French Bread Recipe to help you bake artisan artisanal French bread baguettes or boules, using poolish pre-ferments 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.

If you don't have the materials to make a super couche 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 to make folds that look like my couche. Or you can let the baguettes rise on parchment paper with a slightly dampened towel over them. Either way will give you well-formed baguettes.

What follows is a master procedure for French bread baguettes that will show you how to make French bread five different ways, mostly dealing with the type and aging of the pre-ferment. These methods unlock 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.

All ingredients are mixed at the beginning and proceed to completion without any delays. This is the straight-dough method.
Make a pre-ferment, either a biga or a poolish, age it a few hours and then proceed to make the bread.
Make a pre-ferment and age it on the counter overnight, then proceed to make the bread.
Make a pre-ferment and age it on the counter overnight. At the same time, put together the remaining flour and water and allow them to age overnight. The next day, put them together and proceed to make the bread.
Make a pre-ferment, 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.

This recipe is for a 60% hydration French bread dough, the so-called classic French bread. You can experiment with a bit more water, raising the hydration in stages, until you get to a 66% hydration. A 66% hydration will be 30 ounces / 850 grams of flour and 21 ounces / 565 grams of water. (You won't have to change the salt or yeast amounts because you will have kept the flour constant.) The higher hydration will produce a loaf that has larger holes and a different crust, a bit thicker and chewier. Once you try the higher hydration, you may find you like it better than the classic bread.

Remember to make allowance for any pre-ferment you may use. In other words, subtract the amounts of flour, water and yeast you use in the pre-ferment from the amounts to be added to the dough. If you use a 100% poolish that has 100 grams each of water and flour and a quarter-teaspoon of yeast, then add 750 grams of flour, 410 grams of water, 2 teaspoons of yeast and 1 tablespoon of salt to make the dough. The amounts of the pre-ferment and the additions will give you the correct total amount of each ingredient. It may sound a bit complicated, but once you've done it a few times, it'll become second nature.

Ingredients for Full Batch

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
Harvest King Flour	30	850
Water	18	510
Salt	1 tbsp	22
Dry Yeast	1/4	7	2 1/4 teaspoons

Ingredients for Smaller Batch

Ingred	Ounces	Grams
Harvest King Flour	15	425
Water	9	255
Salt	1/2 tbsp	11
Dry Yeast	1/2 packet	3	1 rounded teaspoon

Method

Add flour, water and yeast to a mixer bowl. If using a pre-ferment, 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. I cover the rising loaves with a towel and mist the towel once or twice with a spritzer bottle. 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, about 32 minutes total time.
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 pre-ferments 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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