Authentic Parisian baguettes

Many of you are getting excited about baking bread at home. It's a very appealing hobby, and it's very rewarding. That's why today we encourage you to bake at home with the Parisian baguette recipe, in a basic version perfect for trying homemade bread.

This recipe is especially designed to be made in the Emile Henry bread oven, which already creates the perfect humidity conditions to obtain a crispy crust. If you don't have the baguette oven, you'll need an elongated banneton to proof the dough and you'll also need to generate humidity in the oven, which you can achieve by placing a glass of water inside while preheating it.

That's exactly what we talked about today on our YouTube channel: if you're interested in baking at home and want to understand the benefits of the different molds available for making bread, you may want to watch the video you'll find here.

I encourage you to get hands-on with the dough. Enjoy your own homemade bread at breakfast or lunchtime. It's priceless!

Emile Henry ceramic baguette oven

Ingredients (for 3 baguettes)

• 375gr of white bread flour
• 215ml of water
• 7gr (2 teaspoons) of fine salt
• 5gr of dry baker's yeast

Preparation

1. Heat the water to about 40ºC (if in doubt, you can use a kitchen thermometer).
2. Mix the flour, salt and dry yeast in a bowl.
3. Pour the lukewarm water into the mixture and knead for 8-10 minutes until you obtain a smooth dough (you can also do this with a KitchenAid mixer and the paddle attachment). Cover the bowl with a cloth and let it rest for 40 minutes at room temperature, away from drafts.
4. Work the dough by hand to release all the air and divide it into 3 parts.
5. Shape each baguette by rolling the dough until you create an elongated cylinder.
6. Dust flour inside the Emile Henry baguette oven and place the dough in each cavity.
7. Cover the Emile Henry oven with its lid and leave it for 20 minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250ºC.
8. Sprinkle a few drops of water over the baguettes (a spray works ideal), making sure it doesn't seep between the dough and the base of the ceramic oven.
9. Make firm, dry cuts on the top of the baguettes with a bread scoring blade.
10. Place the covered ceramic oven with the baguettes inside the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
11. After that time, remove the lid and leave the base in the oven for 2 more minutes so the top finishes browning.

Notes

• For a more traditional-looking baguette, lightly flour the surface of the baguettes just before baking.
• To ensure a crispy crust, let the bread cool slowly, with the oven turned off and the door slightly ajar.