How To Make French Baguettes

Ingredients

• Servings: 2
• 1/4 teaspoon rapid rise yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water at room temperature
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon cornmeal, or as needed

Recipe

Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 15 mins Ready Time: 15 hrs 5 mins


• place yeast into the bottom of a large mixing bowl and stir with water; mix in salt. beat flour into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon until dough is thick and sticky and pulls flour from the side of the bowl, 5 to 10 minutes.
• cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a turned-off oven until doubled in size, 12 to 14 hours. dough will be bubbly and very sticky.
• place a silicone baking mat a baking sheet and dust generously with cornmeal.
• use a floured spatula to scrape dough out a well-floured work surface and dust dough with flour. with well-floured hands, pat dough into a rectangle and cut into 4 equal-size pieces.
• dust a piece of dough with flour and use your floured fingers to gently roll and stretch it out into a log about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches around. gently transfer to prepared baking sheet. if desired, wipe off excess cornmeal with a damp paper towel. repeat with another piece of dough. (reserve remaining dough to bake later or prepare 2 baking sheets to bake all 4 at once). dust loaves lightly with flour. dust a large piece of plastic wrap with flour and drape plastic lightly over the baking sheet with floured side down.
• let loaves rise, covered, until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hour.
• move oven racks to the bottom and middle positions. preheat oven to 500 degrees f (260 degrees c) or as high as your oven will go. place an oven-safe baking dish full of water into bottom rack of the oven.
• use a sharp kitchen shears to cut 4 or 5 angled slashes into the top of each loaf. poke down the little sharp tips of dough left by the scissors. spray loaves with water, using a spray bottle.
• bake in the preheated oven until baguettes are browned, about 15 minutes, spraying loaves with water after 5 minutes and 10 minutes. turn the pan around on the second spraying.
• transfer baguettes to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before slicing with a serrated knife.