Super crispy and lovely baguettes are the perfect accompaniment for any dish or maybe the most wonderful lunch bread. This sourdough version is the absolute best.
To the bowl of your stand mixer add: 675g bread flour and 15g salt
Mix with the paddle attachment on one until it’s been incorporated.
Then add: 150g sourdough starter, and 400g water.
Mix with the paddle on one until everything has been incorporated.
Then switch to the dough hook and mix for 5 minutes on 3. While the dough is mixing, add as much of the reserved 50g of water as needed to make the dough tacky but not sticky.
Check for a windowpane by pulling a little piece of dough out and see if it’s strong enough to stretch the dough so thin that you can see the light through it. If it fails, mix in increments of 2 minutes until it passes.
Instead of using a stand mixer, you can also knead the dough by hand until you get a windowpane. It will probably take 10 to 15 minutes.
When the windowpane passes, move the dough to a see-through bulking container.
Wet your hands and level the dough. Then mark the top of the dough with a whiteboard marker.
Then let the dough grow by 25 to 50%.
Shape the dough
Then divide the dough into 3 equally sized pieces and dust the top with flour.
Flip the dough over, roll it up into a tight log and do the same for the other two.
Let them rest on the counter for 20 minutes, and then proceed to the final shaping.
Grab a log and stretch it out to double the size you want the final baguette to be.
Fold the right side into the middle and fold the left side into the middle.
Then, going down the length of the baguette, fold the back towards the front, about to the middle. Then flip it 180° and then go down the baguette again, folding the back towards the front, all the way over.
Then work the baguette across the table, pushing it forwards or backwards at the bottom of the dough, to work the baguette to the exact length that you want it.
Then flour the pan with rice flour and add the baguette to the pan or you can also use a piece of parchment paper on the pan if you feel like the dough is a bit too wet. Continue with the other two the same way.
Then sprinkle rice flour on top of all the baguettes and add them to a bag big enough to hold the pan.
Put the dough in the fridge for at least 8 hours, but up to 48 hours.
Bake the baguettes
When you want to bake, heat your oven to 230°Celsius/450°Fahrenheit/Gas mark 8. I didn’t use fan-assist or convection, but you can.
Add a pan to the bottom of the oven used for steaming.
I have a baking steel in my oven, which I heat it for an hour. You can bake when the oven says it’s hot enough.
When the oven is hot, boil a kettle of water.
Then grab the baguette pan from the fridge and sprinkle the top of the baguettes with rice flour.
Score the baguettes with three long, slightly overlapping scores, grab the pan and add it to the hot oven.
Pour the kettle of boiling water into the pan at the bottom and quickly close the oven.
Bake for 8 minutes and then oven the oven and remove the steaming pan.
Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes more until the baguette is golden brown and super crisp.
Remove the pan from the oven and put the baguettes on a wire rack, and let them cool down, or you can serve them immediately.