There is something so wonderful about sourdough baguettes. With their abundance of crunchy crust teamed with an airy, light, and chewy inner. This recipe for step-by-step sourdough baguettes will show you how to make these delicious french baguettes at home.
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Making this sourdough baguette recipe is not that hard and if you read on you will see. I will start with an outline of my timings and go into more detail later on.
The timings show a 'range' of time in which you can complete these steps. They don't have to be exact, there is flexibility.
If you love these sourdough baguettes, try this sourdough ciabatta or sourdough fougasse next!
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Ingredients
Here is a rundown of what you need for these sourdough baguettes. For the amounts, see the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Bread flour or strong all-purpose flour (with a protein level of at least 11%)
- Active sourdough starter - You'll mix ripe sourdough starter with flour and water and create a levain. This is the name for the separate mixture of sourdough starter, where the entire thing will be used in the dough.
- Water
- Salt
Your starter needs to be in good condition to make great sourdough bread. Learn more about sourdough starter maintenance, or sourdough bread troubleshooting.
Equipment
To make this french bread you will need a large mixing bowl. This recipe makes 4 baguettes, so there is a lot of dough to work with.
Kitchen towels or a couche (baguette linen.) A baguette tray is also helpful to hold the baguette shape, but you can do this with just kitchen towels too.
Timing
The timing can be tweaked to suit your own schedule but here is a guide.
- Between 7 am-9 am: Create your levain. The levain can sit and rise for around 4 hours.
- Between 12 pm-2 pm: Autolyze. Flour and water are mixed and left to autolyze in a warm place for about an hour, then the starter and salt are added
- Between 2 pm-7 pm: Bulk fermentation time. First, you will stretch and fold the dough for two hours, every 30 minutes. After the last fold, the dough will sit for another 2-4 hours before pre-shaping until it has bulked by around 50%. As with all sourdough, this bulk ferment is very important to achieve an airy crumb, and the timing really depends on room temperature.
- Between 7 pm-9 pm: Pre-shape. On a well-floured bench, split the dough into four. Shape each piece into a ball and leave them to sit for 20-30 minutes. Shape into baguettes and place in the refrigerator for a cold-proof of at least 8 hours, but up to 24.
- The next morning - Baking day.
Method
Begin by making the levain.
Mix starter, flour, and water and stir well until thoroughly mixed. Add it to a clean jar and cover it with a loosely balanced lid.
Leave it to sit until it has well-doubled but not collapsed. Once your starter is well underway and at least nearly doubled, you can start the autolyze.
In a large bowl, mix the main bread flour and water and use wet hands to bring it together into a shaggy dough. Leave this to sit for around an hour.
After it has sat and the starter has doubled, add the salt and starter to the dough and mix it well with wet hands.
This part can be a bit sticky, but just keep squishing it in until the starter has been incorporated. You can also do this step in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook if your mixer is large enough.
Stretch and folds
After the starter has been incorporated, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 10 minutes then perform a set of stretches and folds or coil folds.
Stretch and fold - Using wet hands, take one side of the baguette dough and stretch it up, then pull it over itself.
Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat this move.
Continue stretching and folding and turning the bowl until all sides have been folded.
That is 'one set' of stretch and folds.
Coil fold - Using wet hands, coax the sides of the dough up with your fingers and lift it up from the middle and back onto itself. Turn the dough and repeat on all sides, until it forms a ball. If the dough sticks too much to your hands, wet them again. See coil folding in action.
Perform 4 more sets of folds over the next 2 hours, one every 30 minutes. After this, cover the bowl and let it further bulk ferment in a warm place, ideally around 25°C/77°F for 2-4 hours until it shows clear signs of fermentation and has bulked by around 50%. This timing will greatly depend on your room temperature.
Pre-shape
Gently tip the dough from the tray onto a lightly floured work surface and cut it into 4 even pieces. Use a kitchen scale to weigh the dough first to get them extra even.
Take a piece of dough and form it into a square. Take each of the square's four corners, and bring them, one by one, into the middle to create a little parcel. Flip this parcel upside down, so it’s seam side down, and then cup this gently in between your hands and rotate it around and around on the bench to form a ball.
Leave the balls on a floured bench, covered with a tea towel for 20-30 minutes until slightly puffed, and pass the poke test. Use a finger to prod the dough. If it pops back out slowly and leaves a slight indentation, then it's ready. This may take longer if your room is colder.
Final Shaping
Place a dough ball seam-side up on a floured work surface. Gently stretch it into a horizontal rectangle.
Take the top third of the dough and fold it down to meet the middle. Use your fingers to push it down and seal it together. Rotate the dough 180 degrees, and do the same to the top third of the dough.
