Homemade baguette is a lot easier to make than it seems! Once you learn to master the dough (with well floured hands) you'll be making this recipe often!
We’ve served ours with Brittany butter and cheese, saucisson and crunchy cornichons for an authentic French sandwich experience. Makes 2 long baguettes.
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Yields:
8 serving(s)
Prep Time:
25 mins
Cook Time:
20 mins
Total Time:
45 mins
Cal/Serv:
138
Ingredients
300g
strong white flour, plus extra to dust
1tsp.
fast-action dried yeast
Oil, to grease
Directions
Step 1The night before you want to bake the baguette, in the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour, yeast and 1/2tsp fine salt until combined. Add 200ml tepid water and knead for 5min on low speed until smooth, elastic and sticky. Cover and chill for at least 12hr (up to 18hr).
Step 2The next day, remove the bowl from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature, or until visibly puffed.
Step 3Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment. Divide the dough in 1/2 and flatten each piece into a small rectangle. Working 1 at a time, press the corners of the rectangle into the middle, and then roll back and forth to make small, fat sausages (this gives the dough tension, which helps with shaping). Roll into a rough 35cm length. Repeat shaping with remaining dough.
Step 4Lay the baguettes on the lined sheet, spacing apart. Cover with a tea towel or greased clingfilm (oil-side down) and leave to rise in a warm place for 1hr, or until visibly puffed.
Step 5Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan) mark 7. Put a large baking sheet in the oven to preheat for 10min, along with a smaller roasting tin filled with water on the bottom shelf, to create steam (which helps form the crisp crust).
Step 6Carefully remove the preheated baking sheet from the oven and slide the baguettes on to it (still on their parchment). Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife, cut a few diagonal slashes into the top of each baguette and bake for 20min, or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before serving.
TO STORE: Once cool, wrap well in clingfilm and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.
GH Tip: When shaping the sticky dough, put a light dusting of flour on your bench and hands to easily shape into the length needed.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
