This french baguette recipe is for the days you want a crackly, golden baguette without a sourdough starter or an overnight ferment. It’s just flour, water, salt, and yeast, and it all happens in one day. It follows the same technique as my Sourdough Baguettes, but with instant yeast, so you can start in the morning and be eating warm bread by lunch. Baguettes are all about technique, so it takes some practice, but even your first batch will taste so much better than store bought.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• No sourdough starter needed: Just instant yeast, so there’s no feeding or timing a levain.
• Ready in one day: About 4 and a half hours from start to cooling rack, with no overnight ferment.
• Crackly crust, soft crumb: Steam in the oven gives you that classic shattering crust.
• Only 4 ingredients: Bread flour, water, salt, and yeast.
• Autolyse and bassinage: The same techniques I use in my sourdough baguettes, for a smoother, stronger dough.

French Baguettes: Same Day, No Sourdough

I love my sourdough baguettes, but there are days I don’t have a levain ready or the time for an overnight ferment. This version fixes that. A one hour autolyse builds gluten for you, a short bulk with a set of stretch and folds builds the strength, and the oven does the rest. Baguettes are still technique heavy, so the shaping is where the practice pays off, but the dough itself is straightforward. If you want a deeper, more complex flavor from a long cold ferment, my sourdough version is the one to make.

French Baguette Ingredients

BAGUETTE DOUGH

• 515 g King Arthur bread flour
• 440 g water, temperature calculated (350 g for autolyse, 10 g for mixing, 80 g for bassinage)
• 10 g salt
• 3 g instant dry yeast (I use SAF Gold)

Baker’s Percentages:

• Flour: 100%
• Water: 85%
• Salt: 1.9%
• Instant yeast: 0.6%

FOR BAKING

• Couche or linen cloth
• 50/50 mixture of bread flour and rice flour, for dusting the couche
• Flipping board
• Non-stick or regular parchment paper
• Baking stone
• Pizza or bread peel
• Lava rocks or cast iron skillet
• ¾ cup boiling water, for steam

The Flour

I use King Arthur bread flour for this recipe. Its higher protein gives the dough the strength to handle a wetter dough and still hold its shape. This is a high hydration dough at around 85%, so it will feel sticky and slack compared to a typical bread dough. Don’t add extra flour to the dough itself. Instead, flour your work surface and use a plastic scraper to handle it. I haven’t tested this recipe with all-purpose flour, which absorbs less water, so you would need to reduce the water if you try it.

Autolyse and Bassinage

Autolyse is a rest where you mix just the flour and water and let them sit for 1 hour. The flour fully hydrates and gluten starts forming on its own, so the dough comes together faster and smoother later. I use 350 g of the total 440 g of the water here.

Bassinage means holding back some of the water and adding it slowly during mixing. After the autolyse, I mix the salt, yeast, and 10 g of the water into the dough first. Then I add the remaining 80 g a little at a time once the dough has started to develop. This lets the dough absorb its full hydration without falling apart, and gives you more control over the dough temperature.

Calculate your water temperature based on a target final dough temp of 75°F. The formula and explanation are in my Sourdough Ciabatta post.

Approximate Timeline

This is a rough guide, so adjust it to your kitchen:

• 9:00 AM: Start autolyse
• 10:00 AM: Add salt, yeast, and reserved water, then mix
• 10:20 AM: Transfer to a container, start bulk
• 10:50 AM: Stretch and fold, flip, rest
• 11:20 AM: Divide and preshape
• 11:30 AM: Bench rest, preheat oven to 500°F
• 11:50 AM: Final shape
• 12:00 PM: Final proof (about 45 minutes)
• 12:45 PM: Score and bake
• About 1:30 PM: Cooled and ready to slice

How To Make French Baguettes

MIX THE DOUGH

1. Autolyse: In a mixer bowl combine the 515 g bread flour and 350 g water. Mix until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest for 1 hour. If your kitchen is warm, refrigerate the covered bowl during the rest to keep the dough temperature in check.
2. Add salt and yeast: Add the 10 g salt, 3 g instant yeast, and 10 g reserved water. Mix on low speed until everything is combined.
3. Bassinage: Increase the speed and slowly add the remaining 80 g water a little at a time, letting each addition absorb before adding more. Scrape down the sides as needed.
4. Mix until strong: Continue mixing until the dough is smooth and strong and passes the windowpane test, where you can stretch a thin, translucent sheet without it tearing.
5. Transfer: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container.