Fold over the top layer again with your left hand, but in small increments, starting at the top right corner.
For each bit, you fold down, use the heel of your hand to push it in, and elongate the dough. Lengthen them to around 30cm/12 inches.
Start rolling it on the bench to lengthen it, tapering off at the ends to get that traditional baguette tip.
It's helpful to brush some of the flour away before this step of the shaping, as the baguettes will need to grip the bench a little bit to create surface tension in the roll.
Place the baguettes in a baguette pan or in-between generously floured kitchen towels or a cloth couche.
If you don't have a baguette pan, crease up the sides of the towels to create ‘walls’ for the baguettes to rest against.
Dust the tops of the baguettes generously with flour, and cover them with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Place them in the refrigerator for a cold-proof for 8-24 hours.
Baking
The next day preheat your oven and a baking sheet to 450 °F / 230°C. Add a baking pan or similar in the bottom of the oven to heat up too. Later water will be added to this to create steam.
Remove the baguettes from the refrigerator and lay a piece of parchment paper next to the baguette tray. Lift up the side of the kitchen towel that's opposite to the parchment paper, so it flips the dough upside down on the paper. I usually fit two baguettes per piece of parchment paper.
Give at least 3 big angled slashes in the dough with a razor blade to allow the air to escape. How many slashes you do is up to you, but if you don’t do enough or they aren’t deep enough, the air will burst out where you might not want it to. You can use a sharp knife too but this can tear the dough.
When the oven is at a temperature, slide the parchment paper and baguettes onto a board and transfer them to the hot oven tray.
Add ½ an inch of water to the cast iron pan at the bottom of the oven, or a few ice cubes to create steam. This will help the baguettes to rise without their crust setting too quickly. Take care when adding this water as the steam can come out fast.
Bake the baguettes for 30-35 minutes until browned to your liking. Take care when opening the oven door as steam can rush out.
Let them cool on a wire rack before serving. Or, tear right into the crispy crust of a hot baguette!
FAQS
Dense sourdough baguettes may be due to underproofing, or a starter that wasn't active enough. Make sure your starter is bubbly and active before you begin, and let your dough proof fully. Also, introducing steam into the oven when you start baking can help the bread rise and form a crispy crust.
To slice a sourdough baguette, use a bread knife with a serrated edge. This helps to cut through the crust without squashing the bread. You can either slice it on a bias for longer pieces, or straight across for shorter slices. Always ensure your bread has fully cooled before slicing to prevent it from getting squished or gummy.
Yes, you can make a sourdough baguette without a baguette pan. You can shape the dough and place it on a baker's couche (or a floured kitchen towel). Crease up the sides of the towels to create ‘walls’ for the baguettes to rest against.
Sourdough baguettes may split or burst on the sides due to several reasons. The most common one is lack of scoring or improper scoring. Another big reason is underproofing the dough.
More sourdough bread recipes
Did you like these sourdough baguettes? Here are some more sourdough recipes to try! If you’re after a traditional sourdough loaf, try my step-by-step sourdough bread.
Full Recipe
Sourdough Baguette Recipe
This sourdough baguette recipe makes baguettes with a classic, crunchy sourdough crust and a light and airy, chewy interior.
Ingredients
Levain
- 70 g sourdough starter
- 70g all-purpose flour
- 70g water
Dough
- 900g bread flour or strong all-purpose flour (minimum 11% protein)
- 650g water
- All the levain
- 17g salt
Instructions
Levain
- Mix starter, flour, and water and stir well until thoroughly mixed. Add it to a clean jar and cover it with a loosely balanced lid. Leave it to sit for at least 4 hours until it has well-doubled but not collapsed.
The dough
- Once your levain has nearly doubled, start the autolyze. In a large bowl, mix the main bread flour and water and use wet hands to bring it together into a shaggy dough ball. Cover and leave this to sit for around an hour.
- Add the levain and salt to the dough and mix it well with wet hands until all is combined.
- Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes then perform a set of stretch and folds or coil folds (see post above for the difference between the two.)
- Perform 4 more sets of folds over the next 2 hours, one every 30 minutes. After this, cover the bowl and let it further bulk ferment in a warm place, ideally around 25°C/77°F for 2-4 hours until it shows clear signs of fermentation and has bulked by around 50%. This timing will greatly depend on your room temperature.
Pre-shape
- Gently tip the dough from the tray onto a lightly floured work surface and cut it into 4 even pieces. Use a kitchen scale to weigh the dough first to get them extra even.
- Take a piece of dough and form it into a square. Take each of the square's four corners, and bring them, one by one, into the middle to create a little parcel. Flip this parcel upside down, so it’s seam side down, and then cup this gently in between your hands and rotate it around and around on the bench to form a ball.
