Bakery Style Crusty French Bread – French bread baguettes. Chewy on the outside, open airy crumb on the inside. Recipe yields artisan loaves with perfect crumb and authentic flavor.
We all know by know my love for baking and bread, right? And you must be here because you either love bread or you love to bake bread. Or there’s a 3rd option. You want to be able to make your own bread.These are all greats reasons to be here.
I’ve taken the time to shoot lots of photographs for this recipe to show you how to create an authentic french bread baguette at home in your own kitchen.
Let me point out a few things:
1. The best french bread is a 2 day process. Unfortunate, I know but it’s worth the wait. Trust me.
2. It requires a bit of effort. Quite a few steps. Not difficult steps but steps you must follow to get close to that bakery taste we’re looking for.
3. The results are worth it. If you stick with it and do as instructed you won’t be disappointed.
4. Please note: Baking great bread at home is achievable. It takes some time and effort to learn the process of working with yeast, rising, kneading, etc. but it’s my favorite thing to make it my kitchen and soon it may be yours too.
So what’s stopping you friend. I’ll guide you right through it. And I’m here for all your questions. Just leave them in the comments and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.
Split dough into 3 equal pieces.
Til we meet and eat again,
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Crusty French Bread
Ingredients
Starter - Pate Fermentee
- 1 1/8 cups 5 ounces unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 1/8 cups 5 ounces unbleached bread flour
- 3/4 teaspoon .19 ounce salt
- 1/2 teaspoon .055 ounce instant yeast
- 3/4 cup - 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons 6-7 ounces water, room temperature
Dough
- 3 cups of pate fermentee above
- 1 1/4 cups 5 ounces all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups 5 ounces bread flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
- 3/4 cup to 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water 90 - 100 degrees
- semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting
Instructions
For Starter:
- Stir together flours,salt and yeast in medium bowl. Add 3/4 cup water and stir until ingredients come together into a coarse ball. Add flour or water a tablespoon at a time only if necessary. Dough should be well hydrated but not too sticky or too stiff.
- Sprinkle flour on the counter and knead dough for 4-6 minutes. Or knead in mixing bowl on medium speed with dough hook for about 4 minutes.
- Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and roll it around to fully coat it. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest a room temperature for 1 hour or until 1 1/2 times it's original size.
- Remove from the bowl. Lightly knead it to degas it slightly and place back in the bowl. Cover with plastic. Place in refrigerator overnight. Keeps in fridge for up to 3 days or freeze in airtight plastic bag for up to 3 months.
For Dough:
- Take starter from refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough. Cut into 10 small pieces with a pastry scraper or serrated knife. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and allow to sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Stir together all purpose flour,bread flour, salt, yeast and starter dough in a medium bowl or using the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the water and stir until everything comes together. Add water or flour as needed so you have dough that is not too sticky or stiff.
- Knead dough on medium speed using an electric mixer for about 6 minutes. Or place dough on a lightly floured counter and knead by hand for about 10 minutes. Dough should be soft and supple but not sticky. The dough should be able to be easily stretched and temperature about 77 -81 degrees. Knead for a few extra minutes to increase temperature of dough if needed. Lightly oil a large bowl and place dough in bowl. Roll around to coat it with oil. Cover with plastic wrap.
- Let sit at room temperature for about 2 hours or until doubled in size. If double before the 2 hours, knead it lightly to degas it and cover and let it rise again.
- Remove the dough gently from the bowl and transfer to a lightly floured counter. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Being careful to degas the dough as little as possible. (We want to keep the air bubbles in the bread this creates the beautiful open crumb we adore.)
Form the dough into loaves:
- Gather dough into a rough ball. Stretch the outside of dough underneath being careful not to degas the dough. Continue stretching dough bringing opposite sides together to make a ball. Let loaves relax for a few minutes. Lift dough and gently pull, tugging on opposite ends. We want loaves that are about 8-12 inches in length. Remove they will expand in size and we will need them to fit in our standard size oven.
- Crease dough down the center and fold it like a letter. Seal the crease against the counter to create surface tension. Working from the center of the loaf to the outsides gently rock dough to lengthen to desired size. If dough is springing back quickly. Let rest for a few minutes and try again. Place baguettes lightly sprayed parchment that is sprinkled generously with cornmeal.
- Let sit at room temperature for 45 to 75 minutes or until loaves are about 1 1/2 times original size. If you poke with your finger that should slightly spring back
- Meanwhile prepare oven. Place an empty heavy duty sheet pan or cast iron frying pan on the bottom of the oven (Do not use anything glass). Place a cast iron or baking stone on the center rack. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Also prepare a water bottle for misting (just a cheap one from the dollar store works fine.) And simmer a few cups of hot water on the stove for later.
