Paul's Baguette Recipe

Preparing the baguette dough

1. Place your yeast (dry active or fresh) into a small bowl and pour in lukewarm water). Dissolve the yeast completely in the water. Keep aside
2. Take a large bowl and pour in the flour. Add to that the salt, sugar and olive oil. Pour into the flour also the yeast dissolved in water.
3. Place your stand mixer or hand mixer dough hook into the flour and other ingredients in the bowl. Pour in all the water.
4. Turn on your machine and start mixing and kneading the dough. Knead the dough until you have a smooth elastic sticky batter. This can take about 5 minutes.

Dough rising and folding

1. Scrape batter off the sides of your bowl to assemble it in the center of your mixing bowl.
2. Wet a kitchen towel so that it's damp and wrap the kitchen towel around the bowl to cover it.
3. Leave the dough to rest and rise for about 2½ hours at room temperature.
4. After 2½ hours, remove the damp kitchen towel. Your dough should have risen considerably.
5. Fold your sticky dough with a silicon kitchen spatula by turning around the bowl. The dough will lose its airiness, and it will fall back to its original size from earlier.
6. Cover your dough in the bowl once again with the damp kitchen towel and leave to rest and rise for another 2 hours.
7. After 2 hours, prepare your baguette pan. Cut your parchment paper to the size of your baguette pan. Sprinkle some water over the pan and place parchment paper into the pan. It will stick and take on the shape of the pan, thanks to the sprinkled water.
8. Fold your dough for the second and last time.

Baguette pan

1. Spread some sticky dough with the help of a silicon spatula in one of the molds. Do that in batches and add small dough quantities into the mold, a bit at a time.
2. The dough can be spread with the motion of the silicone spatula dragging it into a direction. Make sure to shape it in at the borders too. (see video)
3. Leave the shaped raw baguette dough to rise for another 30 minutes in the baguette pan. They will both gain a little shape and turn lighter.
4. Preheat oven to 460 Fahrenheit (240 degree Celsius). Tip: Keep a ramekin or an oven safe bowl with water in your oven, which will create steam and help in the formation of the crust.
5. Dust your baguettes with flour.
6. Score in at the top of your baguette with a very sharp knife. Tip: Keep a knife in the freezer for 10 minutes. Scoring the sticky dough with the frozen knife will be much easier.

Baking and finishing

1. Bake the baguette at 460 Fahrenheit (240 degree Celsius) for about 20 minutes. It may vary between 17 and 20 minutes, depending on your oven. The baguette is done when it turns golden brown.
2. Take out your baguette and leave to cool.
3. Once the loaves have cooled, remove excess flour.
4. Enjoy your homemade baguette!