The Almost-No-Knead Baguette

By Addie

Here's a great, easy way to launch your baguette-baking career. Our thanks to Jeff Hertzberg's "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" for the inspiration.

Yield: 1 to 4 baguettes, depending how much of the dough you use

Ingredients

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 8 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon table salt or 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Preparation

Step 1

1) Find a large (6-quart) bowl or bucket, for dough storage in the fridge. Lightly grease the bowl or bucket.

2) Place the water directly into the bowl or or other large container.

3) Add the dry ingredients to the water, and stir to combine. Mix until there are no dry spots; the texture of the dough should be fairly soft.

4) Knead the dough gently for a few minutes, by hand; it'll be very sticky. Or knead for 1 or 2 minutes in a stand mixer. Cover the container, and let the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours.

5) Refrigerate overnight, or for up to 7 days.

6) To bake bread: Scoop out a scant 1 pound of dough (about ¼ of the batch, about 14 ½ ounces). Place on a greased work surface.

7) Shape the dough into a rough, slightly flattened oval.

8) Fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel of your hand. Flatten slightly, and fold lengthwise and seal again.

9) With the seam side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the of dough into a 15" log.

10) Place the log seam-side down onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, or into the well of a baguette pan.

11) Cover and allow the baguette to rise till it's very puffy, about 1 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450°F.

12) Slash the baguette three or four times on the diagonal.

13) Spritz the baguette heavily with warm water, and bake until a very deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Yield: 1 large baguette.
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REVIEWS:

Love this recipe, but decided to try it with whole wheat flour. I used 4 cups of bread flour and 4 cups of whole wheat flour. The dough was not as sticky as when using all white flour--in fact, it was easier to mix together and easier to shape the baguettes. We loved it and will continue to make it this way.

I've been baking bread for about a month now and this recipe is really good and easy. I baked two loaves after about 24 hours of leaving the dough in the fridge. The flavor was really good. My wife wanted to make space in the fridge so I had to deflate and move the remaining dough to a smaller container. The last two loaves baked well but did not taste as good as the first.

I tried this recipe having tried similar recipes in the ABin5 book. I love the ease of ABin5, but I have found their breads often a little wet for my liking. Let me say that as I grew up in the UK, I always weigh my flour, and for anyone who thinks the dough is too wet, I strongly recommend that method. It is so much easier to get the proportions right. I mixed the ingredients initially with the paddle on my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, then when the flour was all incorporated, I switched to the dough hook and "kneaded" with that for another 2 mins. The gluten development from this was remarkable, and the dough was a lot smoother than typical ABin5 doughs. The 2 hour rise was also much higher than ABin5 - it went to 5.5qts on my bucket, when the AB normally goes to about 4 quarts. I baked the first loaf after 24 hours in the refrigerator. I made a slight error in folding and sealing the dough 3 times rather than twice, and I think this may have affected the final result. I rose the dough for 90 minutes on parchment, sprayed, slashed and then baked for 15 mins on the parchment on top of a pizza stone. I have noticed with ABin5 that if I leave the bread on the parchment, the base of the loaf can be a little soggy. So after 15 mins, I removed the parchment, spritzed the loaf again, and finished the cooking. The result was a beautiful baguette with a "singing" crust - interestingly my ABin5 loaves have never sung to me the way this one did! We let it cool for 30 mins, then dug in - the crust is crisp and as fabulous as baguettes in France. However, the crumb was wet and fairly dense. I think that was partly my fault, with the third fold and seal I did. Next time, I will stick to folding twice, and I might allow the dough to rise for 2 hours. Overall, this recipe is a winner. Thank you very much!

Very easy. Very tasty. I just love having dough in the fridge to draw on when I want fresh bread. I just started my second (four-loaf) batch, and will keep it on hand. Note: the loaves get better as the week goes on; the third was better than the second, which was better than the first. Not sure if I'm doing things differently, or if it's just the extra fridge time. I suspect the latter.

This question focuses on the slashing technique. If the risen formed dough drags on the slash stroke before baking and deflates, does it make sense to slash the dough before the dough rise so that one does not bother with a deflating dough just before baking?
REPLY: If it's deflating then the bread has over proofed. Try cutting back on the rising time by 10-15 min.