BULK FERMENT

6. First rest: Let the dough ferment at room temperature for 30 minutes.
7. Stretch and fold: Do one set of stretch and folds to organize the gluten. Flip the dough over so the fold side is down.
8. Second rest: Let the dough rest another 30 minutes.

DIVIDE AND PRESHAPE

9. Set up the couche: Lay out your couche and dust it with a 50/50 mixture of bread flour and rice flour.
10. Preheat oven: Preheat your oven to 500°F with your baking stone and lava rocks or cast iron skillet inside.
11. Flour and flip: Flour the surface of the dough in the container with bread flour. Use a plastic scraper to gently detach the edges, then flip the dough onto your work surface.
12. Degas and divide: Keep the dough in a rectangular shape and gently degas it evenly with the palm of your hand. Divide into 3 even pieces with clean, confident cuts.
13. Preshape: For each piece, fold the top edge down about ⅔ of the way and the bottom edge up about ⅔ of the way, like a letter fold. Fold down the middle and use the ball of your hand to seal the seam into a rough batard shape.
14. Bench rest: Cover and rest for 20 minutes.

FINAL SHAPE AND PROOF

14. Flip and flatten: Use your scraper to flip each piece so the bottom is facing up. Gently press with the palms of your hands to flatten and elongate into a long rectangle.
15. Fold: Fold the top edge down ⅔ of the way and press firmly with your palm along the length. Rotate the dough 180 degrees and repeat.
16. Seal: Use your thumb to push the center inward, folding the dough in half, then seal the seam firmly with the heel of your other hand.
17. Taper: Using both hands, roll from the center outward to lengthen the dough and taper the ends, using just a tiny bit of flour as needed.
18. Proof: Place each baguette seam side down on the floured couche and use the couche walls to support the sides. Cover and proof for about 45 minutes, until a gentle poke leaves a slight indent that slowly fills back in.

SCORE AND BAKE

19. Transfer: Transfer the baguettes onto a flipping board, then seam side down onto parchment on your peel, evenly spaced. If the dough feels soft, chill the board with dough in the fridge for 15 minutes for easier scoring.
20. Score: Hold your lame at a 45 degree angle and score each baguette in one confident, swift motion down its length.
21. Bake: Follow the oven instructions below, then cool on a wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes.

Baking Instructions

Standard or conventional oven: Slide the baguettes in and immediately pour ¾ cup boiling water over the lava rocks or into the cast iron skillet. Bake at 485°F for 10 minutes with steam. Open the door briefly to release the steam, lower to 450°F, and bake for about 10 more minutes, until nicely browned.

Convection oven (my setup): The fan can set the crust before the oven spring is done, so turn the oven off right before loading. Pour the boiling water over the lava rocks, close the door, and bake with the oven off for 8 minutes with steam. Open the door briefly to release the steam, turn the oven back on to 485°F, and bake for about 10 more minutes, until nicely browned. Every convection oven behaves differently, so treat this as a starting point.

Listen for the crackling as they cool. It’s always a good sign.

Tips and Troubleshooting

• Dense crumb: Usually under-fermentation or not enough dough strength before shaping. Make sure the dough passes the windowpane test and the stretch and fold is done.
• Uneven crumb: Usually a shaping issue. Apply even pressure through the whole shape and taper both ends equally.
• Crust not crackly: Not enough steam or the oven wasn’t hot enough. Preheat longer and make sure your steam source produces real steam in the first few minutes.
• Dough tearing during shaping: The dough may be too tight or too cold. Let it rest a few more minutes and try again.
• Dough too sticky: This is a high hydration dough, so some stickiness is normal.
• Flavor not as deep as bakery bread: A same-day dough doesn’t have the fermentation time of an overnight or sourdough loaf. For more flavor, try my Sourdough Baguettes.

Storage

Baguettes are best eaten the day they’re baked, ideally within a few hours of coming out of the oven. The crust softens overnight as moisture from the interior moves outward.

Freezing: Freeze completely cooled baguettes in an airtight bag for up to 1 month. Reheat directly from frozen in a 350°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes until the crust is crackly again.