Pain a l'Ancienne

Step 1

Combine flour, salt, yeast, and lesser amount of water in bowl of stand mixer. Beat with paddle attachment on low for 2 minutes. Replace the paddle with the dough hook, and beat for another 5-6 minutes on medium speed. The dough will stick to the bottom but should clear the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too dry, add more water, bit by bit, while mixing until the dough reaches this consistently; you want a slack dough. Oil a large bowl and scrape dough into it; grease the top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Immediately place the bowl in the fridge and refrigerate overnight.

Step 2

The dough will have risen some overnight. Pull the bowl from the fridge and let rise until the dough has doubled from its original (pre-refrigeration) size. This may take 2-4 hours, depending on your room temperature; it was cold so this took 4 for me.

Step 3

Gently transfer the dough to a well-floured surface. Try not to degas the dough. Flour the dough and gently stretch it to an 8×6 rectangle or oval. Use a dough or bench scraper dipped in water to cut the dough in half width-wise.

Step 4

Let the dough rest briefly (about 5 minutes) while you line 2 baking sheets with parchment and coat them with cornmeal. Preheat your oven to 500F and place a metal baking pan on the bottom oven rack to preheat (for making steam).

Step 5

To shape the dough, cut each half into 3 equal sized strips. Carefully transfer each strip to the baking sheet and pull it to the length of the sheet. Stretch it out again if it springs back. Slash the top of each loaf (if you can – the dough is sticky). Place one pan on the top rack of the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to the preheated pan to create steam. After 30 seconds, carefully spray water into the oven to create more steam. Repeat 2 more times. Reduce oven temperature to 475F. Bake 18-25 minutes, until bread is a darkish golden brown and the internal temperature is 205F. Preheat oven to 500F again before baking your second sheet of bread.

Step 6

While you bake your first pan of bread, spray your other loaves with oil and cover with plastic wrap while you wait to bake them. Refrigerate if you’d like to bake them the next day. Let the dough rise unrefrigerated for 1-2 hours if you’d like to make ciabatta-style bread instead of baguettes. Bake the bread the same way, except reduce the temperature to 450F after steaming. Bake for 15-20 minutes.