The French Baguette Recipe by Éric Kayser

Step 1

Day 1: Mix 20g of rye flour with 5g of honey and 20g of water. Mix until there should be no flour left in the bottom of the glass. Let rest and cover with a clean kitchen cloth at room temperature for 24 hours.

Step 2

Day 2: Add 40g of rye flour, 40g of water, 5g of honey to your preparation. Mix well until there is no residue of flour on the bottom of the glass. Let rest and cover with a clean kitchen cloth at room temperature for 24 hours.

Step 3

Day 3: Add 80g of rye flour and 80g of water to your preparation. Mix until there should be no flour left in the bottom of the glass. Let rest and cover with a clean kitchen cloth at room temperature for 24 hours.

Step 4

Day 4: Add 100g of wheat flour (Type and 100g of water to your preparation. Here is a levain starter ready to be used.

Step 5

Knead the 500g of flour with the 330g of water for a few minutes (about 4 minutes at slow speed). Let it rise at room temperature and under a kitchen towel for about 1 hour.

Step 6

Add the 4g of fresh baker's yeast, the 9g of salt, and the 100g of levain starter. Then, knead for 6 to 7 minutes.

Step 7

Place the dough on a kitchen towel. Take its temperature, it must be around 23/24°C (73/75°F) to have a good fermentation. Let the dough rise for 1 hour. Then, cut the dough in three, and shape the bread into round loaves. Leave them rest for 30 minutes.

Step 8

Put a little bit of flour on your kitchen worktops, just under the round loaf. Press on it but without degassing too much. Stretch the dough a little bit, roll it up and roll it out into a baguette shape. Put it on a kitchen cloth. Fold the kitchen cloth over so the dough does not touch each other and place another dough on top and so on. Let the dough rise for about 2 hours.

Step 9

Just before baking the bread, put water in the oven to create water vapor so you can rise the dough longer. Bake the bread for 22/23 min at 250°C/482°F (th.8-9).