. There are other methods out there too–if you’re interested, I’d suggest checking out the Breadtopia website as well.
You basically need a scale for this unless you’ve done it a few times and know the texture you’re looking for.
If you like the sourdough flavor and have some lying around, feel free to add some in — just adjust the amount of water you add so that the texture looks like mine.
Total time: 24 hours. Makes 4 loaves.
Materials: 1 mixing bowl; kitchen scale; baking pan; steaming pan (optional); razor or sharp knife. Missing materials or ingredients? Look here.
Ingredients:
- 4 grams (~½ packet) active dry yeast (such as Red Star)
- 487 grams warm water
- 625 grams (~5 cups) flour (I use a combination of all purpose and bread flour)
- 10 grams salt
- Ice cubes if you want to add steam in the oven for the crust
Instructions:
1-5 days before: Prepare the biga. Biga is a combination of flour, water, and yeast, that ferments before being added to the final dough. This helps with strength of the dough and taste of the bread. Mix together 125 grams all purpose flour, 97 grams water, and a sprinkle of yeast. The mixture will be very sticky. Cover and let sit at room temperature at least overnight. If you let it sit more than 24 hours, put it in the fridge first and take it out ~4 hours before use.
5 hours before baking: Mix together the dough: Add 390 grams warm (wrist-temperature) water and 4 grams of yeast to the biga to dissolve it a little, then add 500 grams flour (I use bread flour here, but you could also use all purpose or another combination) and 10 grams of salt. Mix these well until you have a shaggy dough. It will come together and be smooth after the rising. Cover the dough and let it rise. Do a stretch and fold every 20-30 minutes three times, then let it rise untouched for 2-3 hours.
1.5 hours before: Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Shape into long rectangles. Let rise another 30 minutes.
1 hour before: Shape into final baguette form (see video below). Let rest ~1 hour, then dust with flour and score with a razor or sharp knife. There is a particular way to score baguettes. There should be 5 scores per loaf and they should overlap a bit and be pretty central on the dough. But really don’t fuss.
Bake: Bake ~25-30 minutes at 450˚F. You can add try adding steam to the oven with ice cubes if you want, but I never find that it makes a difference!
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