Baguette
Makes
5 large baguettes or
10 mini baguettes
200g All purpose flour
300g Bread flour
250g water, warm
400g poolish (see notes)
12g salt
Poolish:
This is yeast, flour and water mixed and fermented before you add it to the dough.
200g all purpose flour
200g water (warm, not hot)
3g yeast (1 tsp)
Mix and ferment for 2 hours at room temperature or overnight in fridge (preferred)
If you have a sourdough starter, you can halve the amount of poolish (200g) and use 200g of recently fed starter, not more than 2 days in fridge.
Method:
Mix water, poolish and sourdough starter if using, in a large bowl, until dispersed.
Add flours, and mix with a fork, then with wet hands, until a shaggy mess forms, without any dry bits.
Move to a greased bowl, cover for 20 minutes.
Add salt and pinch and fold the dough onto itself using wet hands. Form into a ball and rest for 30 minutes.
Repeat the stretch and fold process two more times for total of 2-3 hours.
At this point you can shape your bread if you want to bake it the same day.
Preferably, wrap the dough and leave in fridge for 1-3 days. It will gain more flavor and will be easier to shape when cold.
Shape into desired bread and proof for 1-2 hours.
Bake in preheated oven at 240c for 10 minutes with a pan of boiling water under the loaves. Remove pan and bake 10-15 more minutes.