Homemade baguettes are the ultimate bread making experience in my opinion. They take some time to make but are really pretty simple. The ingredient list is short but the flavor is amazing. You are going to love to know how to make authentic French Baguettes at home; they are such an amazing bread.
My Favorite Baguette Recipe
The perfect baguette is crispy on the outside, perfectly chewy on the inside, has a complex flavor, and are one of those breads that feel like such a simple pleasure in life. Few things in life are as luxurious yet simple as a fresh baguette; add some good quality European butter and you're eating some of the most delicious food in the world.
I've done my baguette research.
I did a lot of research when it came to making baguettes and there are multiple techniques. I looked at major baking blogs, flour companies (like King Arthur Flour), and I researched the winners for the Best Baguettes in Paris Competition (note to self: next time include a trip to Paris in your research...). I tried many many recipes and discovered that I like using a long cold rising time for my baguettes best.
I've been working on this post and recipe for months and I'm so pleased with the recipe that I have to share with you. It has minimal ingredients, it takes some time (plan on 16+ hours), but the result is some of the best bread I've ever eaten (and that's saying something).
Baguettes have a magical property to them. They are soul food on some level and you'll understand once you make and eat them too. I hope you find some of the healing and soothing comfort this simple recipe brings. It's worth the time and I hope you find yourself making them weekly as I have been. Long live the slow and thoughtful staple foods of the world.
Ingredients in French Baguettes:
- Water: so simple, you'll have the best luck using good clean water. If your water is highly treated or smells like cholrine out of the tap, consider using filtered water. Breads like this tend to love mineral-rich well water.
- All Purpose Flour: Use a high quality all-purpose flour like Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur Flour. Their all-purpose flour has a gluten content close to European flours and you'll have good results with them.
- Salt: use a kosher or sea salt here. Table salt has too much of an acidic taste for this recipe.
- Yeast: use instant yeast for this recipe, it might also be called rapid rise or quick rise yeast
- Honey: I love adding just a little honey to this recipe, it helps the yeast do it's thing and I think it add some flavor to the bread as well. It doesn't really sweetened the bread, it just add some nice compliments to the flavor.
Characteristics of a Classic Baguettes:
The outside should be dark and cripy, the inside should be airy, light, and have just a bit of chewiness to it, and the flavor should taste like the best bread of your life. The flavor is much less sour than sourdough bread, but it's full and robust like other artisan breads.
You aren't working with a lot of ingredients so all of the methods in which the bread is produced matter. You can use yeast and let it rise quickly, shape it like a baguette, and bake it, but it will be lacking the depth of flavor and the texture won't be as amazing.
The perfect baguette texture:
The texture is achieved by taking some time after the dough has been made to "stretch and fold" the dough, essentially you are going to give the dough a little kneading session a few times after the dough is made. This helps the gluten to develop. Then when you shape the dough into the baguette shape, you do so in a way they encourages chewiness and pockets for air bubbles (I'll show you how!).
The outside texture is achieved by cooking the dough at a very high temperature AND by adding a pan of water to the oven so that it is creating steam. The steamy cooking environment mixed with the high temperature are the things that make perfect baguettes. Nothing you have to do for this recipe is hard, it's just a few extra steps that turn the dough from traditional bread dough into something really special.
The perfect baguette flavor:
By using a slow fermentation process for this dough, you develop the flavor of the dough. After the dough has been made and you've kneaded it a few times over a few hours, you'll cover it well and pop it in the fridge for 12 to 18 hours (depending on your time schedule). This method of cold retarding the dough is where so much of the magic is made. And the best part is, you don't have to babysit. You do have wait, but it's not like you are actively doing anything for those hours.
This slow rise is also changing the texture of the dough! So it's a double win.
My baker's schedule for baguettes:
- Mix up my dough while I'm making dinner.
- Stretch and fold over the course of the evening while dinner is cooking, I'm cleaning up etc.
- Tuck the dough away for the night in the fridge before I go to bed.
- I adjust the next days baking depending on when we want to eat the baguettes. If they are for lunch, I'll get the dough out of the fridge 3 hours before we want to eat. If I want them for dinner, I'll get them out 3 hours before dinner. If you don't have a set time of when you want them, just make them when it's best for your schedule.
- 3 hours before I want baguettes, I remove the dough from the fridge, divide it into three pieces, gently press the dough pieces into small rectangles on the counter, cover and let rise for an hour.
- After that hour rise, I'll shape the baguettes and place them on my baguette pan to rise for another 45 minutes to an hour. I preheat my oven once the baguettes are shaped and get my pan of water in there to start warming.
- After that 45 minutes to an hour, I bake my baguettes.
