French Baguette
French Baguette with a crisp crust and chewy center. An easy homemade bread recipe with simple ingredients and long fermentation.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon rapid rise yeast
- 1½ cups water, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
Dough
- In a large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, and salt.
- Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon until fully incorporated. The dough will be sticky.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 12-20 hours, until bubbly.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Dust the top with flour.
- Shape into a rectangle and cut into 4 equal pieces.
- Gently roll each piece into a loaf about 10 inches long and 1½ inches in diameter.
- Place on parchment-lined baking sheets that have been generously dusted with flour (2 loaves per pan).
- Dust tops with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
- Let rise for 1-2 hours, until doubled.
Baking
- Adjust oven racks to middle and bottom positions.
- Preheat oven to 550°F (or as high as your oven allows).
- Place a 9×13-inch pan of water on the bottom rack to create steam.
- Score each loaf with 3-4 angled slashes.
- Lightly spritz loaves with water and place in oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes, spritzing and rotating pans every 5 minutes. Loaves are done when dark golden brown and hollow sounding.
- Cool completely before serving.