Nothing makes the house smell as good as making bread. This is my favourite bread recipe. It is just delicious. It also takes a long time and makes a serious mess of the kitchen…sorry…
I have cobbled my version of this recipe by starting with this lovely recipe from The Perfect Loaf and adapting it for baguettes.
This recipes takes 3 days. The easiest time for me is starting Friday night and finishing Sunday morning. If your kitchen is cold (we live in England), consider using a small heater or baking something while making the dough on day 2.
I have skipped over a lot of the techniques as they are very difficult to explain without video. Please follow the links to see video explanations on other sites.
Ingredients:
150g well fed sourdough starter
900g strong white bread flour
100g whole wheat flour
700ml warm water
100ml reserved warm water
20g salt
Directions:
- Start off by feeding your starter. If your starter hasn’t been fed in more than a week, start daily feedings for 2-3 days first.
- The next morning, feed the starter again you are going to need 150g for this recipe and whatever you want to keep after to maintain your starter.
- Once you have fed the starter, combine the two flours and 700ml water in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon and/or your hands until you get a rough dough. Cover and set aside.
- After 3 hours check your starter and make sure it is good and bubbly, it should now have a lot of small bubbles on top. If, not ready (usually due to a cold room), wait until it is nice and bubbly, another hour or so.
- Add the 150g of starter to the dough ball along with a small amount of the reserved water. Start mixing all of this together by hand, until well incorporated. Wet hands help keep the dough from sticking to you.
- Add the 20g of salt a bit at a time and continue mixing everything together (don’t forget wet hands). Add as much water as you can from the reserve without the dough falling apart. Add the water very slowly and keep mixing by hand. It really depends on your flour as to how much water it will hold. I usually stop after maybe 20-30ml. Any more and the next step gets VERY messy…
- Now it is time to knead the dough. If I were sensible, I’d follow the traditional method, however I tried the method in the original recipe call slap and fold and I just enjoy it more. However, if using this method, please be prepared to get splatter everywhere if your dough is wet. I mean everywhere. Knead for about 6 minutes or so until the dough is nice and smooth (don’t forget wet hands…).
- Clean out your bowl, add the dough back in. Cover and set aside.
- After 30 minutes perform a set of folds by lifting one side of the dough over the other, turn the bowl 1/4 turn and repeat for a total of four folds (don’t forget wet hands…). Cover and set aside.
- After 30 minutes, do another set of folds. Cover and set aside.
- After 30 minutes, do one last set of folds. Cover and set aside.
- After at least 3 hours, but whenever if most convenient, take the dough out and place on a lightly floured surface.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal parts, using a dough scraper or spatula.
- Shape the baguettes by rolling each into a ball and the folding into baguettes shapes. You want them to be about 16 inches long.
- Line a large baking sheet with the towel and completely cover the towel with a generous amount of flour. You need a very smooth kitchen towel, they sell linen ones for this purpose, Rub it all over to make sure the towel is covered completely and generously. If not, you will not be able to get the baguettes off tomorrow.
- Place the baguettes side by side on the towel. Make sure to pull the towel up and create a protective fold between each baguette. Make sure nothing is toughing and will not as they expand over night.
- Cover the baguettes with a tea towel and place the tray with the baguettes in the refrigerator overnight between 8 and 24 hours.
- When you are ready to bake, place a rack in the middle of the oven along with a baking sheet to get hot, and a tray of water (at least 500ml) on the bottom rack. Preheat a oven with a fan to 2300C 4500F.
- Wait at least 10 minutes after the oven is at temperature to ensure even heat. While waiting cut a sheet of parchment/baking paper to fit the baking tray.
- Take the baguettes out of the refrigerator, gently roll two of them onto the parchment paper. You may need to scrunch the baguettes a bit to make them fit, they sometimes stretch when being moved.
- Place the remaining baguettes back in the refrigerator.
- Brush of any excess flour that came of off the towel form the baguettes.
- Slash the baguette with a sharp knife, making at least 3 diagonal cuts. A razor blade or serrated knife works best.
- Carefully take the hot tray from the oven and place the baguettes on it and return to the oven.
- Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the tray once halfway through.
- Remove the first two from the oven and place on a rack or cutting board to cool.
- If needed, top up the water in the oven, replace the tray to get it warm again. Allow the oven to get back to temperature, again wait 10 minutes to make sure it is evenly heated.
- Repeat the moving, slashing, baking process for the last two baguettes. Remove from the oven when done and allow them to cool.
- Let them completely cool to finish the cooking process. Don’t be tempted to slice them while still warm. Reheat if desired.
Slice and enjoy.
Storage and Freezing
I wish I know this years ago. Frozen sourdough bread is very easy to freeze and reheat. This is a real game changer. This one recipe makes enough to last us a week if we eat bread every day. We don’t….but we could…
Simply cut the baguettes in half so they fit in a large click seal freezer bag and chuck them in the freezer.
When you want amazing bread with a meal, simply preheat the oven to 1500C / 3000F and then turn it off. Bake for 20 minutes directly on the rack in the middle of the oven..
Homemade bread any time you want…how nice is that.