24 Hour French Baguette Baking Recipe
Ingredients
- 500g Belle Blanc T55 Flour
- 10g salt
- 1tsp Sugar or Honey
- 1tsp Dried Yeast
- 365g Water (Lukewarm).
This overnight prove French Bread Recipe is perfect for making delicious crunchy baguettes with our Belle Blanc French T55 Flour. Prep time 30 mins, prove over night, then bake in 20 to 30 mins. Great for your bread basket with any meal, perfect for making lunchtime sub style sandwiches, and the obvious choice for a hot dog!
- Baker: Sophie Carey
- Makes: 4-6 baguettes, depending on size
- Prep time: 30 minutes (plus proving time overnight)
- Bake time: 20-30 minutes
- Flours used: Belle Blanc French T55 Flour
Method:
- Mix all ingredients by hand in a large bowl, and leave covered on the counter for 3 hours
- Stretch your dough and fold in on itself 3 times every 30 minutes - this will develop the gluten in the dough and encourage large air pockets
- After 3 hours, cover the dough and leave in the fridge for 12 hours - I like to do this overnight
- In the morning, tip the dough out onto a floured surface and divide evenly into between 4 and 6 pieces - if you have a fairly standard size oven I would recommend 6 to keep the size of the baguette manageable
- Gently shape the dough pieces into balls and leave on the counter covered with a tea towel for 1 hour - make sure you flour them before covering so the tea towel doesn’t stick
- After the hour prove, gently stretch each dough piece into a rectangle and begin folding it in on itself to create a log shape - you can then roll this with your hands to lengthen to the desired thickness
- Take an old tea towel and create creases in it lengthways to store your baguettes while they prove again - you can look up a baguette Couche to get a better idea of what you are trying to replicate
- Cover and leave to prove again for another hour
- Preheat your oven to the hottest possible temperature, and if you have a pizza stone, add this to the oven shelf while it heats - if you don’t have a pizza stone, I would recommend heating a large baking tray instead
- Slash your baguette three times at an angle with a sharp knife or a bakery blade, and gently tip the baguette from the cloth onto a peel or the underneath of a baking tray - that way you can transfer it to the oven without disturbing it too much
- Bake the baguettes two or three at a time and add a few ice cubes to another tray in the bottom of your oven for best results
- Bake the baguettes for 15-20 minutes each or until golden brown
- Wait at least 30 minutes before slicing open and enjoy with plenty of butter!
