Simple Overnight Baguette Recipe

As you might have seen on the internet already, bread making has become everyone’s favorite hobby that they picked up during quarantine. This might be for multiple reasons, a few being that fresh bread is delicious, the ingredients are simple, and making your own bread can keep you out of the grocery stores for a little while! Like many other people, I’ve taught myself how to make baguettes and wanted to share with you all the amazing recipe I follow to create bakery level baguettes from home!

Ingredients

340g (1 ⅓ cups + 2 tsp) Room Temperature Water

½ tsp Yeast

450g (3 cups) All-Purpose or Bread Flour

8g (1 tsp) Salt

Preparation Time: 10-20min of work, approx. 15 hours rest time

Step-by-Step

Step 1: Combine flour and salt. Dissolve yeast in water (stir until no lumps remain), then pour water/yeast mixture into the dry ingredients. This mixture should be stirred until no dry flour remains, don’t be concerned if it looks a little bit too wet! That’s just how this dough is 🙂

Step 2: Cover and let the dough rest. After 30 min, uncover and fold all four sides of the dough inwards with well-floured hands, stretching them as you do so. Once completed, cover the dough. This stretching process is what strengthens the gluten in the dough and gives you a great texture when biting into baguettes. Repeat this process at the 1 hour mark, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

Step 3: Go to sleep! You’ve worked hard and earned it!

Step 4: Pull dough out of the refrigerator and dump out onto a well-floured surface. Cut the dough into even quarters. You may notice how the edges of the sections that were attached to the rest of the dough seem very sticky! To shape the dough into perfect spheres, take those sticky edges and pull them underneath the non-sticky side. You should end up with a smooth surface.

Step 5: Let the dough rest for 40 min. This resting period is important because your dough needs to return to room temperature and become more pliable so you can shape it later!

Step 6: Flip one of your dough balls upside down and poke/push at it until it becomes flat. Then, fold approximately ⅓ of the dough towards you, and poke at the seam it creates to seal it. Repeat the folding/sealing process until you have one thick roll. Repeat this process with the rest of the dough balls.

Step 7: Return back to the first thick roll you made. Use your hands to roll it out to your desired length, which depends on the size of your baking tray! Flour a sheet of appropriately sized parchment paper and place the rolled-out dough onto the sheets. You may need more than one baking tray due to the size of the baguettes.

Step 8: Let the dough rest while you preheat the oven to 550° Fahrenheit. When preheating the oven, put your baking trays inside along with a slightly deeper tray capable of holding water beneath them. The trays must preheat along with the oven because a really beautiful baguette is created at extremely high temperatures along all surfaces, so you don’t want to have a cold tray and an uncooked bottom! The water tray will later hold boiling water which creates steam that helps the baguette develop a crust. 

Step 9: Once the oven is almost done preheating, boil water in preparation. Just before putting the baguettes onto the tray, take a sharp knife or razor blade and make two cuts to help release internal steam. Pull the trays out and place the parchment/baguettes on and slide them back in the oven. Before closing the oven door, pour the boiling water into the other deeper tray below the baguettes.

Step 10: Bake for 10-12 min until the crust reaches your desired level!

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Enjoy your baguettes 🙂