- Let the baguettes cool slightly before serving and enjoy!
Special equipment needed for this baguette recipe:
I really wanted to make this attainable for everyone! You don't even need a stand mixer for this recipe. After much trial and error though I did decided that buying a baguette pan was worth it. The bread rises right in the pan and the pan goes right in the oven. It doesn't take up a lot of room to store and I've really really liked the results. The pans aren't expensive either.
If you already have other bread making supplies like a bread baking stone, a peel, and a couche (a heavy-duty towel used for shaping), by all means, you can use those here. It just felt too hard to get the bread to transfer well and I figured getting a baguette pan was just as easy as getting a stone, peel, and couche if you didn't have them already.
The only other specialty tool you'll need is a razor blade or a bread slashing tool called a lame. You can use a very sharp serrated knife to cut the slits in your bread before baking but I've found a razor blade or lame to just work so much better. It will cut deeply without tearing the bread or roughing it up too much (you can deflate the risen dough by trying to use knife that doesn't cut well for scoring).
Here's how to make baguettes, step by step photos:
How to stretch and fold your dough:
First you'll mix up your dough; it come together really easily just stirring it with a wooden spoon. Then over the next 3 or so hours, you'll "stretch and fold" your dough every 30 to 45 minutes or so, a total of 4 times.
Don't overthink this part, the timing isn't a huge deal, so don't sweat it if you do it a little more or less and a little faster or slower than at the 30 to 45 minute mark. The idea is that you knead the dough just a bit, a few times, over the course of a couple of hours. It's way flexible. This helps to make the inside of your baguette perfectly chewy.
When I say "stretch and fold", here's what you do: put your hand between the dough and the bowl on one side and grab the dough, gently pull it up to give it a good stretch (if the dough starts to break, stop pulling, you are just stretching the dough as far as it wants to stretch without breaking it) and then fold it back down into the middle of the bowl. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the process, working your way around the bowl. I normally think of the bowl as a square and stretch and pull the dough 4 times, once on each side of my square. It'll take 15 or so seconds to do this.
Do this a few times over the next few hours. Then cover up the bowl well with a beeswax wrap or a piece of plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for the next 12-18 hours.
After your dough has chilled for 12-18 hours, remove it from the bowl and divide it out into three even pieces.
Pat the pieces of dough out into rectangles (don't worry to much about the shape, the cold dough is pretty stiff, just pat it out...) and are about 1 inch thick. Cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.
How to shape baguettes:
Once the dough has rested at room temperature for an hour, pull it into a rectangle that is about 11 inches by 8 inches. Then fold the dough into thirds as shown in the pictures above. Once the dough has been folded, pinch the seem shut.
Gently use your hands to roll the log of dough out into a baguette that is 15 inches long. Use your hands and the rolling motion to gently taper the ends. Then you'll place the baguettes in a baguette pan. Repeat with remaining dough. Let the dough rise for about an hour in the baguette pan and then bake!
More bread recipes:
- My Favorite Go-To Sourdough Bread Recipe
- Homemade Italian Bread
- Mom’s Easy French Bread Recipe
- Jolyn’s Extra Soft White Bread Recipe
- Mom’s 4 Loaf Wheat Bread Recipe
If you’ve tried this Baguette recipe or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories AND add your photo to your comment so that other can see your creation.
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Classic French Baguette Recipe
- Total Time: 16+ hours
- Yield: 3, 15 inch baguettes 1x
Description
My favorite homemade baguette recipe that uses simple ingredients with a long chilled overnight rising period to develop flavor. This recipe make 3 baguettes that are crispy on the outside, perfectly chewy on the inside, and full of complex flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons cool water (370 grams)
- 1 tablespoon honey (25 grams)
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast (3 grams)
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose Bob's Red Mill or King Arthur Flour brand flour (500 grams)
- 2 teaspoon fine sea salt (10 grams)
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl add the water and honey to the bowl and stir to combine.
- Add the yeast, flour, and salt to the bowl and use a wooden spoon to mix well. The dough will be thick, just stir it as well as you can until the flour is incorporated. No need to mix a lot by hand at this point, just get it to come together.
- Cover the bowl (use a lid, beeswax wrap, or some good cling wrap) and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- After 30 or so minutes stretch and fold the dough. When I say "stretch and fold", here's what you do: put your hand between the dough and the bowl on one side and grab the dough, gently pull it up to give it a good stretch (if the dough starts to break, stop pulling, your are just stretching the dough as far as it wants to stretch without breaking it) and then fold it back down into the middle of the bowl. Give the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the process, working your way around the bowl. I normally think of the bowl as a square and stretch and pull the dough 4 times, once on each side of my square. It'll take 15 or so seconds to do this.
