French Bread Recipe to help you bake artisan artisanal French bread baguettes or boules, using poolish preferment and other artisan bread baking techniques.

Discussion

Many people think that a French baguette, a long, thin loaf, is a good test of a baker's skill. The baguette seems so simple, just flour, water, salt and yeast, kneading, fermenting, shaping, rising, slashing and baking. The reality is that a lot of very good bakers have spent a considerable amount of time and energy perfecting their baguette.

What follows is a master procedure for French bread baguettes that will show you how to make French bread in a variety of ways and unlocks almost all the potential of the flour and the process. The process can start in one of five different beginnings. After the dough is put together and the mixing starts, the process is the same for all options.

If you don't have the materials to make a super couch like I use, you can use heavy canvas or a kitchen towel in its place. Just dust the canvas or towel with flour and form it so it makes folds that look like my couch. Or you can let the baguettes rise on parchment paper with a towel over them. Either way will give you well-formed baguettes.

All ingredients are mixed at the beginning and proceed to completion without any delays. This is the straight-doughmethod.
We make a preferment, either a biga or a poolish, age it a few hours and then proceed to make the bread.
We make a preferment and age it on the counter overnight, then proceed to make the bread.
We make a preferment and age it on the counter overnight. We also put together the remaining flour and water and allow them to age overnight. We then put them together and proceed to make the bread.
We make a preferment, age it for 3 days in the refrigerator, then proceed to make the bread.

There are many more variations we could come up with, but these five will give you enough variations to satisfy most needs.

Ingredients

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
HK Flour	30	850
Water	18	510
Salt	1 tbsp	22
Dry Yeast	1/4	7

Method

Add flour, water and yeast to a mixer bowl. If using a preferment, add it here.
Mix up for a minute ot two. Then let rest for 20 minutes.
Add salt and knead for 5-7 minutes. You should get a firm, slightly sticky, dough.
Place in a bowl and cover. Let ferment for 45 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl and do a fold or a roll. (see the section on folding)
Put the dough back in the bowl, cover and let ferment for 40 minutes.
Repeat the fold or roll. Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and let ferment 30 minutes.
Remove from the bowl, repeat the fold or roll and place the dough on the counter and let it rest for 10 minutes under a towel.
Divide the dough into as many portions as you need, then let the dough rest for 10 minutes under a towel.
Either shape into baguettes. (see the section on shaping baguettes)
Or shape into boules. see the section on shaping boules)
Either place the loaves in lightly greased baguette pans, on the counter on parchment paper or in a couche.
Let rise 45 minutes. Heat oven to 440F / 225C. Use tiles or stones on the oven rack. Provide steam in the oven.
Bake 15 minutes. Turn the loaves to equalize baking. Bake until done, an internal temperature of 195-200F / 90-95C.
Turn the oven off and let the loaves sit in the cooling oven for 5 minutes. Remove the loaves from the oven and allow to cool.

Notes on the Various Methods

Remember to take account of the amounts of ingredients in any preferments when you calculate the total amounts to add during the process of putting things together.
The amount of yeast will decrease slightly as the length of time involved goes up.
For larger holes in the finished loaf, use a very gentle folding method.

For instructions on a biga.biga

For instructions on a poolish. poolish

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