Step-by-Step Sourdough Baguette Recipe
There is something so wonderful about sourdough baguettes. Right out of the oven they have a crackly crispy crust and light, and chewy interior.
What readers say:
Absolutely perfect recipe. I’ve baked these twice, and followed the recipe exactly. The baguettes were beautifully formed, airy, crusty and delicious. Thank you.
Paula
The timing of sourdough baguettes
Making this sourdough baguette recipe is not that hard, and if you read on, you will see.
The timings show a ‘range’ of time to complete these steps. They don’t have to be exact; there is flexibility. The perfect baguette needs time to proof properly so it’s light and airy inside. Then, it needs a hot oven to bake in and some steam to create that crisp crust. I create the steam in my oven using a pan of water or ice cubes. If you love these sourdough baguettes, try this sourdough ciabatta or sourdough fougasse next!
A few ingredients
Your starter needs to be in good condition to make great sourdough bread. Learn more about sourdough starter maintenance, or sourdough bread troubleshooting.
The timing
The timing for homemade sourdough baguettes can be tweaked to suit your 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 depends on room temperature.
- Between 7 pm-9 pm: Pre-shape. On a well-floured bench, split the dough into two. Shape each piece into a ball and leave them to sit for 20-30 minutes. Shape into baguettes and place the shaped baguettes in the refrigerator for a cold-proof of at least 8 hours, but up to 24.
- The next morning – Baking day.
High-level method
- Begin by making the levain so it has time rise.
- Leave it to sit until it has at least doubled but not collapsed.
- Mix the main bread flour and water in a large bowl and use wet hands to combine it into a shaggy dough.
- After it has sat and the starter has doubled, add the salt and starter to the dough and mix it well with wet hands. To build gluten structure, give the dough a few slap-and-folds on the counter or let your stand mixer with a dough hook do the work.
- Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, then stretch and fold.
Stretch and folds
- 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, folding, and turning the bowl until all sides have been folded.
Coil folds – another option
Coil folds are great when its a wetter dough like this baguette recipe. Using wet hands, coax the sides of the dough up with your fingers and lift it 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.
Bulk fermenting
- When the folds are completed, let the dough rest and continue bulk fermentation until the dough bulks by around 50%. This timing will significantly depend on your room temperature.
Shaping
- Cut the dough into 2 and pre-shape into rounds and let them rest for 30 minutes.
- On a floured surface, pat your dough ball into a rough rectangle. Fold the top third down, seal, rotate 180°, and repeat.
- In small sections, fold a flap over itself, press, and pull gently to lengthen into a 12″ log. Taper the ends by rolling under your palms toward you.
- Place the baguettes seam side up in a baguette pan or in between generously floured kitchen towels or a cloth couche.
Cold Bulk Fermentation
- Cover them with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Place them in the refrigerator for a cold-proof for 8-24 hours.
Baking
- Preheat your oven to 450 °F (230 °C) with a baking sheet on the middle rack and an empty pan on the bottom.
- Remove your baguettes from the fridge. Dust a board heavily with flour, then invert each baguette onto the floured board. Carefully slide each baguette off the board, onto the hot oven tray. Make at least three angled cuts on each loaf to control where the steam escapes.
- Pour ½ and inch of water or toss in a few ice cubes in the bottom pan to generate steam. Bake 30–35 minutes until deeply golden, then transfer to a wire rack to cool (or tear straight in if you can’t wait).
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, make sure your oven is super hot, and 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
Sourdough Baguette Recipe
Ingredients
Levain
- 40 g sourdough starter
- 40 g all-purpose flour
- 40 g water
Dough
- 440 g all-purpose flour all-purpose flour, minimum 11% protein
- 320 g water
- All the levain or around 100g active starter
- 9 g salt
Instructions
- In a bowl, stir together your starter, flour, and water until fully combined.
- Transfer to a clean jar, cover loosely, and let sit for at least 4 hours until it’s well-doubled but before it collapses.
The Dough
- When the levain is nearly doubled, begin the autolyse. In a large bowl, mix your main bread flour and water with wet hands into a shaggy mass. Cover and rest for 1 hour.