- Over the next 2-3 hours, every 30 to 45 minutes, do a stretch and fold with the dough. Be sure to cover the dough well after each session. Do around 4 stretch and fold sessions total (a little more won't hurt anything).
- See the bakers schedule in the post for more information on how and when I do this (I normally make my dough while I'm making dinner and stretch and fold throughout the evening).
- After you have stretched and folded the dough, cover the dough well and place it in the fridge for the next 12-18 hours.
- You have some flexibility about how long the dough is in the fridge, so feel free to make the baking schedule work with your schedule. I adjust the next days baking depending on when we want to eat the baguettes. If they are for lunch, I'll get the dough out of the fridge 3 hours before we want to eat lunch. If I want them for dinner, I'll get the dough out 3 hours before dinner. If do don't have a set time you want to eat them, you can just do these next steps when you have about a three hour chunk of time to dedicate to it (not all hands-on time but you'll need to be around for things).
- Remove the dough from the fridge after it's 12 to 18 hour rest, and remove it from the bowl.
- Divide the dough into three even pieces.
- Gently press each piece of dough into a rectangular shape about 1 inch thick. If the dough is very sticky feel free to lightly flour your surface. Cover the pressed out dough pieces with a clean dish towel and allow to rise for 1 hour.
- After the dough has rest for an hour at room temperature, it's time to shape your loaves. Working with one piece of dough, stretch the dough gently so that it makes a rectangle that is roughly 11 inches by 8 inches. Fold one third of the dough to the middle of the rectangle, fold the other side of the rectangle into the middle of the dough (like you are folding a letter) and then pinch the dough together along the seem to make a log (I have step by step photos of this in the blog post).
- Use both of your hands to gently roll the dough out into a 15 inch long log, tapering the ends just a bit with your hands.
- Place the prepared dough log into your baguette pan.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
- Cover the dough in the pan with a clean dish towel and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough is light and puffy (it won't be quite doubled in size).
- While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. When you turn the oven on to preheat, add a small dish of water to the oven. I like to use a bread pan that has about 2 inches of water in it. I put it off to one side of the oven so that my baguette pan can fit next to it. I like to let the oven and water preheat for at least 30 minutes so that it has time to get good and hot.
- When the bread has finished rising in the baguette pan, use a razor blade or lame to cut 3 diagonal slashes ½ inch deep diagonally across each loaf OR cut one long ½ inch deep slash down the center of each loaf (I like the center slit personally).
- Place the bread in the hot oven, being careful when you open the oven as it is hot and steamy.
- Close the oven door and reduce the heat to 450 degrees F. right away.
- Let the baguettes cook until they are deep golden brown, 24-28 minutes (I like 25 minutes on the dot). They are going to be very golden!
- Remove the baguettes from the oven and allow to cool 10-15 minutes before serving warm.
- Baguettes are also delicious at room temperature but we have found that we like them eaten fresh they day they are made.
- Uneaten baguettes can be stored wrapped in a clean towel and make excellent bread for sandwiches. They also reheat well by wrapping them in foil and letting them warm in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.
Notes
- I like using a scale for this recipe and measuring that way, the more I use a scale for baking the more I love it. It's a lot more consistent!
- You can totally use your stand mixer for this. Sometimes I'll make my dough in the stand mixer and just let it hang out in there for the next few hours. I'll cover the whole things lightly with a towel and then for my stretch and fold sessions, I'll simple turn the mixer on for 15 seconds and let it do the kneading. It works great!
- You can double this recipe, it works great. I always make a double batch for my family. I like to bake the pans separately though (they bake up better one pan at a time in my oven).
- You can find lots of baguette pans online. I like the ones that are carbon steel and this is the one that I bought.
- You'll want to use a razor blade or lame for slashing your bread before baking, a lame is just a razor blade on a stick but you might like the feel of it better... this tool is also used for scoring sourdough bread.
- If you don't want to buy the baguette pans, I thought the King Arthur Flour baguette recipe did a good job of explaining how to use the cloth, peel, and a baking stone! I bet you could look up some videos on YouTube too.
- Prep Time: 15+ hours
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: side
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: baguettes, baguette recipe, paris baguettes, how to make baguettes, homemade baguettes, French baguette recipe
I hope that you make time to whip up some of these amazing French baguettes in your home and enjoy them as much as we have! I'd LOVE to see pictures if you do!
Chris Bush
Thank you so much for the awesome recipe and instructions! I had tried baguettes a few times before with mixed results. I finally bought myself a baguette pan and decided to try this recipe. I have never made more perfect looking round rolls of any kind. The method is very low hassle, rolling them at the end was the trickiest part for me, but even that got easier with repetition.