WOW! I spent a year in France and have high standards for bread. Desperation drove me to try making these - we live in rural NC and a decent bakery is hard to find! I am ecstatic! This has to be the easiest and tastiest 'artisan' bread recipe. I did end up having to wait 2 days before I baked them, and they taste great. I wanted to make them a bit more healthful, so I decided to experiment: I decided to half the recipe - one half I made exactly as directed. The other half I added 1/2 T. vital wheat gluten, replaced 1 cup flour with Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal, and replaced all the remaining flour with bread flour instead of all purpose. It doesn't end up rising quite as high, but WOW! Soooooo good - both turned out well. Very crispy crust...I formed them into baguette shapes right out of the fridge and the dough was stiff - I was sorta merciless with it and was worried I had ruined it. I had to let it raise for about 3.5 hours to get it puffy after I formed the loaves. The temp in the house was 68 and 48% humidity. It was about 60 outside and 99% humidity. I threw 3-4 ice cubes in the bottom of the oven for good measure too. I have crumbs all over my kitchen, and, uh face! Thank you for a fabulous bread....!

I have tried a lot of baguette recipes and had resigned myself to buying baguettes in the store because I could quite get them right. This recipe was easy and when I tasted the results I wondered if I was over-thinking and over trying. The recipe gave me the baguette that I was striving towards with little effort.

Pretty good, although a bit salty. Easily fixed though! Nice structure, plenty of holes. Good flavor. Thanks, KAF. I tried this recipe from the original book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and it did not turn out this good!

Delicious! I doctored this recipe a little to accommodate for fresh milled whole wheat--about 60%. For the rest of the flour, I used pastry flour to keep it from getting to heavy. Your instructions were super-simple, and I like that it makes 4 loaves. We were impatient and baked off two loaves after a 3-hour rise. They're deliciously chewy inside, crusty and wonderful on the outside. I look forward to comparing these to the loaves that are resting in the fridge now. Thanks for another home-run, KAF!

Several posts indicate difficulty in handling this slack dough. My personal solution is to use my marble pastry board. No flour, no oil, just water on the marble and water on the hands. I found the dough quite manageable and clean up much easier than flour or oil.

Anyone can bake a great baguette with this recipe!! I have always had bad luck baking a good bread of any kind but this recipe is so easy even I was able to bake an excellent batch of baguettes. One thing I did notice is the recipe says to use a greased work space but the blog entry says to use a floured one. I've been doing greased but will try floured next batch and see what if any difference.

Great!! With our first try I could tell the dough was too wet so I didn't knead it at all and it wouldn't hold the slash marks. It still tasted great even though it was a bit heavy. I was worried that by day 5 it would be sour, but it wasn't. With our 2nd batch I weighed out all the ingredients and it came out perfect!! Easy to knead, just a tad sticky. Definitely weigh your ingredients if possible.

I love this recipe! It's very easy, I had ordered the dough bucket before I made the bread and would suggest it. It makes it even easier. The bread is delicious! I bake it just in time to serve it warm with dipping oil.

Loved this recipe and my family loved this recipe. It is so simple and makes the perfect roll for a sandwich or a burger.

This recipe has made me a GOD in the eyes of my wife. I sent this recipe to my 80 year old father who always complains he can't find any decent bread in Delaware and he knocked it out of the park on his first time at bat. So now I am a god in DE too! This is the easiest, most fantastic bread I have ever made or eaten. The first time I pulled this baguette out of the oven it's all my wife and I had for dinner. We tore it into chunks and dipped it into extra virgin olive oil seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. We didn't even take the time to look in the fridge for a piece of cheese or anything. I have made this several times now and have even made it subbing whole wheat for 1/3 of the flour by weight. I had to increase the water slightly, about 1 Tbsp for every 1-2 oz of flour (approx. 2/3 c. extra water) but it rocked just as hard as the all-white flour version. I even bought a $20 baguette pan to bake it in and that made it even look really professional. Keep it up, KAF - you might make a professional baker out of me yet!