- Add the levain and salt. Using wet hands, squeeze and fold until everything is evenly incorporated. Using wet hands, knead and squeeze briskly for 2–3 minutes and give it a few slap and folds on the counter to kick-start gluten development.
- Let the dough rest in the bowl for 10 minutes, then perform one set of stretch-and-folds (or coil folds; see notes).
- Every 30 minutes for the next 2 hours, repeat one more set of folds (total of 4).
- Cover and ferment in a warm spot (around 25 °C/77 °F) for 2–4 hours, until the dough has risen about 50%.
Pre-Shape
- Gently turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal pieces.
- Take one piece and pat it into a rough square. Fold each corner into the center to form a parcel.
- Flip it seam-side down, cup it between your hands, and roll in small circles on the bench until a smooth ball forms.
- Place each ball on the floured surface, cover with a tea towel, and rest for 30 minutes until slightly puffed and passing the poke test (a gentle press leaves a slow-closing indentation).
Shaping
- Working one ball at a time, place it seam-side up on a floured board and gently press into a horizontal rectangle.
- Fold the top third down to the center, seal with your fingertips, rotate 180°, and repeat.
- Starting at the top right corner, fold small flaps down in succession. Press with your palm heel and pull slightly to lengthen. Aim for a 30 cm (12″) log.
- Roll the log under your palms toward you, tapering the ends into classic baguette points.
- Transfer each loaf seam-side up into a baguette pan or between heavily floured kitchen towels (use the towel edges as “walls” if you don’t have a pan).
- Dust the tops generously with flour, cover and cold-proof in the refrigerator for 8–24 hours.
Baking
- Preheat your oven to 230 °C (450 °F) with a baking sheet or stone on the middle rack and an empty pan on the bottom.
- Remove the baguettes from the fridge.
- Dust a floured board, invert each loaf seam-side down onto it, and score at least three angled slashes with a razor or sharp blade.
- Dust the baking sheet or stone with flour, then slide the loaves onto it. Pour around 1 cm of water or a few ice cubes into the bottom pan to generate steam.
- Bake 30–35 minutes, until deeply golden. Be cautious when opening the door because steam will rush out.
- Cool on a wire rack before slicing (or tear into that crisp crust while still warm!).
Levain time…
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
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.
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!
I just tightly wrap in foil and place it like that in the oven when I want to reheat it 🙂
I was only using one recipe prior to this one. Now I will be using this one! Came out delicious!
I don’t always make exact levain amounts. Would the final levain weight to add to the recipe be 210g of starter?
I’ve tried this recipe twice now. It is fabulous! My family and friends are always amazed. I definitely recommend for anyone just starting, like me!
Just wanted to say how much I love your recipes. They make me feel like the best baker ever. They always work! Love the bagels, pretzels, croissants and baguettes. Thankyou
Thank you Selena! That means the world to me reading this 🙂 so so happy you’re enjoying the recipes
Is there a time where I can stop and leave it in the fridge and pick back up in the morning?
Hey Lucy, you can let the dough bulk ferment for around 4-5 hours at room temperature, and then refrigerate it and shape it in the morning. Let the shaped baguettes proof for a bit at room temp before baking
I can’t use recipes that measure with grams. I need the US measurements Please can you help. P.S. I am new to sourdough baking!
Francesca, you should get a digital kitchen scale that is capable of weighing in grams. I bought mine on Amazon. Place an empty container on the scale and then zero it out. Then you can add ingredients one at a time, following the recipe. Weighing ingredients instead of measuring them will give the best results.
I find that it’s easy to find apps that do the conversion. Grams are so much more precise than US measurements.
Just wanted to say a big thank you for sharing your method and recipe. I have made two batches so far and are extremely happy with the texture, appearance, crust and flavour. A little bit more work needed on my shaping but hopefully some additional tools will help (baking trays and linen cloche). My only complaint comes from my waistline.
Peter in Canberra
You’re so welcome Peter! I’m stoked to read that you’re enjoying the recipe 😀