★★★★★
Liz
This recipe was perfect. I’ve been trying to master baguettes for a while now and none have lived up to my expectations, until this recipe. My kids said it was “better than Panera” so I’m considering that high praise. My oven runs hot so the only change I would make is to pull them at about 22-23 minutes instead of 25. Thanks for the great recipe!
★★★★★
Marco
Tried other baguette recipes before with mixed results. This one gave me better results consistently. Only drawback for me is having to wait overnight for them to rise
★★★★★
BDGT
These are the best baguettes I have ever made. As I did not have King Arthur's flour, and chose not to purchase any as I already have 4 different flours in the house, I had to add additional flour. (I did weigh the flour so it was not an error in measuring.) I have used the King Arthur's flour before for breads and found that I needed to add additional water to the recipes. So in this case, I was not surprised that I needed to add more flour. I did read years ago, that all flours absorb liquids differently.
★★★★★
Rich Fielding
We returned from France and I was on a mission to make baguette as good as what we were getting fresh from the boulangerie. Well, my whole family agrees that I've done it thanks to this recipe. Absolutely love it! My gas oven cooks a bit uneven so I turn the pan(I bought the one you recommended) around about 15 minutes in and then they only need 5 or 6 minutes after that. Merci!!!
★★★★★
Melissa
SUCH a compliment, thank you! And great job figuring out how to make it work best for your oven!
Nunya Beezwax
Finally, a great baguette recipe. Thank you! My husband and I have been so disappointed trying out different baguette recipes, and they turn out like regular white bread. This recipe was beautifully crunchy on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside. I sprinkled the tops of my baguettes with some coarse salt before I popped them in the oven (don't be jealous). I did mine with the kitchen aid stand and dough hook. We do not need to try any other baguette recipes.
★★★★★
Melissa
The salt is a fabulous idea, I'm completely jealous! I'll try that next time.
Minon
I made the baguette this morning, it turned really good, everybody likes it. Will make it again for sure. Thanks Melissa for sharing the recipe👍
★★★★★
Terry
Your recipe looks great snd I'll try it. Any hints for making gluten free baguettes?
Thanks,
Terry
Melissa
Gluten free is so hard because gluten is such a foundation of bread making. It's not a skill I've acquired and I don't even know resources to point you to for a baguette recipe. Sorry about that!
Kavita
Thank you so much for this recipe, cannot believe it turned out so good. Have been trying my hand at baking bread and hubby says this is the best bred ever 🤗
Ps. Have tagged you on my Instapost
★★★★★
Melissa
Yay!! Thank you so much for tagging on there AND leaving a review, that's so so helpful!
Scarlett
I'm 67 and have been baking bread since I was 5. This is the best, and easiest, French bread recipe I have found. I have 4 different neighbors who purchase the flour and yeast so I can keep them happy with these baguettes. Thank you for sharing this with us!!
★★★★★
Melissa
That's so awesome! Thank you for leaving a comment!
Enagnon
I tried tris recipe yesterday. It was crunchy, golden and delicious. Thanks for sharing this. I noticed that the last 1-hour was not enough for me to raise the bread to the height I saw on the picture after cooking. Also the bread was salty after I doubled the batch and used 4 teaspoons salt. Next time I will use half of that amount or buy a standard teaspoon. Overall, this is a great recipe and the quality of this bread is far better that any bread I bought in stores so far!!! Thanks a lot for sharing!
Melissa
Good observation, some of the difference in rising time will be the temperature and conditions of your kitchen, so making adjustments on your end is so helpful! I'm soglad that you are getting beautiful bread!
Carrots
Perfect baguettes. Better than what I get at our local bakery! It takes a lot of time but it's not difficult, and it's totally worth it. I can't wait to make these again.
★★★★★
Jane Smith
I have a ton of SAF…is rapid rise really necessary?
Melissa
Nope, you can use SAF in this recipe.
Sara
So thrilled i ran across this recipe!! My 12 year old daughter, who is obsessed with baguette (who’s not??), gave this a rating of 1 million out if 1-10. It’s so simple, I really appreciate the step by step photos, and plan to put into our weekly rotation. Thank you! So simple and so delicious.
abby
thank you
★★★★★
Bailey
I have been wanting to try to make a baguette for awhile. This recipe was super easy, and didn’t take much time for me to do (well besides waiting). I’ve already made two separate batches over the weekend… since the first one was eaten up so fast.
would love to know if the dough or baked loaves would hold up being frozen and made at a later date.
★★★★★
Tammy Carr
I will yield to recipe owner about freezing loaf for reuse, but I typically put bread that dries in processor and freeze to use as bread crumbs. This works great