- Score the top of the loaves by slashing across the top diagonally several times on each loaf. Use a lame or a serrated bread knife.
- Using a pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan sprinkle very generously with cornmeal or semolina flour. (This will allow the loaves to slide easily into the oven.)
- Open oven. Lay a towel over oven door glass. Transfer baguettes to baking stone in oven. Pour 1 cup hot water into steam pan. Remove towel, close oven door. After 30 seconds,open oven and spray oven walls with water and close door. Repeat 2 more times after 30 second intervals. Then lower oven temperature to 450 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate loaves if needed and bake until golden brown. Loaves should be at least 205 degrees in center. This will take about an additional 10-20 minutes. If they darken too quickly turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove loaves and cool on rack for at least 40 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
The methods described allow you to make it at home yet get it as close as possible to the French bread you'd find in your favorite bakery.
Recipe from: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice
I think you should rename your post to “Better than Bakery Style…”! Melanie – this french bread looks fabulous – so fabulous I think I can smell it! You know you are onto something when you can get someone to smell something just by looking at your pictures…
xx
Haha. Thanks girl! You’re so sweet.
Homemade bread is the best! This french loaf looks fantastic, Melanie!
Thank you Gayle!
Your breads always look so perfect, Melanie, and I love the step by step photos! You know I’m pinning this! 🙂
Thanks for pinning Marcie! Enjoy the rest of your day.
You make the best breads, Melanie! You make it look so easy with you step-by-step photos. This french bread looks perfect and better than any bakery 🙂
You girls are so sweet. Thanks friend!
I’ve made it my personal goal in life to make bread just as beautiful as you do, Melanie! This is just perfect.
That’s such a sweet compliment Justine! Thanks for pinning.
This french bread is gorgeous! I love the detailed instructions and pictures. This was definitely a labor of love. Pinned! One day I hope I will find the time to make bread from scratch…but for now my 8 month old seems to have other ideas for my time lol
Thanks Mariah! Definitely was a labor of love. But I love it so much.
I totally get it. My oldest is 6 now so it makes bread baking rather fun now that I have the time.
Have a great day!
I must say you did a great job at this french bread!! This looks way better than any bakery bought bread!!
Thank you Ami! I’m so glad you stopped by.
Melanie. . oh my gawd!!!! these French bread baguettes!! PERFECTION! I’ve made my own before but I’m totally going to try your recipe!!! Pinned! these are gorgeous!
What a sweet compliment Alice! Thanks for pinning friend!
oh wow, home made bread sounds amazing!
I have been dying to make bread like this!! It looks amazing and totally worth the wait!
Thanks Dorothy! Definitely worth the wait. 🙂
I am confused on your steps when you get the starter out of the fridge, 1st you combine all and get it to sticky., and then shape your starter, and then you mix the flours :here is what you wroteIn a medium bowl or the bowl of stand mixer, combine the flours, salt and yeast. Stir to combine. Add ¾ cup of water. Stir until everything comes together into a rough ball. (With mixer, about 1 minute using paddle attachment.) Dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky or stiff.
How can I work the flours twice?
Janet, that was an error. Somehow I accidentally pulled that first direction down from the starter section and repeated it in the dough section. Recipe is now corrected.
As you can imagine this recipe took quite awhile to type up and I tried to be accurate as possible. I’ll read through again to make sure it’s as clear as I can possibly make it.
Thanks. Good luck with it. And I hope the pictures help!
Thanks so much for correcting this! I make a lot of bread, and it just didn’t make sense to me., glad it is now corrected so that we all can enjoy your great recipes.
Thank you Janet!
This looks fantastic! Bakery quality stuff 🙂 So yum!
This bread is gorgeous! Is there anything better than the smell of fresh baking bread?
Thanks Amanda! Not in my book. 🙂
Ok Melanie, you are the baking QUEEN! This bread looks absolutely perfect! Pinning this so I can make it later!
Nothing beats homemade bread!! This looks amazing…I’ve never made my own baguettes but now I’m dying to try it because yours look so delicious.
Hi,
Delicious photos! I’d like to make crusty french bread recipe; however, I’d like to use natural starter only (nutritional reasons) by using sourdough starter (french levain) for the yeast (1/2tsp) called for in your Pate Fermentee. What do you think? Any suggestions?
I really can’t give an informed answer on this one. I haven’t tried that method so I really wouldn’t be able to advise. I hope it turns out well though! Let us know for anyone else who may be interested in doing the same.
So glad you stopped by!
Going to try this recipe for Christmas. Not made french bread for a while, been busy trying to master my sourdough, finally there 🙂 Will let you know how it turns out!
Hope it’s great! Let us know. Merry Christmas! 🙂