Authentic Crusty French Baguette (with poolish)

french baguette cut in half, showing its interior, soft and chewy, with baguettes in the background

4.92 from 49 votes

Authentic Crusty French Baguette (with poolish)

This recipe gives you authentic French Baguettes, close to the ones you can get at your favorite bakery. The poolish method makes these baguettes have a deep golden crust, an amazing flavor and a soft, chewy interior.

Prep Time3

Cook Time25

Additional Time16

Total Time19 25

Course: Bread

Cuisine: French

Servings: baguettes

Calories: 612kcal

Author: Tatiana Kamakura

Equipment

1 Baguette Pan or linen/firm kitchen towel

Ingredients

Poolish Preferment

150 g all-purpose flour
150 g water room temperature
0.15 g instant yeast

Dough

350 g all-purpose flour
230 g water
3 g instant yeast
10 g salt
poolish

Instructions

Poolish

In a clean jar or bowl, add flour, water and yeast, mixing it well with a spoon until a shaggy dough is formed.
Cover, and let it ferment for 12 to 16 hours.
Poolish is ready when it stops to rise and starts to collapse. If in a bowl, you will notice a slight dip in the middle of it.

Making the dough

Start the dough the day after, as soon as poolish is ready. In a large bowl, add flour, water, yeast, salt and the poolish. Mix it with a spoon or using your hands until a shaggy dough is formed. Let it rest for 30 minutes, covered.
This dough is sticky in the beginning, but it gets easier to work with as it “matures”. After 30 minutes, we’ll start to stretch and fold.
To stretch and fold, start by pulling up on one side of the dough, folding it back down on itself. Repeat it 4 to 6 times, equally through all the sides of the dough, until it is tight enough you can't stretch and fold anymore.
We’re stretching and folding the dough 4 times, with a 20 minute pause between each. Keep the dough covered between each interval.
After the last stretch and fold, cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Shaping

Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Cover, letting them rest for 10 minutes to make shaping the baguettes easier.
On a lightly floured surface, open one part of the dough into a rectangle. Starting with the longer side, fold over ⅓ of the dough, pressing gently to seal. Repeat on the other side.
Now, fold the dough in half, pressing the edges gently to seal. You should have a cylinder-like shaped dough.
Stretch the cylinder to the desired length, rolling it gently with both hands.
Place baguette in the floured linen or baguette pan with seam side down. Cover, and let them rest for 40 minutes. They should almost double after that time.
Just before baking, using a sharp blade, slice diagonally the top. For baguettes, depending on their size, three to five slices are enough.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit, placing a baking sheet in the bottom rack.
After placing baguettes on the middle rack of preheated oven, add about 1 cup of water to the baking sheet at the bottom rack and close the oven’s door.
Bake baguettes for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bake for 10 minutes more. Baguettes are ready when the interior temperature is 190 degrees Fahrenheit, or the crust gets to a deep golden brown color.
Let them cool for 1 to 2 hours before slicing.

Video

Notes

If you find the dough too sticky to work with in the first and second stretch and fold, wet or flour your hands to make it easier.

Proofing tools:

For baguettes, you’ll need a baguette pan, clean linen or kitchen towel to proof the dough.
If you pretend to bake often, I recommend getting a baguette pan, as it can go straight to the oven.
Flour evenly the tool you’re using, careful to not add too much flour. If using a linen, fold the cloth into a series of wavy creases (they will hold the dough while proofing).

Scoring: To score easily, you can spray your scoring knife/lame with cooking spray just before scoring your sticky loaf or baguette.

Do not use glass bakeware for this recipe! Glass might explode when making a recipe with too much steam or too high temperatures.

About the poolish:

Know when poolish is done. If it’s still rising, it’s underproofed. If it has risen and then collapsed down, it’s overproofed.
To prevent overproofing poolish, don’t let it fermenting over direct sun, and don’t leave it in a warm spot in your kitchen during summer/hot weather.
It’s better to use underproofed poolish than an overproofed one. A preferment that’s overproofed will make it harder to shape bread, weakening the dough structure.

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