- Leave the balls on a floured bench, covered with a tea towel for approximately 30 minutes until slightly puffed, and pass the poke test. Use a wet finger to prod the dough. If it pops back out slowly and leaves a slight indentation, then it's ready. This may take longer if your room is colder.
Shaping
- Grab a dough ball and place it seam-side up on a floured work surface to shape the dough. Gently form it into a horizontal rectangle.
- Take the top third of the dough and fold it up to meet the middle. Use your fingertips to push it down and seal it together. Rotate the dough 180 degrees, and do the same to the top third of the dough.
- Fold over the top layer again with your left hand, but in small increments, starting at the top right corner. For each bit, you fold down, use the heel of your hand to push it in, and elongate the dough. Lengthen them to around 30cm/12 inches.
- Start rolling it on the bench to lengthen it, tapering off at the ends to get that traditional baguette tip. It's helpful to brush some of the flour away before this step of the shaping, as the baguettes will need to grip the bench a little bit to create surface tension in the roll.
- Place the baguettes in a baguette pan or in-between generously floured kitchen towels. If you have no baguette pan, crease up the sides of the towels to create ‘walls’ for the baguettes to rest against.
- Dust the tops of the baguettes generously with flour, and cover them with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Place them in the refrigerator for a long cold-proof for 8-24 hours.
Baking
- Preheat your oven and baking sheet to 450 °F (230°C.) Add a small baking pan or similar in the bottom of the oven to heat up too. This is where water will be added to create some steam.
- Remove the baguettes from the refrigerator and lay a large piece of parchment paper next to the baguette tray. Lift up the side of the kitchen towel that's opposite to the parchment paper, so it flips the dough upside down on the paper.
- Give at least 3 big angled slashes in the dough with a razor blade to allow the air to escape. How many slashes you do is up to you, but if you don’t do enough or they aren’t deep enough, the air will burst out where you might not want it to.
- When the oven is at a temperature, slide the parchment paper and baguettes onto a board and transfer them to the hot oven tray.
- Add ½ an inch of water to the pan at the bottom of the oven, or a few ice cubes to create steam. This will help the baguettes to rise without their crust setting too quickly. Take care when adding this water as the steam can come out fast.
- Bake the baguettes for 30-35 minutes until browned to your liking.
- Take care when opening the oven door as steam can rush out.
- Let them cool on a wire rack before serving.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12Amount Per Serving: Calories: 340Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 586mgCarbohydrates: 69gFiber: 2gSugar: 0gProtein: 11g
Jess says
I don’t always make exact levain amounts. Would the final levain weight to add to the recipe be 210g of starter?
Barb says
How do recommend storing the baguettes? I normally plastic Wrap & then foil to put in freezer. Take out of freezer & reheat in foil. Thank you! Delicious recipe!
Home Grown Happiness says
I just tightly wrap in foil and place it like that in the oven when I want to reheat it 🙂
Mary says
I have been working with sourdough for the last few years as I have IBS and sourdough is a lot healthier than regular bread. I am excited to try your recipe. I am curious though about the nutritional value. Are you referring to 1 slice of baguette weighing 1 gram having 340 calories? My husband could easily eat almost half a baguette as a sandwich. He is super thin so I am not worried too much about the calories. I am not so lucky though and I love bread. Can you clarify please
Home Grown Happiness says
Hey Mary, it’s meant to be 1 serving as 340 calories. And one serving I have calculated is 1/3 of a baguette.
Bear in mind I’m just using a free calculator for this so I can’t guarantee the accuracy of this.
Barb says
These were delicious! I am baking them again because I like to have them in the freezer to pull out for a meal! Do you have a recipe for hamburger/ hotdog buns? Your instructions are very clear! I want to try your pie crust next! Thank you so much for sharing!
Home Grown Happiness says
So happy you enjoyed them, Barb! I do have a hamburger bun post, here is the recipe
Robyn says
Im trying your recipe for the first time. One thing Im not clear about- when you lay the baguettes in the cloth for the overnight proof in the frig, they are top up. The next day you flip them over onto the parchment paper and score them. Does this mean the score lines are on the underside of the baguette? I have read this several times and cant work it out!
Also my dough looked good and formed nice tight balls, but I found that when I rested the balls for 20 mins, the rounds lost their shape and became sticky. The baguettes were hard to shape because of the stickiness. The ferment seemed OK (poke test). I used all purpose flour 10.5% - maybe this is the issue?
Thanks for your help
Home Grown Happiness says
Hey Robyn sorry for the late reply! They do get scored on the underside :). hope they worked out for you!